Hammond Times, Volume 2, Number 43, Hammond, Lake County, 23 November 1912 — Page 8
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THE TIMES.
November 23, 1912.
THE SPEECH OF FAIRFAX HARRISON, PRESIDENT OF THE MONON RAILWAY. Delivered at the Y. M. C. A. Dinner in Hammond Last Night.
Settlement of the conflict bftwcfn capital and labor and the establishment of a wage scale which would inrrpjse and decrease with railroad earningswere advocated last night by President Fairfax Harrison of the Monon at the business men's dinner of the annua! state convention of Young Men's Christian associations in this city. Four hundred business men and association delegates were present. K. G. Eberhardt of Mshawaka presided. After an address by Ir. Peter Roberts, immigration secretary. on Practical Work for Foreigners." State Secretary Stacy pave an illustrated talk on the record-breaking association Krosvth In Indiana. President Harrison closed the speaking with the following address: 1. Th Industrial Conflict. Conflict seems to be necessary to the
human animal with red blood in the veins. It keeps him from stagnation, it develops him mentally and physically, stimulates him to invention and sustained effort; in a word, it creates in him ambition. Our whole social system, and. Indeed, many of our laws, have been built upon the recognition of conflict as a natural regulative force: to illustrate from contemporary politics, we Insist upon industrial competition and prohibit monopoly; the law , prescribes war, not peace. For this reason the social theories and experiments, which have rested without qualification upon the principle that all men are equal, have failed; equality before the law Is a great and enduring achievement of our ancestors, but equality of career Is almost a contradiction In terms; the right to fight for such reward as his individual equipment and Industry may earn, to take his chance of success or failure, is as much as a virile man ever asks, but he does ask that. It was the assertion of this right -which precipitated the conflict, now a century old. in which our American railroad industry Is still engaged, but under conditions almost reversed. It Is the conflict between capital and labor which has been waged since the organization of modern Industrial society, and It represents the most important phase of the railroad question today, more Improtant than what freight rates are or are to be, more Important than car supply and the volume of traffic,
more important than the
opinion to the railroads. It
relation
pub! ic
the vital question, and on the proper .olution of it. -which means the substitution for the existing civil strife of tome other and more economic conflict with a common competitor, depends the future of the American railway industry. A bone Ita Power.
t the beginning of the Nineteenth
Century capital was all-powerful
soon abused Us power. It controlled the machinery of government and It
lation which considers all alike. Many RrcrulatlonK Kiittle. In the period of adjustment of the last few years the experience of every railway manager has been that many of the measures of regulation of railways have been futile and merelywasteful of money sorely needed for improvement of facilities which have In consequence been postponed. Many of these measures have originated in mere opportunism of the politician, who, seeking to commend himself to his constituents by adroit insistence upon minor wrongs, secures the enactment of a general law prescribing an invariable and expensive practice for the operation of all railroads, the suggestion for which had its origin in the failure of a particular railroad In respect of its handling of a particular shipment; but there are those also, and they are not
few, whim have been the direct consequence of the conflict of labor and capital. The managements of the railways have not been esteemed by legislatures in recent years for historical reasons which are not creditable to either of them, and it has been as easy for organized labor as for the ambitious politician to secure the passage of a law to make a railroad wince. Want Them Well Puld. But more serious than this is the effect upon the railroads of the steady demands of labor for fixed and invariable increases of wages. There is no railway manager today, I venture to assert, who does not want all his employes to be well paid, to share in
prosperity when prosperity exists, and
to be rewarded by promotion for efflci
ent and loyal services. If he is not able to give this feeling expression in all deserving cases it is because his
constant cost for the numerically most
important classes of labor has In
creased in greater proportion than the
increases of revenue out of which that cost must come. The margin necessary for the successful administration
of any Industry has been thereby pro
gressively narrowed, until the point
of danger to credit even of the most
prosperous roads is row distinctly visi
ble. as any one can testify who has railroad securities, for sale -which he bought ten years ago. This is a situa
tion which would be difficult In an in
dnstry which could stand still, but in
an Industry of which the life is growth
It discourages those who are invited to risk the new capital necessary to
make even the improvements which, by Increasing efficiency, will reduce ex
penses and so widn th margin again
much less will the funds be forthcom
ing for the Improvements demanded by
the public for comfort and convenl
ence. In the end the tendency Jeopards
an(j i the very capital already invested.
Inventors ih.r at Storks.
