Essay On American Contribution and the Democratic Idea | Page 9

the bane of large and small
communities. Skilled labour banded itself into unions, employers
organized to oppose them, and the result was a class conflict never
contemplated by the founders of the Republic, repugnant to democracy
which by its very nature depends for its existence on the elimination of
classes. In addition to this, owing to the unprecedented immigration of
ignorant Europeans to supply the labour demand, we acquired a sinister
proletariat of unskilled economic slaves. Before the war labour
discovered its strength; since the war began, especially in the allied
nations with quasi-democratic institutions, it is aware of its power to
exert a leverage capable of paralyzing industry for a period sufficient to
destroy the chances of victory. The probability of the occurrence of
such a calamity depends wholly on whether or not the workman can be
convinced that it is his war, for he will not exert himself to perpetuate a
social order in which he has lost faith, even though he now obtains a
considerable increase in wages. Agreements entered into with the
government by union leaders will not hold him if at any time he fails to
be satisfied that the present world conflict will not result in a greater
social justice. This fact has been demonstrated by what is known as the

"shop steward" movement in England, where the workers repudiated
the leaders' agreements and everywhere organized local strikes. And in
America, the unskilled workers are largely outside of the unions.
The workman has a natural and laudable desire to share more fully in
the good things of life. And it is coming to be recognized that material
prosperity, up to a certain point, is the foundation of mental and
spiritual welfare: clean and comfortable surroundings, beauty, rational
amusements, opportunity for a rational satisfaction of, the human.
instincts are essential to contentment and progress. The individual, of
course, must be enlightened; and local labour unions, recognizing this,
are spending considerable sums all over the country on schools to
educate their members. If a workman is a profiteer, he is more to be
excused than the business profiteer, against whom his anger is directed;
if he is a spendthrift, prodigality is a natural consequence of rapid
acquisition. We have been a nation of spendthrifts.
A failure to grasp the psychology of the worker involves disastrous
consequences. A discussion as to whether or not his attitude is
unpatriotic and selfish is futile. No more profound mistake could be
made than to attribute to any element of the population motives wholly
base. Human nature is neither all black nor all white, yet is capable of
supreme sacrifices when adequately appealed to. What we must get into
our minds is the fact that a social order that insured a large measure of
democracy in the early days of the Republic is inadequate to meet
modern industrial conditions. Higher wages, material prosperity alone
will not suffice to satisfy aspirations for a fuller self-realization, once
the method by which these aspirations can be gained is glimpsed. For it
cannot be too often repeated that the unquenchable conflicts are those
waged for ideas and not dollars. These are tinged with religious
emotion.

IV
Mr. Wilson's messages to the American people and to the world have
proclaimed a new international order, a League of Democracies. And in
a recent letter to New Jersey Democrats we find him warning his party,
or more properly the nation, of the domestic social changes necessarily
flowing from his international program. While rightly resolved to
prosecute the war on the battle lines to the utmost limit of American

resources, he points out that the true significance of the conflict lies in
"revolutionary change." "Economic and social forces," he says, "are
being released upon the world, whose effect no political seer dare to
conjecture." And we "must search our hearts through and through and
make them ready for the birth of a new day--a day we hope and believe
of greater opportunity and greater prosperity for the average mass of
struggling men and women." He recognizes that the next great step in
the development of democracy which the war must bring about--is the
emancipation of labour; to use his own phrase, the redemption of
masses of men and women from "economic serfdom." "The old party
slogans," he declares, "will mean nothing to the future."
Judging from this announcement, the President seems prepared to
condemn boldly all the rotten timbers of the social structure that have
outlived their usefulness--a position that hitherto no responsible
politician has dared to take. Politicians, on the contrary, have revered
the dead wood, have sought to shore the old timbers for their own
purposes. But so far as any party is concerned, Mr. Wilson stands alone.
Both of the two great parties, the Republican and the