Will Labor Keep Its Latest Promise?

T

HE annual convention of the American Federation of Labor has closed, after reëlecting Mr. Samuel Gompers president for another year and pledging the loyalty of labor to the Government in the present emergency. Mr. Gompers's reëlection may itself be regarded as a triumph for the patriotic forces in the labor ranks. That a considerable element in the American Federation has secretly striven to depose the present head is well known. This element represents that same advanced Socialist wing, strongly proGerman and anti-English in its sympathies, which denounced the war at the St. Louis gathering and called upon all Socialists to engage in "mass action" against it. This Socialist wing in American labor is German in its origin, is German in its sympathies, and is undoubtedly largely financed at present by German money. The opposition which threatened to break out against Mr. Gompers's leadership came almost exclusively from this class, and it is, therefore, a cause for general satisfaction that it has failed.

Yet it is a disquieting fact that this same element, though it did not dare to test its strength against Mr. Gompers himself, did succeed in wreaking its vengeance against one of his oldest associates and supporters-it defeated John B. Lennon as treasurer, electing in his place Daniel J. Tobin, a man whose enthusiasm for the present war is said to be lukewarm. There are plenty of evidences that the American Federation of Labor does not have its affiliated organizations under complete control, and that its most recent pledge of loyalty does not necessarily mean that the present labor disturbances will cease. Last April, two days after the declaration of war, Mr. Gompers and a representative labor committee issued a statement which was generally interpreted as meaning that both employees and employers would lay aside their differences for the period of the war. Events have shown that this pledge was written in water. The last six months have witnessed strike after strike in those industries most essential to the prosecution of the war. Workmen have walked out of Government ammunition plants and navy yards; shipbuilding plants have been the scenes of almost endless disturbances, steel mills have had to close, coal and copper mines have been idle for weeks, and the possi

bility of railroad strikes that would paralyze our transportation systems has constantly menaced the country. Mr. Wilson, in his speech at Buffalo, informed the workingmen that he had found them generally more reasonable than employers. In view of the generosity with which the Nation's industrial leaders have come to their country's assistance, and the disposition which many labor unions have shown to take advantage of the existing situation for their own profit, it is a little difficult to understand precisely upon what grounds the President bases this state-·

ment.

In the Buffalo convention, however, the more patriotic elements in the labor unions. evidently gained control. Let us hope that they will maintain this ascendancy. Yet it is evident that they will have difficulty in doing this.

The fact that the recent convention refused point-blank to give up its right to strike-that is, to accept compulsory arbitration-shows that the future is not all plain sailing. There are charges that certain union leaders who are more devoted to unionism than the Nation's safety are taking advantage of this crisis to promote the cause of unionism; there are charges likewise that certain employers are similarly seizing the opportunity to destroy unionism. The policy which both employers and employees should adopt is plain enough. Both sides should accept a truce. Let them lay aside, for the period of the war, the several matters over which they have been fighting for years, such as the open shop, hours of employment, collective bargaining" and the like, and accept the status quo as the basis of operations. After the war is over, let them renew this battle to their hearts' content; while hostilities are progressing, however, let both sides temporarily drop these issues and devote their energies to defeating the enemy. In view of the high wages which are now generally paid. there should be little difficulty on that score. If both sides show an accommodating spirit, such difficulties as do arise can be readily adjusted by mediation and arbitration. The one thing which is evident is that, with labor conditions as they are, the Washington Government ernment is constantly embarrassed in its war preparations. For this reason the attitude officially manifested at the recent Buffalo convention is a matter for public rejoicing.

