6
The Commoner
OCTOBER, 1916
President Defends Eight-Hour Law
President Wilson vigorously defended hla
settlement of the recently threatened railroad
strike In an address to business men at Long
Branch, N. J., Sept. 23. His speech follows:
"Mr. Chairman, gentlemen of the Business
Men's league, ladies and-gentlemen: I need not
tell you what a sense of gratification it gives me
that you should come bearing this generous
message which I have just heard from your
chairman. There is a sense in which the busi
ness men of America represent America because
America has devoted herself time out of mind
to the arts and achievements of peace, and
business is the organization of the energies of
peace. No one who looks about upon the field
of American business at the present moment
can fail to realize that a new breath and spirit
have come into the business of America.
"There have been times when it looked as if
America were interested only in herself, but in
these recent years American business men have
lifted their eyes, to more distant horizons and
have seen how the markets of the world were
waiting for their service; and as they have
Bought and obtained entrance into these mar
kets a new vision had come to them, of what
the development-of the resources of America
means; of .what the organization of American
efllciency means; of why it was that American
merchants and American manufacturers and
American miners and all the multitude ot men
who have developed the peaceful industries of
America were planted under this free polity in
order that they might look out upon the service
of mankind and perform it.
BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
"There never was a time when the pulse of
energy and success beat so strongly in the veins
of American business as it beats today, and
yet I hope that all business m'en in America
realize that we are only at the beginning of a
new era. America has not played Its propor
tionate part in the development of the trade
of the world. I mean that it has not played a
part proportionate to the gifts of Americans and
the resources of America, and that in the times
to come, partly because of the unhappy circum
stances of recent years, but chiefly because
America is now about to release her energies,
the scope of American business will be what
men have hitherto not dreamed of, if American
men know how to take advantage of the op
portunity. "The problems that are before American
business are world problems rather than Amer
ican domestic problems. America must under
stand the world in order to subject it to its
peaceful service. And yet when we look upon
the field of American business there are some
things that disturb us. Some men seem to
think that the way to advance Americalvinter
ests is to walk backwards and to attempt again
the provincial policies which have characterized
an age when we shut our doors against the in
fluences of the world.
THE CHIEF CLOUD
"But the chief cloud that is upon the domestic
horizon is the unsatisfactory relations of cap
ital and labor. There is only one way, gentle
men, in which therelations of capital and labor
can bo rendered satisfactory that is by, in the
first place, regarding labor as a human rela
tionship of men with men, and, in the second
Place, to regard labor as part of the general
partnership of energy which is going to make
for the success of business men and business
enterprises in this country. So long as labor
find capital stand antagonistic, the interests of
both are injured and the prosperity of America
s held back from the triumphs which are le
gitimately its own.
"You know that we have been a legalistic
People. I say with all due respect to some men
jor whom I have a high esteem that we have
been too much under the guidance of the law
yers, and that the lawyer has always regarded
ne relations between the employer and the em
ployee as merely a contractural relationship,
Miereas, it is, while based upon contract, ever
much more than contractural relationship. It
relationship between one set of men and
another set of men with hearts tinder their
jackets and with interests that they ought to
-rve in common with persons whom they love
and must support on the one side and on the
other.
j "LABOR IS NOT A COMMODITY"
"Labor is not a commodity. It is a form of
co-operation, and if I can make a man believe
in me, know that I am just, know that I want
to share the profits of success with him, I can
get ton times as much out of him as if he
thought I were his antagonist. And his labor is
cheap at any price.
"That is the human side of It, and the hu
man side extends to this conception, that that
laboring man is a partner of his employer. If
he is a mere tool of his employer, ho is only
as serviceable as tho tool. His enthusiasm does
not go into it. He (Joes not plan how the work
shall be better done, tflo does not look upon
tho aspect of the business or enterprise as a
whole and wish to co-operate the advantage of
his br,ains-and his invention to the success of it
as a whole. Human, relationships, my fellow
citizens, are governed by tho heart, and if tho
heart is not in it, nothing is in it.
THE REAL PROBLEM
"I have recently been through an experience
which distressed me. I tried to accommodate
a difference between some of the employees of
the American railways, and the distressing
thing I discovered was that on the one band
there was unlimited suspicion and distrust of
the other side, and that that suspicion and dis
trust was returned by the other side in full
measure. The executives did not believe ih the
sincerity of the men, and the men did not be
lieve in the sincerity and fairness of the ex
ecutives, and while arbitration was being dis
cussed I had this sad thought: Arbitration is a
word associated with the dealings -of hostile
interests. It is an alternative of war.
"There ought to be no such, thing as tho
contemplation of hostility as between men
whose Interests are the same and who should
co-operate together. And, therefore, it came
upon me with a force that it had never had
before that the real problem of capital and la
bor was to bring the two sides to understand
and believe in one another; that the problem of
the next generation, if America were to really
to release her energy, was to be this real, gen
uine, fundamental reconciliation between cap
ital and labor.
"I did not realize until I held those confer
ences just how far apart they were in that par
ticular indispensable part of our national life,
the transportation of the country, and when I
did realize it, I saw that there was a great task
that was worthy any man's while ahead of us
to bring the minds of the country together, to
see that men understood one another, to see that
they had some assurance that they were speak
ing the truth to one another.
