The Butler County press. [volume], December 25, 1931, Image 2

About The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946

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THE PRESS
itnClAL
ORGAN
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Ohio
OP OKOAKlXn LABOI
HAMILTON AND
VTOENTTT
PWItS Atliu
HWIO lAlOt
Memberi
Labor Pnm Aaeedatien
THE NONPAREIL PRINTING CO.
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ISC
Market Street, Hamilton, Ohio.
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loaned Weakly at U« Market Itroot
TelophoDo ISM laaUtta, Okie
Endorsed by the Tradea and Labor
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Endorsed by the Middletown Tradea
and Labor Council of Middletown. O
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1931
TO EVERYBODY
A VERY MERRY
CHRISTMAS
THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
Christmas is a practically universal
holiday. Throughout the whole world
it brings a symbol of fellowship—a
deep consciousness of the kinship of
all peoples in the fundamentals of
human experience. Christmas this
year will dawn upon widespread want
and suffering—the consequence of
men's inadequate understanding of
the institutions which they themselves
have created.
Men cannot live unto themselves
alone, but every deed affects the lives
of fellowmen. When we do not deter
mine our acts and policies in light of
our duty to our fellows we start a
chain of circumstances that retards
the progress of some and ultimately
drags back the whole group. Prog
ress can be made evenly and surely
when the whole group moves forward
in step. Some may think to become
wealthy by taking from more de
fenseless, but they ultimately pay
their debts through restricted mar
kets and increased contributions to
charities.
In recent years we have been learn
ing that the fundamental principles
of spiritual development are equally
sound when applied in the economic
relations of human beings. Economic
development and security can result
only from scrupulous observance of
duty to fellowmen. Increasing pro
duction must be accompanied by in-
WE
PAY
5-
ON ALL SAVINGS
Compounded Semi-Annually
The West Side Building
aid Loan Association
Main and Str«*u
ASK FOR
creasing purchasing power for all
increasing productivity must bring
greater leisure to producing work
men greater complexity of economic
organization must be accompanied by
greater authority for every responsi
ble group material progress must
serve to stimulate creative capacity.
By finding the machinery to make
these purposes effective in organiza
tion of work we can free ourselves
from the menace of recurring mass
unemployment. Let us this Christmas
season set ourselves with new con
secration to the task of applying the
principles of human development as
individuals to the practical problems
of human beings working together.
:o:
THE WAY OUT
America must adopt permanently a short work week. It must pay a
higher average wage. Unless these things are done unemployment will be
permanent and will become worse.
Permanent unemployment would mean violent action in resentment and
in desperation.
Social blindness" does to society what individual blindness does to the
individual. It shuts out light. Objects and objectives cannot be seen.
It is probably correctly estimated that if we had a four-day week all
men could be put to work. But unless we had an annual wage commensurate
with production purchasing power would be absent and unemployment would
return.
Less work time, more wages—these must come together.
From 1919 to 1929 population grew, while numbers employed decreased!
We rushed into trouble, blinded by what looks like prosperity. Unless
our nation takes drastic measures, we shall find that even as we emerged
from this depression we were creating another.
Unemployed workers will not go away to die In ^Weak-kneed peace.
Employers as a whole may be inclined to fight the idea of drastically
shortened work weeks and materially higher average wages. But to fight
those measures means more disaster. It means postponing cure for unem
ployment.
THE JOURNAL'S BIRTHDAY
The Hamilton Evening Journal was
45 years old on last Saturday. The
Press extends its heartiest congrat
ulations to the Journal, and wishes
for it many more years of activity—
and prosperous ones, too.
-:o:
RAILROAD LABOR'S SOUND
POSITION
In its great Chicago conference
railroad labor placed itself in a re
markable advantageous strategic po
sition, and thus won the better half
of its battle.
The air was kept clear of "loud
talk," but issues were never for a
moment lost to view.
There was strategy and general
hip, and all of those things that are
generally in mind under the heading
if "common sense."
The result is that the railroads, in
tead of slashing about right and left
vith wage reductions ARE BOUND
TO NEGOTIATE TO A FINISH!
