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doing in Germany, for we are a free people, and must remain a free people.

Never since history began has reconstruction presented so many dangerous problems as it is already evident must follow the great war. It is not impossible that our own internal problems may hold us in bondage while the rest of the world prospers on a magnificent scale.

Living costs, exaggerated as they seem, may be modified in some degree, but they will not, in my opinion, return even to the high level preceding the war. On the other hand, the wage rate must, after war conditions cease to operate, find a lower level.

The manufacturers of the country, now crowded beyond ability to meet demands created by war requirements, must return to pre-war conditions and compete with the world in the sale of their wares. To be successful, a lowering of the cost of manufacture must of necessity be attained. This will affect the working man the same as others, and these things combined will inevitably create unrest on the part of the workers. If, during the war, the agitators take advantage of the dire necessity of the nation and play upon the ignorance, the stupidity, the selfishness and greed of others, what will be the grip of these agitators when conditions compel the lowering of the wage income? How much more receptive will the workers be if they feel they have a real grievancewhen there is taken from them the money they can easily believe is rightfully theirs?

I am not saying these things in any sense of criticism of the workers of our country, but to call attention to a situation that soon will confront us and must be met. We must be prepared for unrest on the part of the workers. One of the most important and significant events during the war, was the strike called by one Hutchinson, President of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, whose object was to paralyze the ship building industry in the port of New York. The strike was called

without warning and without just reason.

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So unreasonable and

reprehensible was his action, that Chairman Hurley, of the Shipping Board, wrote to him a memorable letter, which I will quote to you in part:

"While the people of this country are mourning the loss of brave young Americans in the Tuscania horrorwhile thousands of American homes are anxiously watching the lists of survivors slowly coming in to make certain that another precious life has been snatched from the Atlantic ocean--a telegram comes, and with it the grim announcement that the carpenters in the ship yards are now on strike.

"Before any Government agency is given an opportunity to act, and despite the good record of our adjustment board's promptness and fairness in dealing with all labor matters, you attempt to paralyze the shipbuilding industry at the Port of New York.

"Do you realize that you are adding to the fearful danger our soldiers already face, the danger of starvation and the danger of slaughter if food and ammunition are not sent over in ships, and in many ships, at once? Do you think the fathers and mothers whose sons are making this sacrifice will sit patiently by and permit this paralyzing of the life-line between us and the Western front to go on?

"Will you take my friendly suggestion and go back
to work at once?

"I advise you to end the paralyzing of the ship yard
work now. I am sure you would not deliberately imperil
the lives and safety of brave fellow-citizens. I am sure
you
believe with me that those whose sons are now giving
their blood that you and I and our children may be safe
and free, will not long permit either you or me to invite

destruction of heroic lives and disaster to a great world

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This Hutchinson affair presents objectively the ideas I have been trying to express to you, and it points clearly to what may be counted upon through vicious leadership in the future.

Hutchinson belongs to that class of agitators conscientious objectors-who, for the purpose of identification, are classed with the intellectuals. He called the strike, not because the workers were dissatisfied, not because they had any grievance, real or imagined, but for his own glory, to enable him to appear before the world of labor as a great man, to 'whom the Federal Government must bow in obedience when he gives the command.

He is a concrete example of the monstrous egotism to which I have referred, an egotism which places him beyond the pale of reasonable men. Chairman Hurley's appeal to his patriotism, to his sense of justice, fazed him not at all, for the obvious reason that he possessed neither. In his supreme vanity he demanded an interview with the President of the United States, and he received an answer that silenced him. Hutchinson backed down completely, but only because the great majority of the workers he misrepresented were loyal to their country, and Hurley's letter, which meant nothing to him, had gone straight to their hearts, and there was no other course open to him.

The big, outstanding fact is the proof that a great body of American workers will respond to an appeal that is fair, just and wise. It is the leader, the agitator with a small percentage of the workers under his command, who are not true Americans, that are to be feared, that must be reckoned with.

You may recall that I said that the mass of the followers of the conscientious objectors, the intellectuals and the agitators, are, for the most part, simple, well-meaning folk. This is not true of the I. W. W. In the West we know the I. W. W. We know them for red-handed murderers, bent upon blood revolu

tion-an organization that stands for the vicious criminal, that is permeated with treason, and which would bring upon the nation the black chaos that their fellow Bolsheviki have brought upon Russia. The evidence introduced by the Government in the prosecution of over one hundred members of this organization before Judge Landis in the Federal Court at Chicago, which trial is yet in progress, conclusively shows that the members of the I. W. W. are committed to the purpose of destroying any form of stable government, and installing an insurrectionary or revolutionary committee to usurp the power of national government and deprive its citizens of the protection of the law.

Under such a reign as they seek to inaugurate, property rights would be destroyed and law-abiding, government-loving citizens would be massacred.

There may be many of the rank and file of the I. W. W. who are simple, but there cannot possibly be many who are well meaning folk. Yet the rank and file of the I. W. W. are really very ordinary human beings, in whom mob spirit is kept consistently at the boiling point by their leaders, among whom are many enemies of America, and some professional criminals, whose ends they serve.

The I. W. W. is made up of men of a lower order of intelligence than the skilled workers, to whom it openly declares its opposition, and who must not be placed in the same class. While it is true that many outright criminals make this treasonable organization a refuge, we must admit that the rank and file for the most part is as much a victim of vicious leadership as were the carpenters and ship joiners of New York.

It may be that those among the I. W. W. who are worth saving, and perhaps there are a few, will respond to that which is right and just, if they are made to understand that that which is offered to them is real and just, the same as the followers of Hutchinson responded to the appeal of Chairman Hurley and the President of the United States.

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But we must have something to offer them and all the people, something that is genuine, that will work. If we are not prepared to meet the mighty changes the war is bringing about, to solve the problem, the social revolutionists will be strengthened, and they will be able to draw to their side a great mass of people whose strength will be measured by the degree to which they are organized.

We must have a program-something that is real, definite, that is supported by the best knowledge and the best experience. Mere doctrines and theories will not serve, no matter how sound they appear. The intellectual extremists can bring forward doctrines and theories, however chimerical they may be, that are more picturesque, more alluring and that promise more than ours, and will prove more attractive than ours, unless we have incontrovertible facts back of us.

The establishment of the absolute in principle cannot be the objective, as we of the legal profession are so fond of believing.

They must be principles that can be made to work-work immediately, swiftly-and they must be subject to adaptation in the light of experience.

Following the war, some of our institutions may change, and many of our practices must change, whether we will or no, and this means new laws and new principles.

A mighty burden of responsibility rests upon us as members of the legal profession. We bear the burden of maintaining the law the formal structure of organized society. By virtue of our oath, we are the guardians, the protectors of society.

The American Bar Association recently addressed a communication to its members, stating that "this is the time, above all times, for the United States to give a notable example of lawfulness and order, even under extreme provocation," and then appealed to these members "to exercise their influence and power affirmatively and by all such means as may be at their command,

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