The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-04-14
AS WE SEE IT

'N@l CONTINUED from page y
In the meantime, we must get rid OF
the surplus abroad. But Europe. owes
US $2O,OOO,OOO 900, has no money and
lean only pay us in goods.
lT ABOR unions are at their best,
Asays Babson when employers are
bidding for help, but in situation
such as he visualizes, the workers
will be bidding for jobs. The manu-.
facturer who can produce goods with
the least expenditure of capital on
wages will win out; the others must
close up shop. Note the case of the
coal industry. Non-union operators
going strong, and non-union miners
living comfortably while union mines
are shut down and union miners are
unemployed This is Babson's yarn.
His solution of the problem is that
the workers should accept a lower
standard of living in order to COM
pete with the workers of Europe, who
will in turn be asked to accept
lower standard in order to compete
with the American wage slaves. And
SO on aluminium.
| A NYBODY can see at glance, from
"A the foregoing that the workers
must be organized internationally in
order to solve the social problem
which can only be solved in one way,
that is, by taking the wealth produc-
ling machinery out Of the hands of
the capitalists and organizing society
on the basis OF production for use
instead Of for profit. The unions
must be fighting instruments and NOT
capitalist auxiliaries as the labor fax
ers have partly succeeded in turning
them into. Babson is speaking for
his class. He is one Of their most
highly paid philosophers and indus.
trial Baedekers. He deserves credit
for being faithful to his trust.
pUT what can we say of the labor
- leader, who has risen to power on
the shoulders of his class and then
betrays them? Take Warren S.
Stone, alleged progressive! Stone
holds forth in the same capitalist
sheet that contains Babson's views on
business. The journalist who secur-
ed the interview says: Stone, as he
spoke, looked more like a prosperous
big business man than like the most
! dynamic of labor leaders" Space
does not permit me to deal exhaus-
lively with Stones capitalist hokum.
The head of the Brotherhood of Loco,
motive Engineers, boosted Of so mansp
banks that it would take too long to
count them.
LIE declared that labor in the Unit
IL ed States has gone thru three
cycles. The first one was class con-
seriousness, the second collective bar
gaining and the third, what the faker
is pleased to call cooperation, but
which is better described by the term
class collaboration. Stone gleefulIy
stated that the brotherhood had pass
ed successfully" thru the class con-
scious stage and was on the thresh-
hold Of the last and more comfort
able cycle, under which Stone and
Dupont have their feet under the
same table and pick cigars out of the
same box. The sum total of Stones
theory is that the workers and the
capitalists would join hands under
the new dispensation and run indus
try thru the joint effort of each 9TH
er's labor.
THERE is nothing new in this the
4 DRY, except that the labor takers
have officially accepted it. This has
been the ideal of the robber barons
of this country, the religion of big
business. Everybody knows that the
workers now run the industrial ma
chinery for the capitalists, but the
latter play the role of exploiters while
the workers get out of it whatever it
pleases the capitalists to give them in
wages. And it will be thus SO long
as capitalism exists. The brother
hood banks, says Stone, are educating
the workers how to invest wisely.
What will the miners of Nova Scotia,
Southern Illinois or those who toll in
Stones scab mines in West Virginia
think Of this counsel?
ITO sum up. A final damning indict.
L ment of this traitor out Of his
own mouth: "That means co-opera-
ton, unity safety for all. 1t means that
when our banks in Cleveland joined
hands with the National City company
of New York and bought together
$3,500,000 bonds of the International
Great Northern Railway company a
new epoch in the Relationship of cap
ital and organized labor was ushered
in" There you arel The unions have
a future says Babson, as corrals to
keep the wage slaves in. Eyes, yes"
says Stone. "see what am doing,
Making happy little capitalists out Of
the workers" But should Babsorfs
i naqaimiafic niotura 10 fndpofrfa1 80.