T

Solving the Railroad Problem

HE Interstate Commerce Commission's special report to Congress on the present serious transportation situation disclosed a broader and more forwardlooking view of the railroad problem than has ever before been exhibited by a majority of that body. It was a businesslike treatment of the situation in a constructive manner. The immediate railroad problem is an operating one-how to handle more traffic with the present inadequate facilities. The only answer is, of course, by greater efficiency of operation. To accomplish this the Commission believes that complete unification of the entire railroad system is necessary. It sees but two ways to accomplish this: either the carriers themselves must operate as a unit, or, as an alternative, the President must so operate the roads during the war. Such operation is what the railroad managers have been moving toward, with no other warrant than the public necessity for so doing. The Commission now proposes the suspension of such anti-trust and other laws as might prevent the pooling of traffic and joint operation of all lines. It would give the roads a free hand to do their best. In addition it would have the Government advance funds to the roads for the purchase of additional facilities. If with that would go the use of the Government's priority power, as it probably would, this measure would become effective within a reasonable time.

There is no hint of Government ownership in the report. Some people confuse the possibility of Government operation with the complete taking over of the roads. Those who realize the cost and vast amount of detail that government ownership would involve know there is little likelihood of it in war times. Government operation, if that should become necessary, might be a long step in that direction; but, on the other hand, if government ownership depended on the success of such operation, it might not be. It is evident that It is evident that the Administration wants the railroads to solve the war transportation problem themselves; it has enough to do.

The Commission, of course, does not acknowledge that its policy of rate regulation (which has steadily reduced earnings per unit of service rendered) has had anything to do with the present lack of equipment. It now

realizes, though, that regulation of the roads for the sole benefit of the shippers is not for the national good. It is right, however, in saying that an increase in rates will not now solve the railroad problem. Nevertheless it indicated in this report an inclination to take into account in rate-making the unavoidable increases in operating expenses due to the substantially lower purchasing power of the dollar. These are all signs of a broadening view of the railroad situation. The war gives the Commission an excellent opportunity to reverse its entire attitude toward the roads. With public opinion becoming more favorable to them, is it not reasonable to expect the Commission's attitude to change?

I'

A Step Toward Responsible Government F WE were living in less exciting times, one paragraph in the President's message would arouse the greatest interest. It is that in which he practically asks for a revolution in our system of making appropriations. At the present moment we have nine or ten committees in Congress employed in the congenial pastime of spending money. Not one of these committees has the slightest knowledge of what its associated spenders are doing. While the Army Committee is appropriating for the Army, and the Naval Committee for the Navy, the River and Harbor Committee is putting in bills for the dredging of waterways, and the building committee is spending money on post offices and customshouses. There is not a single central committee that receives all these appeals for public money and allocates the claims in accordance with the public needs and the condition of the Treasury. If we could imagine a private business in which ten or a dozen departments dipped their hands in the central treasury whenever they needed money and with no central organization having a controlling hand over such expenditures, we should have a financial system identical with that which prevails in Washington. A private corporation organized on such lines would end up speedily in the bankruptcy court.

It is true that Congress does have an Appropriation Committee, but the real fact is that this is only one appropriating committee. Its name is an inheritance from the days when Congress had a somewhat more sane organization than prevails at present.

For the first seventy years of our national existence a single committee, that on Ways and Means, had charge of both raising and spending money. This committee collected taxes with one hand and appropriated for the several departments with the other. That, of course, is the only efficient way of managing a government; this system of concentrating both functions in the same hands made it reasonably certain that Congress would not spend more money than the Treasury contained. In the last year of the Civil War, Congress took the first step toward disintegrating our finances when it created a special committee to appropriate money, leaving to the Ways and Means Committee merely the business of raising it. The only reason for this unfortunate division of responsibility was that Thaddeus Stevens, then chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, was not in good health and was not able to carry all the work of his committee. Many of the foremost statesmen of the time, including Mr. Stevens himself and James A. Garfield, warned Congress that this step would lead to chaos and extravagance. Though events abundantly justified this prediction, Congress, in 1885, took a step that was more deplorable still. It began to split up the appropriation committee into several parts. In doing this Congress not only disorganized national finance, but it laid the foundations of that great Pork Barrel system which has gained such enormous proportions.

