The Topeka state journal., 1922-08-24
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE.
(From Philadelphia Public Ledgerl

Returning. after an absence. to the
familiar swivel chair, and settling into
the accustomed groove, we find on
the desk number of drastic excep-
tions to. the assertion recently made
in this column that this country
would know no indutria1 peace until
somebody is whipped to a pea-green
frazzle. Naturally enough, that sort
of statement would provoke excep-
tions. The custom in this country Is
to soft-pedal along the battle lines of
industrial warfare All of the pollti-
clans and a good many of the pub
licistS do it. But we have no wish to
alter or abate our frank diagnosis of
this country is whether Samuel Com
pers shall be king. We are not pre-
pared to say the coronation will not
take place. But the ceremony will
table. 1t will be celebrated immedi-
ately following pitched battle.
The basic obstacle to an amicabIy
achieved industrial peace is very well
expressed in a letter received from d
citizen of a community now in the
grip of the shop-crafts strike. The
writer says in part: MY sympathy
lies with labor. People III general are
becoming too veil educated to tolerate
much longer the dictates. the greed,
the corruption of a certain handful of
individuals who hold the man
given deeds tC the wheels of produc-
ton. Take a stroll down Wall street
of industrial unrest There their only
God is profit and Christianity is
scarcely known. Man is only a tool,
like so many hammers. Flesh and
blood and God-given spark of life Is
like So much putty"
Now. the phraseology of the writer
is fustian- But it is an incoherent at
tempt to express the feeling which
animates labor. Possibly a majority
of those who classify themselves as
workingmen believe capital wants to
grind them down. 1t is what they are
taught to believe. The dogma that
capital wishes to oppress labor is the
chief asset of the labor organizer and
the labor agitator. II the labor leader
could not inculcate that doctrine Mn
the minds of his followers he would
have no following. It is futile to as
sumo that, feeling al he does about
1t, the workingman can sit down at
a table with capitaI and achieve a
scheme of social justice. whatever that
is.
We have had what we take to be O.
rather extensive human experience.
We have paid dues and assessments
into labor union. We have been on
strike. Up to the time we voluntarily
relinQuished it our union card" was
some very good friends in Wall street.
In other words, we have been on
friendly and intimate footing with
both capital and labor. Being human,
both capital and labor are selfish.
But our observation and experience is
that capital Is no more corrupt. no
more greedy than labor, There is
carrion in the ranks of both, but no
more in the one than in the other.
Capital wants interest on its invest
ments. but we doubt that it wants to
grind anybody down. Speaking as a
working man, we should, IL forced to
choose between the two, pick capital.
1t is more intelligent, saner, more toll
Grant, more just in it's relations with
humankind, It is more Just because
it is more intelligent 1t is fairer and
more tolerant because it is less likely
to be blinded by phantasmagora of
the primitive emotions. The greatest
service intelligence, comprehension
and knowledge perform for human
kind is that of giving it more acute
sense of what is right and just, and
fair. And SO, with our own expert
ence in mind, if we wanted a favor We
should not go to a working man for
it; we'd go to capital. If we felt th's
need of social juStice-and we don't
since we have all the social Gstice we
can assimilate-we should not ask a
labor union to get it for, US. We'd
present our case to capitai.
The chief trouble in this country, as
we see it, is the widespread and widely
accepted belief that human Unequal
tiles can be adjusted by the passage
of a law Or the intervention of
board. AS we have hitherto pointed
out, two-thirds of the legislation, state
and national, enacted in this country
is designed to benefit the poor at the
expense of the rich. Nine-tenths OF
the governmental boards now engaged
in the work Of nceddling in public and
DriVafA affairs lad their origin In a n
attempt to create an equable balance
in human affairs. And nobody is sat
isfied. Isn't it entirely possible that
we have been using the wrong set of
recipes2 Isn't it about time to put
out a little propaganda to the effect
that the only agency calculated per-
manently to improve the condition OF