Another consequence of the conflict
mad.' public opinion. l ne economic n its effect upon capital is perhaps
literature of the day was all capitalistic j irrevocably accomplished already. It is and some of its conclusions are as re- j the change which uncertainty of Income vol tins to us. who are engaged In in- j has had upon the point of vitr of industry today, as are the other ex- j vestment, not only because they promtretnes of the contemporary syndical- j isej substantial profit by increment of ists. The pendulum soon began to j value, but because they spelled stabilswing. To secure a just recognition of i jty cf income. Today railroad stocks its rights, but as human beings and are not in favor, and whenever money with respect to its contribution to the j i now invested in railroads (except In success of Industry, labor found and extraordinary cases, each of which has put to Its service the principle of col- i ns historical explanation), the form of lective bargaining. It was an effective j investment Is the bond. In other words, weapon. With its aid the labor unions j tne investor is no longer a partner in
grew in power until me connici Decumu ; the business, or, to use the good old
an equal one. Occasionally war was necessary, but usually diplomacy was sufficient as the parties grew to respect one another, and at that moment substantial justice was probably done by both. The next stage marked a change In the balance of power, and today the condition of the railway Industry in the United States illustrates a tendency to abuse of power by that one of the parties who was at first abused. He who was despised now despises. We are living in the midst of a process of steadily increasing transfer of the fruits of the railway industry from capital, which once enjoyed them, to labor; not to all labor engaged In the Industry, It may be noted, but to cer
tain powerful classes of labor. The . honors of war may be said to be even: j there are those on both sides who have " suffered, and both parties are today 7aeed by a common risk. It behooves
both capital and labor, therefore, to find a new vent for the human appetite for conflict and to join forces for their common good. II. Toe Evil roniieqiirneM to Industry of the Kxltlnsr Conflict; Perhaps the greatest evil of this conflict is visited actually or potentially upon the public, which is entitled to a uniform and uninterrupted conduct of the transportation facilities on which it depends more and more every year, but it is not proposed to go Into that important phase of the question here. Our subject is the effect upon the parties to tho "onflict. There are three recognizable consequences of this conflict which have had an evil effect upon the capital invested in railroads and as many of injurious effect upon labor. Let us examine them in turnNot the least element of the growing strength of labor in this conflict Is that labor is today popular, in the sense in
which control of political policy i.s accomplished in a progressive democracy hy what is popular. It represents votes and i.s heeded by legislatures. Its attitude of conflict with the management of the railways, which represent the capital invested in them, was not the cause of the assumption of the power of regulation of the railways by government: the managers themselves are responsible for that, but, since regulation became an accomplished fact, the activity of labor in the legislature has been the Inspiration of many of the laws of unnecessary and oppressive regulation which have been enacted. I am myself an advoctte of regulation of the railways by government, but I am unable to blink the fact that what we
have had has not always
; Elizabethan word, an adventurer; but i has become a money lender. He prefers , the right to foreclose a mortgage to an ; uncertain chance of a profit secured by I good management and efficient opera1 tion. The capital already invested in the original construction of a railway suffers the consequence of this change of investing opinoin. for it must now stand as the margin of the new Investor and must risk being wiped out for his benefit and security. Whenever, as has happened in recent years, a railroad is faced by unconcerned and unyielding demands of labor at a time j when it is unable both to respond to . them and to maintain its credit, this i risk is imminent. It Is a consequence i of war. I JVo I, en Dairerona.
As it concerns labor, the conflict is not less dangerous in its consequences. "We hear much today of the increased cost of living It Is urged as a ground
for advancing wages, even when the Inability of the Industry to do so and con
tinue to prosper is apparent. The argument is that those who produce what the industry- markets are entitled to the first consideration in the provision of the necessaries of life, and where that argument is supported by facts it is most persuasive. It is not however, as sound an argument in the railway , industry today as it was some years ago. While the cost of certain necessaries of life has indubitably Increased, the scale of living of the railway employe has Increased in greater ratio, and not the least factor In this has been the Increases In railwav- wages. This Is the vicious circle of prosperity. I read the other day an old book, Rohert Wallace's "Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind," published in 1753, before the days of political economy, and there came upon a suggestive comment on this subject: "Operose manufactures of linen.
wool and silk, toys and curiosities of wood, metals or earth, elegant furniture, paintings, statues, and all the refinements of an opulent trading nation, tend," he says, "to multiply man's- wants, make the most necessary and substantial things dearer and in general increasu ,ve expense of living." This is an Eighteenth Century expression of a thought which an American of our time, who represents in his own life the success of Individual initiative, industry and economy, has well phrased in the notable epigram that "It is not the high cost of living from which we suffer but the cost of high living." There is many an American
cured for hiin in recent years have brought hlni very little real comfort. I was talking the other day with a locomotive engineer who was 35 years old and has drawn handsome pay for ost of his industrial life. He told me
that his father, who had been a runner on the same road, had saved and left behind him $1000. living mean
while a self-respeoting life on very much less wages than his son now gets.