In stopping what clearly was a
•vage-reduction movement for their
members, the railroad unions have
-topped the same thing for thousands
and perhaps millions of other work
ers.
Industry is not more important than men and women and children.
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates
und men decay." The truth of those lines never fades.
Bankers squabble about export trade and continue to send money
abroad for investment in factories where they can manufacture at starvation
wage levels.
There are a number of bankers who need social vision, and they will
have to get it or we may find a way to get along without bankers.
Many industrial managers are as bitter as any worker could be against
the wanton misconduct of some of our big bankers.
America was founded to give humanity first chance. Big business,
growing like some phenomenal thing on the crest of a great surge of inven
tion, forged ahead and put money first.
America must return to the idea that humanity is first, its welfare
paramount.
American labor does not deny the right of men to earn a profit, but it
declares that as compared to humanity profit is of no consequence whatever.
Profit is distinctly a secondary aim and it must always be so.
To create the necessary relation between hours and wages and produc
tion, there must be more of democratic practice in industry. There must be
organized machinery for the making of right decisions, and labor must
share in the making of those decisions.
Back of the Chicago strategy is a
ABEACONOFQjJALITY F0P0VEP40 YEAI?S MV)
At
xJj&iiiLcr
All Dealers
/.A, Jfc
Industry must organize from end to end, from worker to management,
and in its own councils it must make the decisions that will stabilize America
and keep it stable.
Higher wages, shorter hours, democratic machinery for constant revi
sion, these are the necessities of the time.
It is necessary to carry the American idea of self-government into the
shop to make permanent justice possible. There is no other way.
sound platform, summed up in four
main planks and elaborated in subor
dinate sub-sections—a fine document
of labor philosophy and policy.
The railroad unions have exempli
fied American labor at its best in
economic fair dealing and sound
judgment.
:o:
OLD AGE PENSIONS IN
CALIFORNIA
California officials were quoted as
enthusiastically pleased with the
effects of that state's pension law,
under which more than 9,000 aged
are already being aided. "This law
has furnished decent and comfortable
living conditions for thousands of
needy old people," reported the Cali
fornia department of social welfare
division of the aged. "The blessings
of security and peace of mind to the
aged cannot be measured," the re
port of the department states, "and
young children are no longer depriv
ed of their rightful health and edu
cational advantages in order to main
tain aged relatives. Public senti
ment in California is undoubtedly in
favor of old age security, and the
numerous amendments to the law in
troduced in the last session of the
legislature were notable for their
trend toward further liberalization of
the present features."
-:o:-
YES, WE HAVE PROHIBITION
We have the eighteenth amend
ment. We have the Volstead act.
We have prohibition—on the law
books.
A court decides that authorities
may confiscate furnishings of raided
speak-easies.
Officers capture a tanker loaded
with liquor.
A boy is shot and killed by an en
forcement officer.
We have prohibition—on the books.
But neither court decisions nor cap
ture of cargoes seem potent enough
to stop the sale and use of liquor.
How can honest congressmen view
the situation and refuse to enact
modification legislation
What is there about the liquor issue
that makes otherwise brave men fold
up and sneak away, afraid to face
the truth and act sensibly?
:o:
GOOD WAGES MEAN GOOD
TIMES
Believe it or not, there are people
going round "proving" that low wages
will bring back prosperity.
They argue thus: Eighty-seven pe*
cent of the cost of everything we use
goes for labor. Therefore, if the cost
of labor is reduced, everything will
be cheaper. Therefore, people will
buy more.
Oh, yeah? Buy more with what?
Less wages?
Prosperity is not made by sellers,
but by buyers.
Good times don't depend on sales-
THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS
The Cherry
nn Whore with o«r
YPG Little Hatchet
A I
u,,
about many things, sometimes pro
feundly, sometimes tippantly,
sometimes recklessly.
It is no longer news that congress
is in session.
If congress tomorrow morning tor
got partisanship, showed some sense
and began to sensibly help plan out
that "strong America," that would be
news.