President Wilson suggests, as a first step in integrating federal expenditures, that we go back to the status of 1885; that is, that we have one appropriating committee. The recommendation is a wise one, and represents perhaps all that we can do as a first step in the direction of a federal budget. When this change is established, perhaps we can turn the clock back to 1865 and place in the same hands the raising and spending of money. So gradually we may approach the budget system.

The results are more apparent than ever. There is a lack of ships to carry steel and food to our Allies, and a lack of ships to carry our soldiers abroad and feed men and guns after they are over there.

Another year in which the submarines sunk so many ships more than were built would come very near to keeping our armies out of the war. There are two ways of meeting next spring's submarine drive. One is to sink the submarines or drive them home. The other is to build ships faster than they can be sunk. The British, French, and American navies have lessened the submarines' activity, but it is hardly fair to say that a submarine flotilla is defeated which is still sinking fifteen or sixteen ships a week in the winter time.

But even if our navies cannot reduce this loss, we have a building programme that will more than offset it during 1918, although we are still far from having made good the losses of 1917. We have the yards and the material to meet our building programme. But at present we have not the labor. The labor is in the country but not in the shipyards. If enough labor does not come voluntarily or we do not conscript it quickly, our shipping programme will not be made good. In whatever it fails, by that much we shall lack ships to transport our armies and keep them abroad. And by that much will the war be lengthened.

As the German Sees the War

S THE German reads his daily paper, how does the war look to him? He looks at the Russian front. His biggest enemy has collapsed, and in the collapse has given weight to the idea taught for years by the German Government, the idea that there is neither consistency nor strength in a Democracy. The German looks at the Italian situation. The Italians rallied and have robbed the Fatherland of another glorious campaign like those in Rumania and Serbia, but there again the behavior of parts of the Italian Army strengthen the belief that a democratic country is not a firm foundation for an army. On the western front, the French line is still full of fight, but he knows that the French have used up their last reserves and are in desperate straits. He has read as much of this in his papers as we have read about the German lack of food. The British, he knows, are better off, but with

the armies from the eastern front the British pressure can be stopped. He had hoped that England would be starved out by the U-boats, but with Russia no longer to account for, Germany will have the men to do on land what she had hoped to do by a cheaper method at sea. Altogether, it looks to him as if Germany was still only a little way from forcing a peace on the Allies which would leave her with most of her gains. This does not take into account the influence of our troops on the war. The German Government has taken pains to explain to its subjects our unprepared condition and to deduce from it that we cannot have a force in France that could

materially change the aspect of the war before the spring or summer of 1919. So the average German does not worry much about us but pins his faith on the ability to force a peace this coming year. It looks more hopeful than at any time since the Rumanian campaign more than a year ago. With Russia out of the war, Rumania isolated, Italy on the defensive, France exausted if defiant, there

cannot help seeming to the German a good

hope of a German peace, and Lord Lansdowne's proposals were greeted as the first sign of the long-expected disintegration in England which the German expects from every democratic country.

Despite the Allied successes on the western front and in Turkey, the events of the last six months have given the Germans new courage founded on a renewed hope that they can force a German peace on the world.

This hope will die only in military defeat.

B

To the Captains of Germany's Commerce ESIDES the two most important paragraphs in the President's address to Congress, that reaffirming our intention to fight until Germany is defeated, and the recommendation of war with Austria, there is another paragraph which will receive the earnest consideration of those who control the German State. It reads:

The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership

must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments.

It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such a situation, inevitable because of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly set in.

In other words, if, as the Germans hope, they could finish the war without being defeated, the President promises them that neither we, nor any one else that agrees with us, will deal with them. If this were rigidly enforced by Great Britain and the United States, the coal

ing stations around the world would be closed to Germany's ships, her overseas trade could not start again, and her land-borne trade allies. This is a result which commercial would be confined largely to her impoverished Germany has shown plainly that it dreads above almost everything else. And the President's words are given an acerbity they might not otherwise have by the establishment of a

blacklist by our Government of 1,600 firms in

South America that trade with the enemy. German captains of industry know we can carry out this threat in the President's message.