Not only have 1 been unable to sav
anything," said the son to me, "but I spent some of th old man's savings."
How They Spent It. What did you do with your last in
crease In pay? I asked.
Well, my wife said that the neigh
bors thought she should have a silk
dress, and the girls wanted a piano, and so it went; in the end I did not find myself any better oft than I was be
fore."
This means, if it means anything.
that tl-.e present position of labor in Us
conflict with capital is deemed to just
ify the expectation of continued increases in pay without regard to in
dustrial conditions, and assurance which
breeds habits of extravagance which are harmful to the individual. In oth
er words, the increased puj in ""i
in creating the high cost of living.
As the conflict is now waged, the
lion's share goes to the most powenui
organization, and the weak among me
employes alone suffer. It is an indisputable fact that some rlasses of rail
way employes are now highly paia. both actually and relatively, and that other classes are not on the same basis
in proportion to the value of then-
services. This is an inequality in tne
ame industry which one can under
stand is intolerable to a spimea iimh.
and indeed produces some of the worst
consequences of the presont system
iinih noon the employer and employe.
but chieflv upon the latter
Finally, the present system whtcn reouired in the beginning a well dis-
in.,,t and cohesive organization for
self nrotection. now results sometimes
in stifling the ambition of the individ
ual bv an assurance of drab unformity
m t tt ts not necessary to
nre-s the point. The warmest advo
cates of conservatively managed labor unions, and I am proud to include my
self in the number, recognize the dan
ar,A the risk of this necessity of the
system.
What then of the future, if the pres
ent conflict continues?
For the management of industry the
conflict has been a stimulus to greater
efficiency and the economical invest
ment of new capital. As the wages of lnhor- Increased, an attempt to offset
the increased expense by economy in
operation has resulted, and vast sums K.en cnent for example, in re
ducing grades and increasing rower
to secure e-reater unit train loads, but
the limit to this kind of economy is in
sight, if it has not been reached. The
en n did fact is that, although other
branches of Industry are at this mo
ment enjoying great prosperity, the railroads, doing the largest business In their history and passing through their
treasuries the largest revenues they
have ever realized, are in a more pre
carious condition than ever they have
been, such Is the burden of their ex
penses. It is aDSoiuteiy necessary n the railroads that some thing shall be
done to relieve the present tense sit uatlon and enable them to face the fu
ture with eonfldnce, and I believe that the wav to accomplish this is to settle
the conflict of labor and capital in the railway industry on an enduring basis. Other remedies are mere salves on that sore. For labor also the future Is not assured under existing conditions. Already there have been expressions of discontent on the part of other classes of the community with what they call the preferred position of railroad labor. The most Industrious and successful farmers and storekeepers In the coun
try along the line seldom make as j much net money in the year as do the railway employes stationed at those towns, and nothing like as much as those they see going by on the trains. They are. however, a large numerical majority of those who pay freight charges, and they now complain against the freight rates largely because they think these rates might be less if such relatively high wages were
rnot paid to certain classes of railroad
employes. If that class of the community speaks it is likely xt be heard in the legislatures more sympathetically than the railroad managements are heard. AH It lacks at the moment is organization and this it can learn from the successful experience of labor. This brings us to the next point. Whenever any class of society becomes so powerful as in the abuse of its power to affect injuriously the lives, liberty or the pursuit of happiness of or by any other considerable class or classes of society, the consequence, under the existing regime, Is for government to lay the heavy hand of regu
lating authority upon it. This may
happen sooner or later, but it Is Inevita
ble. Eighteen months ago In a public address, reasoning from the same premises. I ventured to predict that the public press could not escape such legislation; and we find today an act of congress regulating newspapers on the statute books. It is not Impossible that organized labor may hereafter be faced with a strong- and sustained public control of its activities. It would be the logic of the last phase of the present conflict.
UNCLE SAM'S SCIENTISTS AT WASHINGTON WORK OVERTIME
THESE DAYS TO PROTECT PEOPLE AGAINST POLLUTED OYSTERS.
