The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-09-07
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

ing. His methods have been wholly
unlike those of his illustrious prede-
c%essors, and there has been an alb
sence of the big stick policy OF
Roosevelt, the passive attitude of
Taft, or the spirit by which Presi-
dent Wilson sought to affect com
promises. President Harding has
been tolerant and forebearing with
the different parties in the rail and
coal strikes, but the outstanding fea-
ture of his position has been an in
stance that industrial disputes should
be settled in court. Obedience to
the decisions of the Railway Labor
Board and the Interstate Commerce
Commission has constituted the basic
principle for the Presidents, position.
He has, in short, tried to put teeth"
in the administrative machinery that
seeks TO voice the position of the
public when labor and capital go to the
mat.
While the House of Representatives
was receSsing there was an abundance
Of newspaper speculation growing u
of Washington political gossip to the
effect that when both branches of the
National Congress again got into
swing that there would be legislation
presented and passed to prevent
strikes. Congress is again in full
session and the country has had an
opportunity to witness the perform
ance Of its members concerning the
demands that they do something,
and do it now"
Thoughtful people differ about the
rights of labor and capital, and nearly
all people who couldn't strike if they
wanted to are opposed to labor strikes
by men who belong to unions and
br~otherhoods. But Samuel Gompers,
head of the American Federation OF
Labor, keeps stirring about in Off
cial circles in Washington, repeat
ing over and over that labor unions
will never surrender the right to
strike" Mr.. Gompers unquestionably
correctly voices sentiment of all the
Labor union leaders, and whenever you
find one of them, at the head of the
brotherhood, or elsewhere, they are
preaching the same doctrine.
The headlines of metropolitan news
papers very easily dispose of strikers
by %inventing legislation panaceas to
future strikes; but the Administration
knows, and every Senator and Repre-
sentative fully understands that the
right to strike" is almost a religion
among several million workingmen-
all voters. When strikes are called
capital and labor are belligerant and
stubborn. The public occupies the
~grandstand, and the advice of the
Administrative heads of the Nation
are usually treated more like the
~pleadings of a small child than as
commands from a stern parent.
Serious-minded people in the Ma
tional Capital admit that the remedy
for industrial disputes has not been
found, because strikes, like wars ex-
press the ANNA instinct that civil
ization has not yet succeeded in tam
ing.
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace
has issued a lengthy statement show
ing the average wages paid to rail
road and coal mining employees to
prove that their net income has been
muniticient as compared to the returns
to the farmers and farm laborers. Az
ter fastening his basis on the safe
foundation that the value Of income,
whether it be in the form OF wages or
money received for sales of products,
lis represented not in dollars and in
cents but in what that income will
buy by its purchasing power Mr.
Wallace proceeds to prove that the
purchasing power of wages or the
railway employee in 1921 was 81 per
cent greater thar in 1913. The pur-
chasing power of the wages CT the
coal miner in the same period IN
creased 80 per cent. But the farm
hand gained only 4 per cent, and ac-
cording to Mr.. Wallace the purchas-
ing power of the farmer himself was,
on an average, from % to 40 per cent
less thar in 1913"
1t takes a newspaper man to prove
bv comparisons; and one cannot fol-
low the Editor-Secretary through his
argument without feeling something
of a tinge of Indignation over the fact
that the farmers, who are the back
bone of producing wealth, and number
almost one-third of the entire popula-
ton of the country, should fare so bad
w in the final balance sheet. Mr..
Wallace remarks ~approvingly on the
fact that the farmers have not struck
bur he observes that they have "en-
deavored get relief by all lawful
means" And that lawful means
has been interpreted by the activities
of the farm bloc" in Congress, which
has put the okeh and the 'kibosh' on
more pieces of legislation than any
similar movement in recent years.
While Mr.. Wallace's findings must all
be admitted, still there IS plenty or
evidence to indicate that the farm
ers have found new methods To take
care of themselves-and that they are
applying the major remedies III the