We may go to sleep tonight in the
serene consciousness that there will
be no such news tomorrow morning.
We may go to sleep tonight know
ing full well that tomorrow morning
there will be the same partisanship,
the same horde of lobbyists and paid
propagandists, the same flock of fa
natical buzzards—the same every
thing, with democracy fumbling its
ways toward something better
through all of the mazes that are
found wherever people have their
freedom to do at .they think they
want to do.
We cannot condemn all of this1
blundering. We may wish there were
more honesty and patriotism in the
nation.
We may wish there were less blind
partisanship and less bigotry and
fewer men for sale.
But if we had a clock work govern
ment we should have an autocratic
government—the last refuge of a
weak and helpless people.
It takes national strength to live
and grow through the blundering of
people who are free to blunder their
way to knowledge and sanity and
balance.
Democracy, with all its ills, is tha
only method yet discovered in this
disordered world by which a people
may make genuine progress. We may
pay a heavy price for progress, but
under any other system we should pay
a vastly higher price and get only
backward motion.
Out of the partisanship with which
we often grow impatient has come
true progress in the end.
It is not the mere material wealth
of our soil that has made this nation
great. Above all, this nation has been
made great by the idealism of its
people, pushing its way inexorably
forward in spite of the weaknesses of
individuals and organizations.
The congress of the United States,
bedeviled as it is with little men, with
narrow ambitions, with spite and
greed and malice, is by far the great
est legislative institution in the
world.
When the people are determined
this great legislative body responds.
And sometimes it leads.
Cream rises to the top of milk.
Good things persist until they con
quer bad things.
No matter how mildewed our hu
man institutions become, purification
comes at last.
efficiency, but on buying power.
The more buying power people
have, the more they spend.
The more they spend, the more jobs
there are.
The more jobs there are, the more
money there is in circulation.
Vice versa: Lower wages, less buy
ing. Less buying, fewer jobs. Fewer
jobs, more breadlines, more charity
meaning still less for working people
to spend.
Wage-cutters are unpatriotic, de
structive, traitors to America and
Americanism.
Good wages, good times.
"sag*
U TO your ears in work—
every nerve at high tension.
Nc wonder you snap at the wife
•lid bark at the children.
W a o u O v e w o k e
nerves may lead to Sleepless
ness, Nervous Headache, Nerv
ous Indigestion and a host of
other unpleasant disturbances.
Why don you try Dr. Miles?
Effervescent Nervine Tablets?
Just one in a half glass of
water makes a pleasant, spark
ling drink delightfully soothing
to over-taxed nerves.
Dr. Miles' Nervine is now
made in two form*—Liquid and
Effervescent Tablet. Both havt
the same soothing effect.
$1.00 at your drug store
Mighty bad congresses havel given
way to good ones.
In rank, undisciplined growth our
cities sank to awful levels of corrup
tion. But they arose. Today they are
riddled with the mean and dirty mess
of prohibition. That, too, will pass.
The main current of humanity is
forward. Only where the franchise is
free, where the states does not throt
tle people, can progress be the imme
diate follower of the impulse and de
termination.
We have our nasty messes and our
miserable politicians and our shooting
gangs, but we likewise have our free
dom. Having that we shall go for
ward.
We can do what wef make up our
mind to do and we can do it when
we make up our mind. After all, the
responsibility is upon the people.
Just now the people's mind seems to
be in the process of being made up.
In this democracy there is vast
progress just ahead.
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A Leader for
A$\
Your
foy
KILO
Our Hearty
CHRISTMAS
Wish For You
If Our Wish for You comes
true you will have the full
joys of the happiest Christ
mas you have ever known.
246 High Street
Wishing One And All
That
Christmas
May Leave Golden Memories
To Gladden The
New Year
abundant*-*
IT IS NOT JUST THROUGH
CHRISTMAS DAYS THAT W8
WISH YOU JOY—BUT
ALWAYS!
The W. C. Freckling Co.
Second and High Sts.
Second
National Sank
HAMILTON,OHIO
A STRONG BANK & TRUST CO.
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