Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 267, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1916 — Supremacy Abroad Must Not Be Bought by Squeezing the Labor Cost at Home [ARTICLE]

Supremacy Abroad Must Not Be Bought by Squeezing the Labor Cost at Home

By JOHN P. WHITE

President of the United Mine Worker*

American supremacy after the war is an ambition that appeals to the members of organized labor as strongly as it does to other citizens. But labor wants a clear understanding of just whijl is to be meant by American supremacy. If supremacy shall involve the draining of the country’s wealth for investment in other markets while millions of men and women at home continue to labor long hours for less than living wages, labor wants none of it! Supremacy abroad must not be purchased by squeezing labor cost at home. Industrial prosperity must reach a gtandardthat bespeaks a just distribution of earnings before we can hope to reach a commanding position based upon the real prosperity and contentment of our people. Labor will do its share to put in the foremost of the world’s great industrial nations. But it will resist with all its power the efforts of men who, when they fdan-a campaign of commercial conquest, regard labor merely as a troublesome factor to be considered in meeting world competition. •