SEPTEMBER 1, 1919
The laws of our country have designated the first Monday of each
September as Labor Day. It is truly an American day, for it was here
that for the first time in history a government was founded on a
recognition of the sovereignty of the citizen which has irresistibly led
to a realization of the dignity of his occupation. It is with added
propriety that this day is observed this year. For the first time in
five years it comes at a time when the issue of world events makes it no
longer doubtful whether the American conception of work as the crowning
glory of men free and equal is to prevail over the age-old European
conception that work is the badge of the menial and the inferior. The
American ideal has prevailed on European battle-fields through the
loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice of American labor.
The duty of citizenship in this hour is to strive to maintain and
extend that ideal at home.
The past five years have been a time of rapid change and great progress
for the American people. Not only have the hours and conditions of labor
been greatly improved, but wages have increased about one hundred per
cent. There has been a great economic change for the better among all
wage-earners.
We have known that political power was with the people, because they
have the votes. We have generally supposed that economic power was not
with the people, because they did not own the property. This
supposition, probably never true, is growing more and more to be
contrary to the facts. The great outstanding fact in the economic life
of America is that the wealth of the Nation is owned by the people of
the Nation. The stockholders of the great corporations run into the
hundreds of thousands, the small tradesmen, the thrifty householders,
the tillers of the soil, the depositors in savings banks, and the now
owners of government bonds, make a number that includes nearly our
entire people. This would be illustrated by a few Massachusetts examples
from figures which were reported in 1918:
Number of Stockholders
Railroads 40,485
Street railways 17,527
Telephone 49,688
Western Union Telegraph 9,360
------
117,060
Number of Employees
Railroads 20,604
Street railways 25,000
Telephone 11,471
Western Union Telegraph 2,065
------
59,140
Savings bank depositors 2,491,646
Railroad, street railway, and
telephone bonds held by
savings banks and savings
departments of trust companies
$267,795,636
Savings bank deposits $1,022,342,583
Money is pouring into savings banks at the rate of $275,000 each
working day.
Comment on these figures is unnecessary. There is, of course, some
reduplication, but in these four public service enterprises there are in
Massachusetts almost twice as many direct owners as there are employees.
Two persons out of three have money in the savings bank—men, women, and
children. There is this additional fact: more than one quarter of the
stupendous sum of over a billion dollars of the savings of nearly two
and a half million savings depositors is invested in railroad, street
railway, and telephone securities.
With these examples in mind it would appear that our problem of economic
justice in Massachusetts, where we live and for which alone we can
legislate, is not quite so simple as assuming that we can take from one
class and give to another class. We are reaching and maintaining the
position in this Commonwealth where the property class and the employed
class are not separate, but identical. There is a relationship of
interdependence which makes their interests the same in the long run.
Most of us earn our livelihood through some form of employment. More and
more of our people are in possession of some part of the wages of
yesterday, and so are investors. This is the ideal economic condition.
The great aim of our Government is to protect the weak—to aid them to
become strong. Massachusetts is an industrial State. If her people
prosper, it must be by that means in some of its broad avenues. How can
our people be made strong? Only as they draw their strength from our
industries. How can they do that? Only by building up our industries and
making them strong. This is fundamental. It is the place to begin. These
are the instruments of all our achievement. When they fail, all fails.
When they prosper, all prosper. Workmen's compensation, hours and
conditions of labor are cold, consolations, if there be no employment.
And employment can be had only if some one finds it profitable. The
greater the profit, the greater the wages.
This is one of the economic lessons of the war. It should be remembered
now when taxes are to be laid, and in the period of readjustment. Taxes
must be measured by the ability to meet them out of surplus income.
Industry must expand or fail. It must show a surplus after all payments
of wages, taxes, and returns to investors. Conscription can call once,
then all is over. Just requirements can be met again and again with
ever-increasing ability.
Justice and the general welfare go hand in hand. Government had to take
over our transportation interests in order to do such justice to them
that they could pay their employees and carry our merchandise. They have
been so restricted lest they do harm that they became unable to do good.
Their surplus was gone, and we New Englanders had to go without coal.
Seeing now more clearly than before the true interests of wage-earner,
investor, and the public, which is the consumer, we shall hereafter be
willing to pay the price and secure the benefits of justice to all these
coördinate interests.
We have met the economic problem of the returning service men. They have
been assimilated into our industrial life with little delay and with no
disturbance of existing conditions. The day of adversity has passed. The
American people met and overcame it. The day of prosperity has come. The
great question now is whether the American people can endure their
prosperity. I believe they can. The power to preserve America is in the
same hands to-day that it was when the German army was almost at the
gates of Paris. That power is with the people themselves; not one class,
but all classes; not one occupation, but all occupations; not one
citizen, but all citizens.
During the past five years we have heard many false prophets. Some were
honest, but unwise; some plain slackers; a very few were simply public
enemies. Had their counsels prevailed, America would have been
destroyed. In general they appealed to the lower impulses of the people,
for in their ignorance they believed the most powerful motive of this
Nation was a sodden selfishness. They said the war would never affect
us; we should confine ourselves to making money. They argued for peace
at any price. They opposed selective service. They sought to prevent
sending soldiers to Europe. They advocated peace by negotiation. They
were answered from beginning to end by the loyalty of the American
workingmen and the wisdom of their leaders. That loyalty and that wisdom
will not desert us now. The voices that would have lured us to
destruction were unheeded. All counsels of selfishness were unheeded,
and America responded with a spirit which united our people as never
before to the call of duty.
Having accomplished this great task, having emerged from the war the
strongest, the least burdened nation on earth, are we now to fail before
our lesser task? Are we to turn aside from the path that has led us to
success? Who now will set selfishness above duty? The counsel that
Samuel Gompers gave is still sound, when he said in effect, "America may
not be perfect. It has the imperfections of all things human. But it is
the best country on earth, and the man who will not work for it, who
will not fight for it, and if need be die for it, is unworthy to live in
it."
Happily, the day when the call to fight or die is now past. But the day
when it is the duty of all Americans to work will remain forever. Our
great need now is for more of everything for everybody. It is not money
that the nation or the world needs to-day, but the products of labor.
These products are to be secured only by the united efforts of an entire
people. The trained business man and the humblest workman must each
contribute. All of us must work, and in that work there should be no
interruption. There must be more food, more clothing, more shelter. The
directors of industry must direct it more efficiently, the workers in
industry must work in it more efficiently. Such a course saved us in
war; only such a course can preserve us in peace. The power to preserve
America, with all that it now means to the world, all the great hope
that it holds for humanity, lies in the hands of the people. Talents and
opportunity exist. Application only is uncertain. May Labor Day of 1919
declare with an increased emphasis the resolution of all Americans to
work for America. |