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Show CAPITAL AND LABOR Amended immigration laws and the scarcity of unskilled foreign labor in the U.S.A., with the coal strike practically settled set-tled and most of the coal mines resuming operations within the next few days, there will naturally natur-ally be a tendency for a higher, scale of wages for all branches of labor. The. stumbling block in the way of ending the railroad strike as far' as we can read, is the question of seniorityshould the men, going back to work have their rights restored? The railroad executives have said "No." The strikers are not willing wil-ling to go back on other terms. There is ground for much argument, argu-ment, on both sides of this problem., pro-blem., ,The rail executives have assumed a virtuous pose and claim that by restoring the priority pri-ority rights of the striking shopmen shop-men they would be doing an injustice in-justice to the men who remained on the job and to the men who went to work when the strikers quit. The members of organized labor can see, they claim, that back of this attitude the purpose of destroying unionism was that the object of the railroad managers. man-agers. Did the employers see in this circumstance an opportunity opportun-ity to destroy the unions. There would be no virtue left in unionism if labor organizations organiza-tions could not protect the priority pri-ority rights of their members. Defeat on this point would mean destruction. One cannot look upon organized labor as a menace to the country. Unionism must not be destroyed. It has often created lots of strife, but it has many fine accomplishments accomplish-ments to its credit. It has brought about better working conditions, it has been instrumental instru-mental in raising the scale of wages, and all laboring classes, union and nonunion have benefitted. bene-fitted. Unions have not always been right nor are they always wrong. It might not be the best thing for the country, if they could always have their own way, no more if capital could always al-ways have its own way. Given full power, either capital or labor, la-bor, under conscienceless leadership leader-ship would become intolerable. There is room for both capital and labor just as long as America Amer-ica remains the country it is today. to-day. Both are necessary to the advancement of the nation. Capital Cap-ital has its organizations and labor la-bor its unions. Strife is unavoidable unavoid-able but it can and must be softened sof-tened with justice. Both of these forces can exist but may they never forget the fact that America is their country. i . - |