The labor advocate. [volume], March 04, 1916, Page 5, Image 5

About The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937

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THE LABOR ADVOCATE
Justice and Democracy !
The Handmaids of Preparedness
An Interesting Article by Samuel Gompers, President of the American
Federation of Labor, in the March Number of
"The American Federationist."
A war, such as has never heen known
in the world's history, has appalled us
into considering earnestly and seriously
the fundamentals of national and inter
national life. When we sec the tests
that other nations have been made to
endure, when we sec the terrible conse
quences of failure to think out the best
plans and policies for a nation and to
have some sustained ideal of all the
various relations of national life and
development, we grasp the necessity for
subjecting our own national affairs to
unflinching scrutiny and analysis that we
may reject the unfit and make plans thai
will endure the tests even of catas
trophes and of time.
When no great catastrophe or test that
will strain our republic, our institutions
and our national ability to the uttermost
portends, wc can muddle along some
how and make well enough do instead
of forcing ourselves to the hard, exact
ing toil of selecting the best plans and
policies and holding ourselves rigidly to
the development of the highest ideals
and the maintenance of the best prin
ciples of human welfare.
The developments, or rather the
events, of the past eighteen months have
proven that beautiful ideals and theories
without practical foundation or a prac
tical plan for realizing them, are worse
than ineffective, for they create an at
mosphere of false safety and a false
hopethat lull into a fancied security and
inactivity and act as a barrier against
efforts to think out different and belter
ways.
As a result of our experiences and ob
servations during the past year and a
half we, as a nation, have conic to a
different ami a wiser attitude towards
preparedness. We have come to sec that
preparedness is only the wise fore
thought of a nation that has taken into
account all of the elements of human
nature, all of the possibilities and oppor
tunities that may come to the nation,
and has tried to think out a definite,
sustained plan that will insure to the na
tion the development and maintenance
of their best ideals for the citizens in
dividually and for the national as a
whole.
Preparedness must be the attitude of
a nation toward all relations of life
and all lines of action and development.
It embraces knowledge of a tendency
and its effect, knowledge how best to
deal with each tendency so that it may
be utilized for the best interests of the
nation, together with the practical wis
dom that will enable us to utilize all
the information and the experience
available to make our ideals realities in
daily life and in our relations with fellow-citizens
and with citizens of other
nations.
Preparedness in all the relations of
life is, in the ultimate analysis, an edu
cational problem ; therefore, all plans
for preparedness of any kind must co
ordinate with the efforts of public edu
cational institutions.
Public education ought to provide for
all of the needs of all of the people.
Public education must include indus
trial education, vocational training, phys
ical training and development as well as
education of a cultural nature.
No effort has done more for a strong
er and better manhood and womanhood
than the labor movement for the shorter
workday, better working conditions and
higher wages which make possible bet
ter standards of living. The fundamen
tal step is the shorter workday which
brings relief from long hours of bur
densome toil, gives opportunit" for re
cuperation of physical strength, for
pleasure and those things necessary to
sane, wholesome living and continued
improvement.
As to the effects of wages upon our
citizenship, Major-Gencral Gorgas has'
stated the case most trenchantly:
"Add to the laboring man's wage from
$1.!5 to $2.50 a day, and you will length
en the average American's thread of life
by thirteen years at least."
"The rich arc overeating. The poor
are undereating. Hoth are contributing I
to short lives. Hut where overeating
shortens the life of one person in one
hundred, undereating shortens that of
ninety-nine. If we are to lengthen the
average life, we must pay attention to
the poor man."
The whole purpose of education is to
develop the best men and women to
be the most high-minded, resourceful
and effective citizens of our republic.
Upon the citizens will depend the des
tiny of the nation and its contribution
to institutions of liberty and progress.
Citizens under a democratic govern
ment must be able ami competent to ex
press and maintain their ideals.
We are confronted with a question
that must be answered Can democracy
be made effective? Democracy, like
every other human and national institu
tion, is still on trial. If a democracy
is to maintain itself, it must be able to
defend itself against attacks and inva
sion. It must be prepared to defend in
stitutions of freedom against force used
by others.
Institutions of democracy and ideals
of freedom have never been free from
attacks and insiduous dangers. If wc
deem them worth defending, wc must be
ready and able to maintain them with
efficiency and effectiveness.
Preparedness against war should be
only a small portion of the general com
prehensive national policy of prepared
ness to meet all of the problems of life.
It is an all-pervading problem. Plans
for preparedness against war must be in
accord and co-ordinate with plans and
policies for preparedness in all other re
lations of life.
Preparedness involves specific plans
and agencies for defense as well as co
ordination with other portions of the
general plan for national development.
It is directly concerned with plans for
the physical development, and conserva
tion of the citizens. Physical strength
and fitness are fundamental for develop
ment industrially, mentally and morally.
The physical is the basis upon which
wc build in all directions. A strong phy
sique is particularly necessary for the
duties and the activities of military de
fense of the nation.
