The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-12
REVIEW, OF 1926.
SHOWS CURRENTS
. OF CHANGES
Capitalism 5 Militant,
Labor Seeks Peace
By Leland Obs, Federated Pres,

BY LELAND OkDS, Federated Press.
Growth of militant property.consci-
Gus unity in capitalist ranks and
strong current in labor ranks toward
class cooperation are outstanding
features of 1925 from the workers
viewpoint. Not only in the United
States but with the possible exception
of China the world trend has been to
the right. Russia is no exception.
Pres. Green of the A. F. of L., as
the official spokesman Of American
labor, has consistently developed the
cooperate-with-capital philosophy.
Large consultations Of capital are no
longer damned by representatives of
organized labor, who chiefly denounce
any organized effort to impose revolu-
tionary ideas on the American trade
union movement, The Communist ele-
ment serves as q foil against which
American labor can prove its conserv-
atism.
The openshop offensive, having sue
cessfully met the postwar attempt of
labor to consolidate gains in the metal
industries through organization of iron
and steel and haying broken the mill
fancy of the rail unions through the
1922 shopcraft lockout, turned its
fangs in 1926 against the United Mine
Workers. Allotted by the big employer
associations, the coal interests have
been starving the soft coal miners
into submission finally attacking the
last stronghold of the union in the
anthracite field. q
The rapid development of automatic
machinery coupled with extension of
efficiency methods enabled capital to
maintain high individual wages and so
to prevent general social unrest while
dealing with the-unions in separate in
dustries. Reductions in total wages
have been achieEed by laying off work
ers and so creating the labor surplus
labor necessary to exert pressure on
those employed,
Powerful manipulation of public
opinion by the controlled press has
maintained a political government
completely favorable to the capitalist
program. Except for foreign relations
and the exercise of police powers the
government has gone far toward abdi-
cation.
So capital has been rapidly consoli-
dating its position through trade as
sociations and huge mergers in steel,
oil, coal, transportation, power bread,
etc. 1t has been developing the re-
gions where labor is still cheap and
unorganized. 1t has been perfecting
its paternalism through company I'M
ions, group insurance, employee, stock
ownership, and numberless other ex-
periments in attaching workers to
their industry. IL has been extending
its empire through manipulation of
the country's creditor position to Sc
cure the privatec investment of over
billion dolIarsia year abroad. This
involves a change in the nature
of society It has its counterparts and |
its reaction. in other continents. Am
erican labor should watch Italy in !
which class cooperation is becoming |
the structure of government,
England where a striking de- |
monstration of the united labor front
is being followed by deliberations
trending toward class cooperation,
China in whichuthe workers revolt
against foreign exploitation is an in |
tegral part of the movement for ma
tional Independence.
The salient developments of 1925
should enable American labor to un.
derstand its place in history. 1t may
announce its determination to seek
nothing beyond wages and conditions.
But its new wage policy based on co.
operation with capital is none the less
part OF worldwide social revolution.
Not whether it wants new social
order but what role to play In Il is the
question which must determine labor
policy and tactics.