White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1926-06-18
We DON'T NEED SOMEONE
TO CLIMB OVER TO GET UP

"A recent dItlCle IN wall StTeer
publication expresses number of the
genuine misgivings felt by conserva-
tive minds concerning the effects of
cutting down immigration.
One of these objections merits es-
pecial attention, for it lies at the root
Of the whole matter and involves what
is the GROWING interest of our pres
ent situation. The writer says, zone
reason why people have got on and
upward so well in America is that
they have the willing laborer from
Europe TO climb over"-"If there is
no bottom, there can be no top"
If man really believes that there
is no way of getting onward and up
ward except by climbing over some
body else, he is likely to accept the
entire reactionary program. Many ma
tons have tried this same process and
have gone under, after establishing
an ever increasing mass of submerged
labor over which the privileged have
climbed for while. Our own nation
nearly went under when, with similar
arguments in its favor, it tried one
form of the same process with African
labor. Certain interests are now using
exactly the same arguments in favor
of Mexican labor. The present con-
diticn of the world, however, hardly
indicates that this is favorable time
fer continuing the process.
A European writer of note has re-
Gently said that what distinguishes
American masses from those in Eur
ope is that they are largely without
what he calls the illusion Of the soci-
al revolution, through some deliverer
or through scme sudden revolution
airy process. American workers can
see more practicable way out, with
cut ripping up the entire industrial
system, and abolishing capital and
private ownership.
The Wall St. Journal writer says,
"tfe lack of common labor is likely
to result in great and widely ranify-
ing industrial descriptions" Like
others, however, he fails to see that
this is not happening as it ought to
according to his theories. We owe
cur more hopeful outlook to those of
cur industrial leaders who are not re-
aotionaries; who have met the situa
ton and are mastering it.
The question, who will dig our
ditches." is answered by the mechan-
meal ditch diggers, the biggest of
which, we hear. can do the work of
four hundred men. An improved new
smelter takes one hundred men in
stead of FIVE hundred. We hear of 40,
600 miners in che state turning from
coal mines where they were not need
ed to other occupations where they
were needed, and so on down the list.
Higher wages no longer mean higher
cost of living, but more produced and
moro shared per capita. Instead of al
ternating "hire and fire" and running
to Ellis Island whenever business
starts up, we have the wiping out of
seasonal employment and the transfer
OF idle hands to steady and productive
jobs. This has not only benefited the
worker himself. but has changed him
from dead weight on the community
into a good customer. The cutting of
labor waste has proved very great
economic gain, not an economic loss.
But apart from this, the ordinary
American knows that there has got
to be way out different from the re-
dictionaries scrdid reversion to ancient
failures, and he would see it through
even if it were harder than it is. His
belief is generally not formulated but
it is somewhat as follows:
He believes in an industrial system
that embodies the fair exchange of
service between it's members; one in
which ample production shall be the
basis of ample reward; in which men
will seek to rise with their fellows,
and not over them. He believes in an
industrial system where men shall
seek and attain prosperity by depend
ing on what they add to the common
store, net on the loss or abasement
of others.
Most of US will prefer to fight it
out on this line, rather than import
people to climb over, policy which
incidentally means that the majority
of our own people will have to be
climbed over along with the willing