Of late years, our altitude toward
physical well-being has become saner
and more constructive. We have begun
to appreciate the fact that our problem
is to maintain health rather than to cure
disease, to prevent physical defects ra
ther than remedy those that have al
ready happened. 'We have been making
an attack upon this problem of physical
health through our public school system
and through demands for industrial hy
giene and sanitation, but as yet our ef
forts are only beginnings. Wc arc work
up toward an ideal that will give every
individual information that will enable
him to live intelligently and in accord
with the rules of health.
In the past, we have not been forced
by either environment or by conditions
to thinking out a plan for physical train
ing. Wc have trusted much to the rug
ged physiques, muscles and nerves train
ed and under control and ability to co
ordinate powers quickly to meet emer
gencies which belong to the outdoor life
of a pioneer people. Life on the front
ier developed physical strength and virile
manhood. Mental and physical weak
ness could not survive in the dangers
of that life. Rut the frontier has van
ished. The majority of our citizens no
longer live in the open and they show
in their physical development the effects!
of the restricted life of the city. They
have not the physical strength or en
durance that would lit them, without
further preparation, to be called into j
service in a citizens' army.
Since opportunities for nhvsical train-1
ing arc not freely and readily available
to all, some definite national policy must
be devised for physical training and
physical preparedness of all citizens.
Such a training is properly a part of
educational work and, therefore, should
be under the control and direction of
public agencies, and can be readily given
through our public school system and
other auxiliary agencies.
Physical development and good health
have a very vital meaning in the life and
the working ability of each individual
as well as of the whole nation. They are
just as necessary to the best industrial
development of the country as they arc
to preparedness for defense. These are
the basis for all development. Hut we
must be on guard that physical training
shall not be subordinated to the interests
of any one special phase of national life.
It must be in furtherance of a broad gen
eral plan of usefulness. Physical train
ing that is narrowly specialized or domi
nated by any isolated ideal, whether it
be militarism or anything else, is sub
versive to the broadest and largest de
velopment of the nation and its people.
Physical training must fit citizens for
industry, for commerce, for service in
the work of the nation, as well as for '
service in defense of the nation. Hut
physical training and preparedness arc i
insufficient.
There must be a spirit among the peo
ple that makes them loyal to country and i
willing to give themselves to its service
and protection. That spirit can not exist
unless the citizens feel that the nation i
will assure to all equal opportunities and ,
equal justice. They must feel that they
are a part of the nation, with a voice
in determining its destinies. This spirit
of loyalty depends not only upon politi
cal rights, but upon justice and right in
the industrial field aye, in all relations
of life.
National preparedness involves also
the co-ordination and utilization of na
tional forces and resources. War, as it
is being waged today, is determined not
merely by the men on the battlefield,
but also by the mobilization of the na
tional resources, national industries and J
commerce. The real problem is the or- I
ganization of the material forces and re-'
sources of the country, the co-ordination
of these in the furtherance of a
definite military defense policy.
All of the power and resources of the
belligerent countries are concentrated to
sustain the armies in the field and to
equip them with the necessary supplies
as wen as tne weapons ot war. i lie con
I lest between industries, the question of
! commercial control, of superiority of
I economic organization are fully as im
portant as the contest between the sol
jdicrs on the battlefield. Whatever, then,
jis the necessary part of the human, of
i the organization of industrial and com
mercial life, is an important factor in
national preparedness.
Our industrial and commercial develop
ment must also be in accord with a
definitely evolved and co-ordinated plan,
based upon principles of constructive
statesmanship. This applies not only to
the organization and development of
commerce and the industries, but also to
the human being so essential to the pro
ductive and operative functions of in
dustry and commerce. '
The workers furnish the creative toil j
and the intelligent service essential to
the best development of our material i
civilization. Their best interests ami
their highest development form the
greatest incentive in the work with
which they are associated. Their wel-
fare and progress arc inseparably asso
ciated with terms and conditions of daily
work. It is essential, therefore, that they !
should have a voice in determining con
ditions and terms of work and that they
should have an opportunity to establish
and maintain their ideals and concep
tions of what constitutes their protection
and welfare. They can do this only by !
some organized channel for the expres- i
sion of their will. They have worked out
such an agency through their trade or
ganizations. It follows then that trade '
organizations, the democratic voluntary j
institutions of the workers, should be j
recognized and dealt with in all matters I
that affect the workers aye, all the pco- J
pie. I Ins is essential to the best devel
opment and progress in times of peace,
and increasingly important when the in
terests and the existence of the nation
are at issue.
Trade unions represent principles of
human welfare. They represent human
ideals. They represent opportunities for
better life and work for the masses of
the people. They are an integral part
of the organization of society, and must
be recognized by employers and by politi
cal agents who have a conception of
democratic principles of statesmanship.
Our national development has thus
far been without concerted purpose and
practical ideals. Xo country on the globe
has been so wantonly wasteful of human
life as ours.
