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Show IMPENDING CHANGES NO one who keeps his eyes open can fail to have observed the tremend- ! ous changes that since the war began have already occurred in the relation of labor to the system of production, j No one who is capable of judging the . situation in a large way believes that the end of such changes has been j reached, and no one can predict with j even an approach to certainty how far the movement will go. The all-important fact is that success in the war depends at last upon man power man power not only to fill the ranks of the army and navy but to build ships, to manufacture artillery, firearms, ammunition and airships, to till the soil, to spin and weave, to run the railways and to carry on many oth- er industries. Labor has not failed to see its opportunity oppor-tunity and to take advantage of it. We need not discuss the ethics or the patriotism pat-riotism of its stiff and uncompromising ' j tone ; we have only to do with the fact. The national need makes it necessary to comply. Since the work must be j done, and those who are doing it refuse j to work except on certain conditions of wages, hours, the "closed shop," over- j time, and so forth, there is nothing to l do except to grant those conditions, for there is no one to take the place of those ' who lay down their tools. The strike, or the threat of a strike, is successful. j That condition is destined to continue j and to grow in acuteness as long as the j war lasts. How serious it will become ! we cannot guess. Socialism hopes that ' it will reach the point where all the j profits of industrialism shall go to j those who work with their hands, but I that would amount to a social and in- S dustrial revolution, and so complete an upsetting of the balance is improbable ; jj but that the change already begun will 5 continue is a certainty for which it is g well to be prepared. ! But how will it be after the war? With peace the conditions will change ; jj to some extent they will be reversed, tj Millions of the survivors of the cam- paigns, and other millions whom the 1 end of the fighting will set free from I labor connected with the support of the jj armies, will seek jobs in the vocations of peace. Still other millions women g who have taken or will take the places j of men will resist being elbowed out 8 of their positions. Wilf there be work f for all, or will there be widespread un- f employment? Whatever the situation S may be, it is certain that labor will not I surrender without a determined strasr- gle what it will have won in the years i I of war. It may be able to hold it without with-out a contest, but that is not likely. Youth's Companion. o |