This, to the Interpreter, was the almost unbelievable tragedy--that the
people should not know what to do; that they should not have given more
thought to making the structure of their citizenship stormproof.
"The great trouble is that the people don't line up right," said
Captain Charlie to John and the Interpreter one evening as the workman
and the general manager were sitting with the old basket maker on the
balcony porch.
"Just what do you mean by that, Charlie?" asked John. The man in the
wheel chair was nodding his assent to the union man's remark.
"I mean," Charlie explained, "that the people consider only capital and
labor, or workmen and business men. They put loyal American workmen and
imperialist workmen all together on one side and loyal American
business men and imperialist business men all together on the other.
They line up _all_ employees against _all_ employers. For example, as
the people see it, you and I are enemies and the Mill is our battle
ground. The fact is that the imperialist manual workman is as much my
enemy as he is yours. The imperialist business man is as much your
enemy as he is mine."
"You are exactly right, Charlie," said the Interpreter. "And that is
the first thing that the Big Idea applied to our industries will do--it
will line up the great body of loyal American workmen that you
represent with the great body of loyal American business men that John
represents against the McIvers of capital and the Jake Vodells of
labor. And that new line-up alone would practically insure victory.
Nine tenths of our industrial troubles are due to the fact that
employers and employees alike fail to recognize their real enemies and
so fight their friends as often as they fight their foes.
"The people must learn to call an industrial slacker a slacker, whether
he loafs on a park bench or loafs on the veranda of the country club
house. They have to recognize that a traitor to the industries is a
traitor to the nation and that he is a traitor whether he works at a
bench or runs a bank. They have to say to the imperialist of business
and to the imperialist of labor alike, 'The industries of this country
are not for you or your class alone, they are for all because the very
life of the nation is in them and is dependent upon them.' When the
people of this country learn to draw the lines of class where they
really belong there will be an end to our industrial wars and to all
the suffering that they cause."
"If only the people could be lined up and made to declare themselves
openly," said John, "Jake Vodell would have about as much chance to
make trouble among us as the German Crown Prince would have had among
the French Blue Devils."
Charlie laughed.
"Which means, I suppose," said the Interpreter, "that there would be a
riot to see who could lay hands on him first."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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