Evening star., 1945-09-03
Labor Duy, 1o45

casion of Importance to merely
small fraction of the citizenfy of
the United States. The traditional
meaning of the annual observance
of the first Monday in September as
a calendar date set aside for dem
onstrations by voluntary associa-
tions of craftsmen has been changed
by economic and industrial develop
ments which have been all inclusive
in character. Every able-bodied
American is a worker. The whole
national community has been assim-
ilated by the processes of produc-
ton which finally have made pos
sible the winning of historyS great
est war.
And Labor Day, 1945, is significant
not only because it marks the be-
ginning of new era of peace under
the ideals set forth in the preamble
of the San Francisco Charter. The
start toward the realization of the
conception of world emancipated
from poverty actually was made
during the universal depression
which preceded the outbreak of
hostilities in September, 1889, and
had more than a little to do with
the causation of that disastrous
event. Thousands, if not millions,
of people were educated by their
bitter personal experience with I'M
employment to want an honorable
portion of the wealth of the earth.
Under the management of President
Roosevelt, the Government of the
United States tried PWA, WPA, CCC
and many other expedients, none of
which was adequate to meet the
constantly growing need for con-
Sumer-power equal to producer
power
What might have happened had
Hitler not appeared is anybody's
guess. 1t is imperative now to think
of what in fact did occur because
of the conflict he launched. The
entire human family finally has been
brought into the relations of single
global neighborhood 1t has become
interdependent as never before. But
it likewise has been schooled in the
methods and the techniques of CO.
operation. Literally hundreds of
millions of men and women of every
class and creed and condition have
discovered how to practice fellow
ship. No one individual, no one
group, no one country harnessed the
destructive force of the split atom.
1t was the result of correlated effort
and, viewed in that light, it is a
promise for the illimitable future.
Humanity can save itself by the
same processes as those by which it
came near to annihilating itself.
The pattern is plain. 1t will require
stateSmanlike qualities among peo-
pie, of course. There must be tol-
erance and mutuality between the
United Nations, between capital and
labor, between racial and sectional
groups, between the young and those
who are old, between such workers
as have been in military service and
those who have had only civilian
status, between the Federal Govern
ment and all citizens as taxpayers
and as members of the electorate.
Some issues admittedly will be diff
cult to deal with. Utopia cannot be
accomplished overnight and would
be deplorable If it could. Humanity
does not wish to climb into heaven
on a stepladder. It is willing and
glad to win it's victories the hard
way, if need be, in the years ahead
as in the years that are gone. Labor
no longer is a partisan affair. EN-
ployment no longer is something to
be legislated into existence. The
basis of the prosperity and the
security which providentially will
distinguish the future in the United
States and throughout the earth
must be the wisdom achieved in the
ordeal which closed on board the
battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
President Truman had some such
thought in mind when last night
he spoke of "a good life" of peace
and quiet"