Editorials from the Hearst NewspapersBrisbane, Arthur
Philosophy
Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers
Brisbane, Arthur
Editorials; Essays
If one mine owner disagrees with another, each will treat with
the other's chosen agent, whether he be Tom Reed, corporation
lawyer from Maine; Joe Choate, corporation lawyer from New York,
or Levy, corporation lawyer from Chicago.
Why not accord to the workman the right to choose his accredited
representative?
So much for the much-talked-of "interference in MY business by
labor agitators."
What about the interests of the country? There are in
Pennsylvania, let us say, one hundred square miles of coal lands
OWNED BY ONE MAN, and WORKED BY TEN THOUSAND MEN.
The working of this mining region develops an annual net profit,
perhaps, of five million dollars, AFTER the workmen have been
paid as little as they will work for.
The owner lives in a house of a hundred rooms.
The miner's family lives in two rooms. The owner has a yacht, a
private car, a fast automobile, fine carriages, many servants.
The miner WALKS. He has a wife who cooks, sews, scrubs,
washes, mends while he and his boys work in the mines.
We wish to arouse no "maudlin sympathy" for the miner, no
"anarchist loathing" of the owner.
We ask an answer to this question:
Which would be better for America: to let one man have five
millions a year, and keep ten thousand men on the edge of want;
or to let the one (and, if you choose, SUPERIOR) man have one
million a year, and divide the four millions among ten thousand
families, adding four hundred dollars to the income of each
family? That is a plain, simple question.
Remember, we suggest and advocate no COMPULSION. We state a
situation. The STRIKER is trying to get a little more for
himself and family. The OWNER is trying to keep the vast sum
for himself and his family. Each is convinced of the
righteousness of his cause. The striker does not try to TAKE
AWAY money or property from the owner. He simply strikes,
saying:
"I will not work for less than such a sum, unless you starve
me into working."
He calls upon YOU, the public, to give him moral support. He
entreats other workmen not to take his place while he strikes.
It is for YOU, the public, and for YOU, the idle, hard-pressed
workmen, to answer conscientiously the question:
Is it better for one man to have four extra MILLIONS a year, or
for each of ten thousand families to have four extra HUNDREDS a
year, that they need sadly and sorely?
If this question were answered as Christ would answer it, there
would be no smug respectabilities scoffing at the striker. There
would be no heartless scabs taking the places of men struggling
to support wives and children.
Leave out sentimentality, if you will, and Christianity, and our
hollow pretence of following Him who called every poor man "my
brother."
What about the cold utility? Four millions more for an owner
mean what?
Some bogus antiquities, and perhaps a bogus title brought to
America.
Another palace, with a dissatisfied owner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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