The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-11-15
The Pulse of the Nation

. responsibility. He holds that all owners
Of d business should use their influence
| 10 try to raise industry 10 a level Of pub
lie service and thereby to make the
world q better place for all men to live
in The Pittsburgh Press believes that
the old day when the owner was the
boss has in most industries gone for
good. All the more reason why the
workers should be represented in the
management Of these concerns, SO Mr..
Rockefeller argues. Business loses bill
lions OF dollars every year by the strife
growing from the efforts Of the Ber-
winds to exclude them" II is the view
Of the Milwaukee Sentinel that foreign
labor is as much responsible for the
survival Of the 12-hour day in America
as is big business, because the alien Ia
borers are not interested in the Ameri-
can standard Of living and "cheerfully
undergo privations for the greater re-
ward Of a speedy competence and re-
turn to their home. To them, this is
only a temporary exile. II stands to
reason that the 17-hour day could not
have survived so long il there had not
been q certain demand for IL on the part
Of some classes Of labor. One effect Of
immigration restrictions, it may be
hoped, will be to Americanize tTanscients
who voluntarily depress all our workers
and eliminate the standards of living.
When the American standard Of living
is accepted by all workers the 12-hour
day is likely to die natural death"
Enlightened opinion already recog-
nizes the eight-hour day as a basic pol
icy in industry" the Chattanooga News
holds, and 1.-The revolution, perhaps, can
not be carried through in q day, but eff
+zI rs-1
that goal These should not follow the
lines OF hysteria, however. Public opin-
ion should be educated until it shall be-
come irresistable" The Winston Salem
Journal sees in the Rockefeller decision
1.-The signs that in due season Woodrow
Wilson will be completely indicated in
his stand for the principle of the eight
hour day" Because It was Rockefeller
who issued this latest endorsement of
the shorter work day, the Boston Herald
is convinced that sit is almost certainly
a token that iniquities are going out OF
the oil industry just as they are likely
to be eliminated from the world of
steel"
1t would "be a mistake to underes-
estimate the Importance to labor of this
declaration, the Philadelphia Record
holds, because lever since the disturb
anceS IN the COLORADO coal IIeIuS several
years ago, in which operators acting for
the Rockefellers were charged with Sc
rious offenses in the management and
in conduct, which were subjected to
personal study and scrutiny by the
younger Rockefeller, it has been well
known that in many respects the son
of the old Standard Oil magnate is in
a receptive mood toward the aim of or
ganized labor. From time to time he
has expressed himself, but he has never
made his position so plain heretofore as
he did in writing about the Situation in
the Somerset county soft coal fields. ="
Not alone in coal, however, but 'in
some of the oil fields where the 12-hour
day. seven days week, plan still is in
operation, Mr.. Rockefeller's position will
go far in the direction of enforcing a
change to conform with the eight-hour
a day, six days a week. program, which,
after all is the most humanitarian idea
ever introduced into the world Of labor.
the Springfield News asserts. And the
kalamazoo Gazette feels that "a pros
porous and contented army OF Industrial |
workers is to be preferred to whatever,
IL any, increased production would re-