dishonor them if we suffer our liberties to be impaired; if we permit law and order to be overthrown. We honor them only as we uphold the institutions that they founded and maintain the orderly government that they established. During the great war we upheld, as a united people, the ideals of liberty and of civilization. It devolves upon us now to uphold just as unitedly and as effectively the ideals, the institutions and the government of Massachusetts. To the accomplishment of this purpose the efforts of patriotic citizens should be devoted; to this high endeavor should be con secrated the will, the purpose and the determination of our people. In the great war we gave the world a manifestation of the spirit of America. We must now make manifest to the world the spirit of Massachusetts, a spirit that is tolerant but never treacherous; a spirit that is patient but never pusillanimous; a spirit that has always been triumphant and never timorous. When Massachusetts calls to its citizens there should be no faltering; no dispute, and no dissension. There should be only united and loyal service, for Massachusetts is worthy of the best that each and all of us can give. BRITAIN'S PROTECTION OF SHIPPING. Paragraphs in columns of trade. news have sometimes a quaint historical interest. We recently noticed a statement that goods exported from the British East Indies must be shipped in British vessels, and thereby hangs a tale. The old spirit that framed the Navigation Act is still potent in the British mind, especially when the maxim of "Britannia rules the waves" is to be taken into account. It was to be expected that so powerful, or, if the reader prefer, so high-handed a government as that of Cromwell would have been aggressive in many ways. The idea of a merchant marine that would strengthen British trade, that would train British seamen, that would build up a great commerce in peace and be a nursery for the navy in war, is of a piece with Cromwell's sternness in dealing with Spain, with his promptness in settling the Barbary pirates, and with the military cast of his character. What is more remarkable is that the success of the Navigation Act extorted tributes from Adam Smith. With all his free trade leanings, Smith concluded that the Navigation Act is "perhaps the wisest of all the commercial regulations of England." Perhaps it is even more surprising that John Stuart Mill half concedes the benefit of the Act, even though he makes his concession with an obviously bad grace. The abstractions of free trade, however well stated, were only abstractions, while the commercial fleet of England was one of the great objects of human his tory. Spain's Armada had threatened England's life, but the Armada had good cause to regret its attempt and to rue its boast of invincibility. The Dutch had sent out great fleets, still England had won the narrow seas. France had fought for dor.inion in the Channel, in the Mediterranean, in the Indies, only to find that England was the conquerer. Far to the North the Scandinavian powers had dreamed of victory, and Nelson had struck down all who opposed him at Copenhagen. In all these triumphs the English navy and the English merchant marine had worked together. There were times when the merchant captains grumbled that sailors had been pressed on board men-of-war, nevertheless cargoes came home safely because armed cruisers protected them. Officers of the navy hailed with delight the merchantmen that brought them supplies. There was something of the "now and forever, one and inseparable" about the fleet for war and the fleet for trade. Mails When nearly fourscore years ago Parliament deserted the British farmer it did not desert the British shipbuilders. The men-of-war were built of British oak and of British steel, and by British artisans. were carried by British steamers. A new system of rating favored every British craft and bore harshly upon rivals. Now the laborer on the East Indian wharves knows that the exports must be shipped in British bottoms, and he is not slow to perceive the moral. British statesmen have not forgotten the lessons of the seventeenth century. If their little island had not had a strong fleet and a great tonnage she would have been driven out of the East a long time ago. AMERICA'S PERIL. The Menace of Radical Leaders' Impossible Demands. At the present writing strikes are going on throughout the whole country. A few of these are legitimate, representing as they do, an attempt on the part of the workingmen to secure just demands. The majority, and especially those of outstanding magnitude and importance, are with out any sufficient economic basis, and are simply veiled revolution. One of the most immediate and important results of the Great War is the new place assumed by labor. Before the war, organized labor, in this country, was fighting a legitimate battle in order to secure certain rights and privileges, which it was claimed were being denied the working people of America. Since the signing of the Armistice, through the murk and noise of thousands of industrial struggles, there is discernible an entirely new claim on the part of labor. It has advanced out of the economic realm into the arena of politics, and it now demands its full share in the wealth of the nation, but it actually demands the right to rule the nation. We are greatly in need of clear thinking and firm action upon this whole matter. We cannot dismiss it as an unpleasant situation which may be relegated to the future. It is a grim fact, pressing for recognition, and it contains within itself explosive forces which may destroy the entire fabric of our Government. The present situation has a very interesting and clearly defined historic background. Its origin is in the teachings and philosophy of Karl Marx, one of the greatest enemies of the human race the world has ever seen, not because his teaching contains no element of truth, but because his teaching, which is grossly materialistic, undemocratic and destructive, addressed itself to the most ignorant, unformed and inflammable portions of the population of the world, and inspired them to demand of society what society cannot give. For the last half century the ideas expressed in the Marxian philosophy have been taking root in the minds of the working people of Europe, and in a modified form in America. European civilization is divided, or has been divided, by caste and class. When you speak of the working class in England, you mean a social layer clearly defined and distinct from all other classes of the population. You do not mean the same thing when you use the same words in reference to America. But the philosophy, the point of view, and the ideals which have moved the masses of men in European countries for the past generation, are now transplanted to American soil, and, like a pest imported its natural enemy, this without its philosophy threatens to disintegrate and destroy our country. When the Germans, mad with their materialistic philosophy resting upon force, set out to conquer the world, their arguments and attitude inflamed the minds of the proletariat throughout Europe. It was therefore perfectly