Harding and labor
William Allen White - July 19, 1922
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
PRESIDENT HARDING is not the man to deal with the labor situation as it now exists in America. He is exactly the man to handle the situation at the head of the Republican party, where no great principle exists and where matters of expediency may be settled by compromise.
He is a fairly good leader of congressional expeditions into business legislation — the tariff, the bonus, the ship subsidy. There are matters wherein compromise upon one figure is about as fair as upon any other figure. But the conflict between labor and capital comes upon a fundamental principle.
The questions are: Who controls American industry? Does the man who owns the tools own the business? Does the man who works with the tools have any interest, right or proprietorship in his job, and hence a stake in the business? Is the public entitled to interfere for justice?
These are not questions of expediency. They are questions of deep governmental policy, and the president is not there.
We are slowly but surely drifting into civil war; it may come in a year, or it may come in a decade, unless some strong, wise, brave man finds the solution of the labor problem and forces that solution into the situation.
Capital has a right to ownership and interest; labor has a right to a living wage and a steady job. The public has a right to insist upon justice being enforced — interest and ownership for the capitalist, living wage and steady work for the laborer — and having established justice, the public has a right to enforce peace. But not until justice is established does the public have any rights.
These questions are big questions. Their manner of settlement requires statesmanship and a big personality, a man not afraid to tell an owner of a mine, a railroad or a steel plant that he is a traitor and a robber if he is one, and also a man who can look 4 million votes in the eye and tell them to go straight up if they try to bluff him into accepting an unjust settlement.
Harding will patch up this peace, one way or another. But he will not stop the war.
William Allen White
July 19, 1922