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Ir. Barbour was followed by Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts of Washington. T. C, who declared that association workers had discovered a new continent of adolescence. The general verdict, he said, was that high school students were better morally than other groups of boys, but there were still frave darigesr and temptations in high school life. He believed each grade should have a new chivalry committee of three boys and three girls to promote a cleaner life. He advocated compulsory physical examinations!', and based his argument on the fact that men die faster than women after the age of 25 because of Impurity, drink and tobacco.
ftactc.r1.!FK.Ii-nl Inbti-utiry In tlrpartnint f nKrlt-iiItiirc I. eft n njjbi Miss (irrrnhnusr, Ieks Manun and Ijr. Tiles. Washington. Nov. 23 -Uncle Ham'stralned scientists in the agricul t uraldepa rtinent. who in the past have discovered all sorts of bugs In all sortsof foods, are very busy just now pro-tectinir the people against sewage polluted oysters. The accompanying pic-ture, taken in the department's bac-terlologioal laboratory, shows some of , the experts at work testing oystersand the water in which the y live todetermine whether or not they contain the deadly typhoid fever germ. The work in Washington is done un-der the supervision of Dr. George Stilos Jr.. chief of tho laboratory, andhis two assistants. Miss Kuth C (Jreat-house and Miss Maude I... Mason. Mis3 (Jreathouse's official title Is "sclentiflc.cssistant," while that of Miss Mason is 'bactt riological chemist." The work of saving the public f rom semi-carry in g oysters is not confinedto Washington. Several state are working in conjunction with VncleSam. In Iihode Island the state bac-teriologist. Dr. Frederick V. Gorham of Brown university, makes resularcxamlnations of the waters above theoyster beds about the state, and has power to prevent the marketing of oy-sters from unhealthy beds. The mar-ki'tins (if oystf-rs from some of the grounds in Narragansett bay has beenstopped in this way. Dr. L.t-o F. Kettger of Yale universi ty examines oysters in Connecticut, while other well-known scientists per-form similar work in other states.
St. rul' l.iithrnm church, S5 Clinton street. Rev. Theodore Claus, pastor. German service with holy communion at 1' a. ni. Preparatory service at 9:.-.0 a. m. Knglish Sunday school at 1:110 P. m. Ladies' Ai.l society at 3 p. ni. English service at 7:30 p. m. Junior league Thursday at 7:0 tp. m. German service on Thanksgiving day at 10 a. m. The Jovial club, composed of young men in the congregation, will give a concert Dec. 5th and 6th.
People's service will give Thanksgiving program.
special
Phone
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a. A.
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Zlon Herman M. K. Church, 202 Tmman avenue. Residence. 204 Truman avenue.
Rev. F. Karnopp, minister. 1103M. Sunday school at 9:30 William Iiu, superintendent. Preaching service at 10:30 A representative of the Y. M. C. speak.
Lpworth league at
Frieda Klee, leader. Preaching service at 7:30 p. m. by the pastor. Tuesday evening at 8 p. m. a "pumpkin pie" social by the Epworth League. All are welcome to attend. Refreshments 10c. Thursday Thanksgiving service at 8 p. m. All are heartily invited. Choir practice, Friday evening, 8 p. m. Saturday at 9:30 a. m.. German school for all German speaking children. Our German-speaking friends are especially Invited.
First Frrxbyterlan church, South
Hohman street. Hev. A. W. Hoffman, pastor. F. D. McKlroy, Sunday school Intendent-
Mrs. Cynthia Sohl. superintendent
the primary department. Miss Harriet Ferris, choir leader. Mrs. L. A. Minard. organist-
Sunday school at 9:45 a. m. Preaching service at 10:43 a. m. A representative of the Y. M. C. A. will speak. Special music by the Y. M. C. A. will speak. Special music by the Y. M. C. A. quartet and K. O. Fellois. Penior Christian Endeavor at 6:30 p. m. Mrs A. W. Hoffman, leader, livening service union meeting at the First M. K. church. Prayer meeting Wednesday evening at 7:45 p. m. Ladies' Aid society Wednesday at 2 o'clock. A puundi Thanksgiving offering will be taken for, the poor at the Sunday school service.
St. Fnul'n Cplscopnl t'ln;reh, 41 Itlmbach avenue. Rev. Charles Albert Smith, rector. Phone SS6-W. Sunday next before Advent. Holy communion at S o'clock. Morning praxer at It':).',. At this service we are to have the privilege of
I hearing Dow. U. Gvyrm-. who spcalis ',as the representative of the state cor.i1 rnittee of the Y. M. C. A. Kverybody I is cordially invited to the service, j Evening prayer at 7:30 p. ni. Sunday school at 9:30 a. m.