natural that the political revolution in Russia should be seized upon by economic revolutionists and the class which Mr. Trotzky pretends to represent naturally came into a place of tyranny. The movement for social betterment immediately passed out from the realm of economics and seated itself at the center of politics. The theory of the bolshevist is that the world belongs to one class, the poor; that it has been created by the men who work with their hands and that, because of this fact, the workers are entitled to absolute dominion, political, economic and social. Their theory is that a home ought to be governed by the children; the schools by the pupils; an asylum by the lunatics; an army by the privates. The logic of bolshevism followed to its conclusion would place the control of the world in the hands of hottentots and head-hunters since they are the lowest order of mankind. There was an abundant medium for the transportation of this insane theory of life to America. We have millions of undigested aliens representing the most backward sections. of Europe. No matter who was responsible for the presence of these people in our country, the fact is that they are here, and have brought with them their old time point of view, ignorance, prejudice and weakness. In Europe the ordinary man is accustomed to being oppressed by his social superior. That is his idea of rulership and freedom. freedom. When he breaks out in America in a wild clamor for a proletarian dictatorship, he proposes that he, unwashed, uneducated and frankly brutal shall exercise tyranny over the rest of us. As an illustration of this attitude, I have seen hundreds of workers coming home from their work in a shipyard, rush a ferryboat in New York harbor. These peasants think nothing of trampling under foot American women and men. That is their idea of liberty and is symbolic of the present labor unrest throughout this country. The American Federation of Labor under the leadership of Mr. Samuel Gompers, is in essence an American institution. It does not believe in socialism nor in bolshevism. seeks to get more for what it has to sell, which is an old fashioned American proposition. At the present moment Mr. Gompers and men of his intellectual complexion are fighting for their official lives. The radicals. within the American Federation of Labor are seeking to wrest the leadership from Mr. Gompers and the other conservatives. The steel strike is an alien proposition. Alien in the national affiliation of the strikers, and still more alien in the spiritual attitude and intellectual concepts to which they appeal. Mr. Foster, who leads this particular revolution, is doing exactly what he proposed in "Solidarity" some years ago. He has gotten inside the American Federation of Labor, and by propaganda, and the introduction of I. W. W. revolutionist members, is now seeking to divert the American Federation of Labor from its normal purpose and to make it an instrument of revolution. Mr. Fitzpatrick proposes to "socialize the industries of America" and to "put the laboring men of America in command at Washington." In New York City certain unions of workers in printing establishments have rebelled against their International Federation of Labor leaders; are outlawed by the latter, and are conducting a soviet strike in the avowed determination to "secure control of the medium of public information." As I write this, all business in the port of New York, is at a standstill, so far as shipping is concerned, because the longshoremen have repudiated the leadership of the American Federation of Labor to which they belong, and are being led by wild, ignorant, and inexperienced youths in one of the most destructive and most unjustifiable strikes of recent times. Meanwhile the infection has spread to the employes of the American Railway Express Company; to the ferryboats and other systems of transportation. The bituminous miners warn us that on the first of November they will strike for a thirty hour week, for an enormous increase in pay, and for other impossible, un-American things. The one fact which is finding grim emphasis in the minds of the Ameri can people, is, that the innocent bystander is paying for all this. There are thousands of tons of perishable food products which represent a season's work by farmers and gardeners and other food producers throughout the land, rotting on the piers and in the ships in New York harbor because a few men have a dispute with their employers concerning wages. We are pretty close to the time when the public will take its stand, and refuse to permit any portion of the community to resort to piracy, to personal violence, to the principles of the duel in the settlement of matters with which the rest of the community have nothing to do. Two decisions must be made and enforced in the near future if we are to avoid a ruinous period of strife throughout the whole country. First, we must place every man and every group of men and every interest under one law. If I jump my neighbor's fence and steal a peck of apples he can have me fined or imprisoned. But if he and I send our entire apple crop to the people of New York, the longshoremen can let those apples rot without being brought under any law whatever. If our present laws have no provision in them for the adjustment of differences between employer and employes, then we must have the law. amended. If the Labor Union has the power, as it really has, to destroy millions of dollars' worth of property, which does not belong to it, in an attempt to settle a private quarrel, then the Labor Union must be incorporated under the laws of the land, and held financially responsible for any damage it may inflict in the course of its self-constituted function of administering justice. And this principle must apply with absolute fairness to organizations of capital as well. The essence of bolshevism is class tyranny. The reason why it is so unwelcome in America seems to have received but little attention thus far. The fundamental principle of our Government is, that there are no classes, from the point of view of the law. American democracy recognizes only two factors in the national life. First, the Government, which is the expression and instrument of all the people, in the ordering of their public affairs. Second, the individual. The law recognizes in America no man because he is rich or because he is poor. Our Constitution and the genius of our nation are against class-development, class interest, and especially against class rule. We will not have the commercial interests using the machinery of our government for the advancement of their class; nor will we have the workingman, nor the farmer, nor the intellectual, nor the politician, nor the ecclesiast, nor any other group using our government to advance the interest of one class. This is a government of all the people, for all the people, by all the people. It has its faults. We have made our mistakes and failures, but we are not going at this late date to permit the rotten corpse of Russian or Prussian tyranny to remain unburied on our soil. The time has come for a show down. Every man who is for Amer |