It is difficult to reach or convince the German people, for the German Government acts as a non-conductor between them and the rest of the world. But the captains of industry in Germany will read the President's speech and will understand its significance.

They no longer hope for a German victory. They hope for a statement in war followed by a negotiated peace which will leave them free to build up their business. They are now confronted with the fact that even if their hope of a negotiated peace were realized their opportunity to renew business would not come with it.

If Germany wishes to do business with the rest of the world it must change its government, for no one can trust the present one or any of its kind.

have entered villages, especially in northern Italy, and filled the minds of civilians and soldiers alike with suspicions, innuendoes, and sometimes open demonstrations-the purpose of all being to weaken Italian enthusiasm for the war and to inspire distrust in the Italian Government. Thousands of Italian soldiers had their pockets stuffed with newspapers which preached that kind of Socialism which has proved most useful to the German autocracy. A similar propaganda largely explains the Russian collapse, and there are not lacking signs that German emissaries have used identical methods in attempts to weaken the morale of France.

This system of waging warfare has the utmost interest for the United States, because this country presents unusual opportunities for such activities. It is true that the intelligence of our established population presents a higher level than that of any European country and so furnishes a safeguard against such an infiltration of sedition. On the other hand Germany possesses here what she has not possessed, to anything like the same degree, in France, England, Italy, or even Russiathat is, a population of Germans and Austrians, nominally citizens of this country, but ready with little stimulation to serve the Imperial will. That millions representing the Germanic stock are loyal Americans is true enough; yet the tone of the GermanAmerican press clearly proves that a vast number have only a lip allegiance to American institutions. It is also a deplorable fact that a large number of the Russian immigrants who have received so hospitable a welcome here in the last twenty-five years have developed little love for their new country. It was this class which made so successful Morris Hillquit's recent campaign for the mayoralty of New York. It is this same element which is making so much trouble in the New York public schools. In the last recent political In the last recent political campaign New York witnessed scenes which have no parallel in its history: "striking" school children, small riots of disaffected parents whose hostility to established institutions found expression in smashing the windows of school houses. But our American Bolsheviki are not confined to the foreign class. A considerable element of perverted idealists whose ancestry goes back to the Mayflower is ably coöperating in making an atmosphere of unrest. Many of these forces are consciously

working in the interest of German propaganda; many are unconsciously doing so; in both cases, however, the net result is to start in motion here the same forces that have caused the military collapse of Russia and undermined-happily only for the momentthe stamina of the Italian army.

He

Fortunately, we have a public which has been solidly trained in American history and tradition and which forms a tremendous bulwark against such attacks. It is a time now for every American to be on his guard. should constantly keep in mind that Germany makes war not only with submarines and forty-two centimetre shells, but with rumors and whispers. In promoting dissatisfaction and unrest, this propaganda descends to apparently trifling and ridiculous details. The Food Administration has found it necessary to warn the public that the stories of a lack of salt, matches, and laundry blue are "the result of the latest efforts of proGerman propagandists." Mr. Tumulty has felt called upon to deny in a formal newspaper statement that he has been shot as a German

spy! The air is full of stories that American transports have been sunk, that the large part of the British and American fleets have been destroyed in a great naval battle. That story of the Red Cross sweater knitted by a mother for her son, and afterward found exposed for sale in a department store, has appeared in every town from the Atlantic to the Pacificin each case with additional circumstances appropriate to the locality. All these things are simply the inventions of German agentsthey form the minor details of a German propaganda that, in larger matters, is every day growing more active. Whenever any one hears such unofficial stories, he should not hesitate to place the authorship. All these things are the product of that perverted and frequently grotesque form of mental activity known as German efficiency.