Y. M. C. A. SPEAKERS HOLD ATTENTION IContlnaea from Pasr t.T
i j over by W. C. Ilelman and the associai tion quartet sang. IV". Harbour told j of the wonderfully organized business
of the Young Men's Christian Associa
tion which has 100 home field secre
taries and 125 foreign field secretaries.
He paid a high tribute to the long
service of State Secretary E. E. Stacy
in Indiana. "The material wealth of the asso
iatlon. its possession of $70,000,0000
worth of buildings and equipment, is splendid testimony of the confidence of business men." said Dr. Harbour. "The work done has made all expenditures of time, money and energy reasonable.
because it is making men.'Method of Training. Hi- touched on the three-fold work of building bodies to be obedient servants of the men inside; developing minds so trained that their processes could bo trusted, and putting into young men a genuinely worthy purposea motive, an objective. Dr. Barbour decried profanity and emptiness of life. He said that profanity was an evidence of moral vacuity; that a profane young man was an unfenced young man. To succeed young men must erect fences or barriers around their lives, he said.
More than 600 hands are now employed by the Gary works of the Gary Bolt and Screw company, the first of the mino rand independert industries to come to the city. The daily output is now in excess of 100 tons, raw material being furnished by the Gary steel mills. Xew machinery Is being Installed daily and as fast as a machine is placed in operation the employment list is increased. Refore a very short time the force at the Gary bolt works will aggregae 1,000 hands. General Manage r.Tohn A. Collins of the screw and bolt works, whose present headquarters are in Gary, says that the company is several months behind with its orders. Hlg Kxtenslona Planned. A few months ago Mr. Collins outlined to a Times staff man the plan of the company to Increase its plant In Gary. Additions to the fist unit are now under way. Within a few years. Mr. Collins stated, the (lary works would be employing from 3.500 to 5,000 hands. The eastern factory of the company is at Pittsburg and the loca
tion of the western branch at Garyhas enabled the company to eliminate heavy freight tariffs. Women and girls are also employed at the bolt and screw works. Many of the latter have become so proficient that they now earn $26 to $2S every two weeks.
Vendor cigar.
uper-
Chnrch.
H.
o'clock.
railway employe who, if he searches his
been what heart, will admit that the large H-
we may rainy expect to have, the regu- -.reases :n wages which have been
Where to Worship Mcetlngs -t at Various Hammond Churches
The Monroe Street Methodist Rev. Walter Theobold, pastor. Sunday school at 10 a. m. Wright, superintendent. Morning service at It
Subject: "The Light of Life." Ladies' Aid society, Friday afternoon
at the home of Mrs. Tullev, in Van !
Buren street. Prayer meeting, Friday evening, at 7 of.clock. followed by choir practice. We cordially invite additions to our classes. Come and learn of the advantages offered.
Ktrt nnptlnt Church., Sibley Street. Floyd II. Adams, pastor; residence, 15 Williams street. 'Phone 1131-J. Sunday services: Morning worship at 10:30 a. m. Address by K. A. Shertaake, secretary of Illinois State Y. M. C. A. Sunday school at 11:15 a. m. East Hammond mission at 2:30 p. m. Baptist Young People's Union at 6:30
p. m.
Fti ion Y. M. C. A. services at
Services during the week: Monday night, 7 8 campfire girls; 9 Junior Boy Scots.
se-
RvaDsellcal Immanoel Church, Sibley streetM. C. Hoefer, pastor; residence, 350 Sibley street. 'Phone 11S5-W. Sunday, Nov. 24: Memorial service, followed by an address of a representative from the Y. M. C. A- convention at 10 a. m. Offering for ministerial, -widow and orphan relief fund. Rible school at 2 p. m. Session of church council at 3 p. m. Thanksgiving service Thursday at 7:3) p. m. Offering for the benefit of Klmhurst seminary.
Baptist Brotherhood.
Tuesday night
Special program. Wednesday night twenty-fifth anniversary of organization of church. Jubilee and roll call. Thursday afternoon at 2:30 Women's I.'nion. Thursday night orchestra drill. Friday night at 7 o'clock Boy Scouts. One block south of po.stoffi.ee, 100 steps east of Nickel Plate station. All kinds of people receive the same kind of welcome.
IMnc Slreet l"rrj.lii lerlnn Church. The evening service win be at 7:13 and In charge of one of the strongest Y. M. C. A. speakers at 6:30 Younir
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