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The Elevator Constructor

FRANK J. SCHNEIDER, Editor

Volume XIV

PERRY BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA 16th and Chestnut Streets

Entered as second-class matter April 8, 1907, at the Post Office at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.

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A CALL TO LABOR'S COLORS

By GRANT HAMILTON

Never before on this dedicated day of labor have there been such tremendous convulsions of the peoples of the earth. Out of the volcano of discord of the belligerent nations issues the war cry, "Make the world safe for democracy."

It is not with a perverse spirit that indulgence in retrospection recalls and revivifies the fact that democracy in industry has always been of a neglible character. With the knowledge gleaned from experience that the rights and interests of Labor have been exceedingly difficult to establish and maintain, there arises a feeling of apprehension that, no matter how the final issues of the conflict terminate, Labor will be compelled to face and struggle with absolutism in industry. Political democracy is not a synonymous term for industrial democracy. Democratization of the governmental institutions of the world is an appealing call, but with the concentration of arbitrary authority in the hands of a few, for the purpose of operating and controlling the instruments of war, the peoples of all involved governments have become but human cogs in this vast machine which represents the very antithesis of democracy. Laws passed and systems evolved to fit in with war time problems are not easily repealed or abandoned after peace has been declared. The possession of power by an individual or a group of individuals arbitrarily to direct and control the activities of others results in an intoxication which is not easily sobered. Governments, of course, are the most conspicuous examples of the development and arbitrary exercise of power over people. The immense demands made upon Labor, both upon the battlefield and in industry in all of the belligerent nations, places the major portion of the burden of war upon the shoulders of the wage-earning populations, which constitute ap

proximately two-thirds of the world's inhabitants, while labor in non-combatant countries is suffering from commercial maladjustments.

It is indeed a strange anomaly that, while these millions upon millions of men and women, ordinarily engaged in the peaceful occupations of satisfying normal human wants, comprising the virile portion of every country, who have had no part in bringing on the conflict, are made the chief sufferers.

For a decade prior to the opening of the present war, the labor movements of the entire world were gradually arriving at a basis of understanding that uniformity of purpose and action was essential upon the part of the organizations of labor everywhere, in order that those in political control of governments should be divested of the arbitrary power to embroil the people whom they represent and misrepresent in sanguinary conflicts.

Not a single government enlisted in the present devastating and world-destroying war entered the conflict as the result of parliamentary action by the representatives of the people, save the United States. Whatever justice or injustice may be claimed by each belligerent involved, it is impossible on this Labor Day to refrain from awful contemplation of the millions of wage-earners being consumed in the great caldron of war. The world today is a vast sepulchre of dead, and when the conflict closes, there will remain a vast sea of human wreckage that will be unable to perform its accustomed service in industry. Labor then will not only have its age-old problems to confront, but these problems will be added to and multiplied in producing out of the chaos in industry sufficient for themselves and to care for the defectives, and to liquidate the mountains of obligations incurred by the countries involved in the struggle.

If the world is made safe for democ

racy, according to the views of those who coined the slogan, it is pertinent for Labor to demand that industry also shall be made safe for an industrial democracy of the working people. As it has been deemed essential by the Congress of the United States to enter this contest in order that the world may be made safe for democracy, then it is likewise incumbent upon the representatives of the people to have a scrutinizing care that the same sort of democracy championed by them shall not only apply in the political conduct of our government, but shall be a dominating factor in the conduct of industry.

On March 12, this year, the representatives of the organized labor movement of America declared: "We maintain that it is the fundamental step in preparedness for the nation to set its own house in order, and to establish at home justice in relations between men." This declaration was made in advance of the declaration of war by Congress. The representatives of Labor, cognizant of the wrongs which the men and women of labor have been compelled to suffer, realized that conditions which would obtain in war times would afford opportunities for the unfair directors of industry to plead necessity, while denying to the wage-earners of the country proper and humane consideration. The deportation of workmen because of their insistence upon sufficient remuneration for their labor to meet the abnormal cost of living, the elaborate preparations of the controllers of large industry to displace men by the employment of women at a lower wage cost, the insistence of the owners of wealth that they shall not be called upon to bear their rightful share of the cost of war, are but the surface indications of what Labor may expect if it supinely and humbly submits to such a program.

The organized labor movement of America has given indisputable evidence of its disposition to perform its part and render the service demanded of it. In fact, it has even gone beyond the point which many experienced and

judicious labor men believe to be strategic. This situation, however, is the result of a controlling sentiment in organized labor to demonstrate its fealty and loyalty to our government. Marshaling all of the events which have occurred in the organized labor movement since the declaration of war by this government, there is exhibited as fine a spirit of patriotism and cooperation as can be found recorded anywhere in history. In contradistinction to this picture, there are conspicuous innumerable groups of those who are endeavoring by every means to bring to themselves inordinate profits out of this conflagration of human passions.

It is not only our right, but our duty as members of labor organizations and as representatives of organizations, to continue steadfast in our endeavors; that while we give our service and our lives to the prosecution of our part in this international carnival of war, our insistence should be constant that our progress toward economic justice should not only be maintained, but that every effort shall be put forth to make our organizations still more effective.

Wherever the representatives of organized labor have been given the opportunity to assist in the direction and control of the various activities in connection with the war, there has been exhibited an infinite degree of ability and effectiveness which could not have been attained except through a recognition of the rights and interests of the wealth-producing portion of our country. With this demonstration of the necessity for co-operation upon the part of the wealth producers and the controllers of industry at a time when all interests should be pooled in a common fund, it is neither immature nor fanciful to suggest that, in the normal conduct of industry, the wageearners of our country should be conceded a larger measure of recognition and be permitted to have an equal part in the direction and control of industry in the future.

There is greater need today for

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