"I never had franker conferences in my life
than I had with the representatives of the two
sides. You know that when the public began
to notice this controversy it had already been
going on for some time. I had been watching
it with great anxiety, and when it became evi
dent that an accommodation was not going to
be reached I thought it my duty to try my hand
at tho difficult task of accommodation, because
I knew how much was involved not only in the
immediate effects of a great strike such as was
threatened, but also in tho ultimate effects, the
soreness left, the resentment that would remain,
the feeling of hostility that would be accentu
ated, j
POINTS AT CONTROVERSY
"And so I asked the privilege of consulting
with them. Before I consulted with them I, of
course, made myself acquainted with the point
at controversy, and I learned that they were
very simple indeed; that the men demanded an
eight-hour day and that in order to .make the
eight-hour day work they demanded that the
railroads pay them one-half more for overtime
than they paid them for the time In the regular
day, the men alleging that that was the only
way in which they could obtain a genuine elght
bour day, by making the railroads pay more for
the time beyond the eight hours than they paid
for the time within the eight hours.
"I saw at once that there was one part of
this that was arbitrable, but that, in my opinion,
thero was another part that was not nrbltrablo.
I do not regard tho question of tho prlnclplo of
tho eight-hour day as arbitrable.
STOOD FOR EIGHT-HOUR DAY
"Tho first thing I told both sides before I
requested their opinion was that I stood for tho
eight-hour day. I received no suggestion from
either side as to what tho basis of aottloment
was to bo, except that tho railroad executives
did suggest that congress give them some sort
of assurance that If tho eight-hour day wont
into operation they would got increased rates
for the carriage of their freight. I pointed out
to them that it was impossible to toll whether
they would need increased rates for tho carriage
of their freights.
"Wo believe in tho eight-hour day because a
man does better work within eight hours than
he does within a more extended day, and tho
whole theory of it, a theory which Is sustained
now by -abundant experience, is that his efllci
ency Is increased, his spirit in his work Is Im
proved, and the whole moral and physical vigor
of the man Is added to.
THE 80-CENT GAS CASE
"This is no longer conjectural. Where it has
been tried it has been demonstrated. Tho
judgment of society, tho vote of every legisla
ture in America that has voted upon it is a
verdict in favor of the eight-hour day. And,
therefore, I said to those gentlemen on both
sides at the very beginning: 'The eight-hour day
ought to bo conceded But they said: 'It will
cost us an immenso sum of money 'How do
you know how much it will cost you?'
"You remember thero was a case decided by
the. supremo court of the United States. It wns
known as tho 80-cent gas case, iwhere, by legis
lation in the state of New York, 80 cents was
established as the charge for tho unit of tho
supply of gas, and the law was contested upon
tho ground that it was confiscatory, and. there
fore unconstitutional. And when ' appeal
reached'the supreme court ot the United States,
it said:
" 'Nobody can tell until you try to manufac
ture gas at 80 cents whether it is confiscatory or
not. Go ahead and manufacture gas and sell It
for 80 cents, and then, If It proves Impossible
to conduct your business upon that charge,
como back and discuss with us tho confiscatory
character of this act And It may bo remarked
in passing that tho company never went back to
discuss it.
"I said to the railroad executives: 'You are
asking that the result of the eight-hour day bo
predicted and the prediction be arbitrated. You
are asking for an arbitration of a conjecture, ot
an opinion, of a forecast of tho figures of ex
perts based upon an entirely different experi
ence, and if you wero to ask mo personally to
arbitrate such a question, I would say I am not
competent to arbitrate it. The reasonable thing
to do is to grant the eight-hour'day, not because
(Continued on Pago 21.)
FROM A CAMPAIGN WORKER
A. J. Diebold, Seneca, 111.: Enclosed draft for
$26.25, contributed by the following persons:
A. J. Diebold, $1.50; C. H. R. Thomas, fl; B.
W. Romey, $1; Thos. Norem, $1; Tom Dunn,
$1; J. F. Murphey, 50c; Henry Monoro, ?1; W.
J. Farley, 50c; J. F. Carroll, $1; C. M. Malcolm,
$1; D. J. Heaton, $1; Frank TIramins, $1; Wm.
J. McGettrlck, $1; W. L. Craig, 50c; Wm. J.
Dunn, $1; Chas. Lyons, 50c; C. A. Bartley, 1
P. J. Foley, $1; J. C. Thomas, $1; A. Beffel, $1;
R. D. Moran, 50c; Alfred Clark, 50c; A. T.
Goldle, $1; J. Higgins, 50c; E. Solberg, $1; Ben
Eyan, 50c; E. J. Mason, 50c; Louis Pfeffer, $1;
E. F. Klllelea, $1; John J. Sheedy, $1; Phlllpp
Timmons, 25c.
I went among my friends and told the demo
crats that the committee had to have money, and
we want to circulate The Commoner as campaign
literature. I think a- good division would be for
you to advance my subscription and that of Mr.
Thomas for a year, as we are old Commoner
subscribers; and to each of tho new names send
The Commoner for the balance of the campaign,
and then the balance of the money to be for
warded to the democratic national committee to
be used to pay other expenses.
A New York newspaper prints this headline
"Boss Murphy to Quit at End of Year." Quit
what7
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