Our industrial and commercial devel
opment also has been of a haphazard
nature rather than in accord with any
definite, constructive, statesmanlike plan.
Hecause of the vast human and natural
resources of our country and the variety
of untouched opportunities, it has been
possible for us as a nation to achieve
tremendous results without definite plans,
without much wisdom, and without the
use of the best judgment. Considering
our opportuities and the vast wealth of
our country, to have failed would have
been much more marvelous than the de
gree of success to which wc have attain
ed. As our population has increased, as
free lands have disappeared, as there is
no longer the former wide range of op
portunity, success in the future will be
more directly the result of the best use
of available opportunities and of the
best co-ordination of existing forces. As
frontier opportunities have disappeared
so frontier business policies will no long
er succeed. Commercial or industrial
policies that aimed at immediate results
with extravagant disregard for conser
vation or for economical utilization of
materials will be replaced by better pol
icies of developing commerce and indus
try upon a basis that means constructive
development instead of exploitation.
Preparedness is an economic as well
as a civic and a military problem. The
principles of human welfare can not be
ignored in military matters or in plans
for national defense, just as they can
not be ignored in industry or commerce.
That infinitely valuable and sacred thing
human creative power, and the safe
guarding of human rights and freedom
arc of fundamental importance and are
correlated with national defense and
must not be sacrificed to any false con
cept of national defense. For to what
end will a nation be saved, if the citizens
are denied that which give life value
and purpose'
National policies, whether political or
military, must be in accord with broad,
democratic ideals that recognize all fac
tors and value each according to the
service that it perforins. There is a hu
man side to all of our national problems,
whether industrial, commercial, political
or military. It has been the general
practice of governments to accord only
to employers, the owners of capital, of
the managerial side of commerce and in
dustry, real participation in government
and in deciding upon governmental pol
icies. According to this custom the wage
earners belong to the class of the gov
erned, never to do part of the governing.
This policy is a reflection of conditions
existing in the industrial and commer
cial world. However, a change has been
coming.
The wage-earners, through their eco
nomic associations, have been making
the demand that those who supply the
creative labor power of industry and
commerce are surely as important to the
processes of production as those who
supply the materials necessary for pro
duction. They have, therefore, made de
mand that the human side of production
shall, at least, be given as much consid
eration and as much importance as the
material siJe. They demand that indus
tries and commerce shall be conducted
not only in the interests of production
but with consideration for the welfare
and the conservation of the human be
ings employed in production. They have
asserted the right that every policy af
fecting industry, commerce, financial in
stitutions and everything that is involved
in the organization of socity affect the
lives of those concerned in the industries
or occupations anil the welfare of those
who are the consumers. Therefore, they
demand that those who are concerned
in the conduct of the industry or occu
pation must be given, at least, the same
consideration as those who are to make
prolits by the industry. They have de
clared that there are principles of hu
man welfare and have demanded that
these must be considered in determining
national policies. This is a democratic
ideal and one which will promote the
welfare of all of the people. Hence, it
has an important bearing upon national
preparedness, for it means that the great
masses of the people will be better fitted
physically and mentally to be intelligent,
able and willing defenders of the re
public. All policies and plans for national de
fense must be determined by representa
tives of all of the people. The organized
labor movement, which is the only means
for expressing the will and the desires
of the great masses of our citizenship,
asserts its right to representation in all
committees, commissions or bodies that
decide upon preparedness for and con
duct of military defense.
The working people of all nations are
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always those most vitally affected by
military service in time of peace or war.
Upon them falls the burden of the fight
ing in the ranks and they have ever been
expected to act as shock absorbers for
the evil consequences of war. They have
been the chief sufferers from evils of
militarism wherever that malicious sys
tem has fastened itself upon a nation.
Since they have been the victims of the
dangerous policies of militarism, they
will be the most interested in safeguard
ing our own national plans from dangers
and from evils of militarism that have
been disclosed by the experiences of
other countries.
Preparedness is something very differ
ent from militarism. Hoth leave an in
delible impression upon the nation, one
for freedom and the other for repres
sion. Militarism is a perversion of pre
paredness instead of serving the inter
ests of the people, the people are ammu
nition for these machines. They are de
structive to freedom and democracy.
An understandig of human nature and
of conditions is convincing proof that
every nation must have some means of
self-defense. The agencies and policies
for this purpose must be carefully chos
en. The pacifists and those who hold
to policies of non-resistance have failed
to understand and to evaluate that qual
ity in the human race which make men
willing to risk their all for an ideal.
Men worthy of the name will fight even
for a "scrap of paper" when that paper
represents ideals of human justice and
freedom. The man who would not fight
for such a scrap of paper is a poor
craven who dares not assert his rights
against the opposition and the demands
of others.
Provisions for national defense and
preparedness must be in accord with
democratic ideals. In other words, mili
tary training and military institutions
must be a part of the life of the people
rather than of a nature to alienate citi
zens from the spirit, the ideals and the
purposes of civic life. A great danger
(Continued on page G.)
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