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Show BBBBBBBBBH J IDLENESS IS DESTRUCTIVENESS l "The teaching that work is a necessary evil calling for constant ,' mitigation is not only economically but morally wronv. ' sa s the I editor of the Wall Street Journal moved to make this comment by 4 the belief that "idleness is the most threatening evil of the day." 31 Idleness is an evil. BuU.it is as much an evil when the American I Woolen company closes its plant to reduce production as when cm- 1 ployes strike Both, by reducing production, increase the cost to the j ultimate consumer In one instance the idleness increases future I profits for the employer; in the other it increases future wages for I the employes When labor decrees idleness it spells losses for capital j I when the latter strikes it means losses for the workers. Always it brings losses to the public 1 But strikes and the closing of plants play minor roles in what the Journal calls the most threatening evil of the da . There is the 4 matter of "ever shortening hours," and of slowing up by operatives 1 1 of factories, mines and mills These do far more to reduce production I and increase the cost of living, than strikes and closing factories. |