Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], August 22, 1914, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
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Vol. 23 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, AUGUST 22, 1914 No. 9 M
An Independent Paper Published Under
:: the Management of J. T. Goodwin ::
EDITORIALS BY JUDGE C. C. GOODWIN
Our Country's Opportunity
IF the United States government can keep out
of all embroilment In the present war and
has the wisdom to so adjust our own affair
In the way of the greatest good for all the peo
ple, by the time the war closes and the rav
eled Industries of Europe can once more be
gathered up and woven Into form, our nation
will have the vantage ground over all the
world.
Great Britain held the place for seventy-five
years after Waterloo; then Germany began to
dispute wtlh her for prominence and brought to
her aid the practical and Intellectual culture of
her people, built a merchant marine and sailed
It and supplied her ships with goods and wares
that tempted buyers in places where Great Brit
ain believed she was supreme; made room and
work for all her fast increasing people, and out
of her gigantic undertaking gained so rapidly
in wealth that all Europe acknowledged her
superiority.
She did it, too, with not half the facilities
that our country possesses. But our statesmen
looked on undisturbed even when they saw that
our country supplied more than half the wealth
that Germany, France and Great Britain were
absorbing. And some of the foremost journals
of our country have helped to supply our lawmak
ers with excuses for their apathy, stupidity and
petty provincialism.
But now Great Britain is in close alliance with
the most despotic of civilized nations and also
with another power that is purely Asiatic, and
which the world distrusts.
When the war is over what will the settle
ment between them be?
Again, when the war Is over and Great Brit
ain and Germany repair their factories and set
their merchant fleets once more to work, where
will their foreign trade be when we consldei
the hates that the present war will engender?
This certainly supplies the opportunity for om
country, if those who direct our government
have the capacity to see what is offered and
the statesmanship to provide the needed means.
& The three greatest essentials are first to keep
our factories runnhig and build more.
f Second, to provide a modern merchant ma-
$. rine to make regular calls at the chlof ports of
the world.
Third, to so readjust our finances that the
differences in the world's texchanges will no
longer close the ports Jn our faces behind which
4' more than half the people of the world live.
1 That would set all our idle men at work and
do for us what was long ago foretold would be
3 done.
a Away back in 18G7, forty-seven years ago,
Michal Chevalier made a repoi v , the universal
)
international exposition at Paris, an extract of
which reads as follows:
"It seems that the supreme authority is about
to escape from western and central Europe, to
pass to the new world. In the northern part
of the other hemisphere offshoots of the Euro
pean race have founded a vigorous society, full
of sap, whose Influence grows with a rapidity
that has never yet been seen anywhere. In
crossing the ocean it has left behind on the soil
of old Europe, traditions, prejudices and usages
which, as impediments heavy to move, would
have embarrassed its iprogressive march. In
about thirty years the United States will have,
according to all probability, a hundred millions
of population, in possession of the most powerful
means, distributed over a territory which would
make 'France fifteen or sixteen times over, and
of the most wonderful disposition.
"Vainly do the occidental and central nations
of Europe attribute to themselves a primacy
which, in their vanity, they think sheltered from
events and eternal, as if there were anything
eternal in the grandeur and prosperities of so
cieties, the works of man."
If we have fallen short of realizing the pre
diction of Chevalier, It has been our own fault,
our own sins of omission and commission.
'Four years later, in 1871, in the Spanish
cortes, the great Castellar seemed Impressed
with the same ideas that Chevalier had given
voice to. He said:
"America, and especially Saxon America, with
Its immense virgin territory, with its republic,
with its equilibrium between stabllty and pro
gress, with its harmony between liberty and de
mocracy, is the continent of the future the im
mense continent stretched by God between the
Atlantic and Pacific, where mankind may plant,
essay and resolve all social problems."
Europe has to decide whether she will con
found herself with Asia, placing upon her lands
old altars, and upon the alfarB old idols and upon
the idols immovable theocracies and upon the
theocracies despotic empires, or whether she will
go by labor, by liberty, and by the republic to
collaborate with America in the grand work of
universal civilization."
Above we have the thoughts of two great
souls towards our country. Are we great enough
as a people to cause the dreams of those men to
be realized? We havo now the opportunity. Is
our government great enough to see our place'
and to put forth the means to seize and utilize
the opportunity?
Employers and Employees
A CRISIS is on the world just now. The life
or death of nations hangs In the balance in
Europe; under the tremendous upheaval all en
lightened people are disturbed and distressed.
The practical question In the United States
Is how the business of the country can be ad
justed with the least jar and confusion. A month
ago the thought vvas that the returns from the
harvests would yield so much that whatever In
dustry was halting would receive the necessary
stimulus to acquire full momentum. But at H
present the harvest cannot be sold because of
want of ocean transportation and worse still, Hf
the market for some of the most important pro- H(
ducts of the west has been absolutely destroyed. H
The effect is great depression and confusion. H
Base metal mining Ib hard hit, but the man- H
agers of the mines are struggling to give as many H
men aB possible employment, and where the full H
force cannot be given work, in many cases half H
work is given that the crucial time may bo H
passed over. The coal mines are running full H
forces in preparation for the winter's needs and H
the spirit of employers everywhere seems to be H
to make every possible effort to tide over the hM
unexpected catastrophe until the commerce of H
the ocean can be restored to at least partially H
normal conditions. H
At such a time there should be mutual for- H
bearanco between employees and employers, and H
while employers are showing by their acts that H
the Interest of their employees is a matter of H
much concernment to them, the thought of em- H
ployees, it seems to us, should be to hold their H
places if possible. H
What directly prompts this is the present H
friction between the printers' union in this city H
and their employers. Of the right or wrong of H
the controversy we havo no opinion, for we know H
nothing of the facts; but we do know the sltua- H
tlon and we write this In the Interest of the M
poor men in the union who cannot afford to bo WM
thrown out of employment with an absolutely 13
uncertain winter before them. M
Our belief Is that the chief forces of the war M
will be expended in the coming ninety days, be- H
cause the strain on the old world seems too ter- H
rlble to hold out longer. But that is only specu. H
lation. No one can be a safe prophet when an
earthquake is on the march, of how long before
its impelling forces may cease to grind their way. H
And our judgment is that no union leaders at 'J
such a time as this have any right to jeopardize H
the only means which the poor men of their H
union have through which to feed and clothe
their wives and babies. If they decide to strike,
their employers will get along even if they have
to close their shops, but what will the poorer of H
the employees do? H
The sensible way to settle Buch differences H
Is by arbitration. It will have to come to that at H
last. Why not appeal to it now? H
There Is another feature to all this. The H
war abroad should make our country one grand H
school of patriotism. Our people should see at V
a glance how Infinitely better off they are than H
any other people and should draw nearer together H
and have a closer sympathy for each other's H
troubles. Our country was long ago perfectly IH
represented by the quiver filled with arrows. To- H
gether they are invincible; separated they are H
TielpleoB as grains of sand. This unity should H
extend to every honest walk of life and men H
while thinking of what they can do for them- H
solves, should Include the other thought, "What H
can I do for my neighbor?" H