The Need for an United Nation (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from The Need for an United Nation

Under the pressure of necessity, the British people have become enormously more productive. Industry has been lifted out of the ruts of custom and rule, initiative has had free play, machinery has given new powers to the workers and organization has been modernized with results that have been a revelation. The war wages cannot be paid upon commercial work after the war if production falls back to the old methods, but they can be paid if production is main tained by the new methods. There is anxiety about the future, but the best Observers do not believe the British workman, now that the demonstration has been made, will go back to the 'old limitations and the old pay. They believe wages will be bigger and costs lower than before the war, and that the difference in the cost of production may offset the interest on the war debt. The cost of living is high there now, owing in part to the high freights on all importations, but after the war is over these costs will decline rapidly and if wages can be kept at the present level the condi tion of the wage-earning class will be better than before.

Will industry in the United States make the same progress? There is warning in'the fact that adversity is usually a better teacher than prosperity. The latter comes by fortuitous circumstances and we enjoy it, relax, and take our ease, while adversity puts men upon their mettle and calls up all their resources. In some respects we shall be stronger after the war. Weshall be richer, our productive equipment will be better than ever before, but these will not avail without a spirit of unity and good understanding in our indus trial organization. The account we give of ourselves will depend at last upon the men behind the machines. We have an opportunity such as no country ever had to lay the sure foundations of a great future, but we must not lose our heads. We must be an har monious and efficient people. We must work for our common interests, employer and wage - earner striving together, and the Government backing them up as, it properly can. We must not be so intent upon dividing the proceeds of present prosperity that we fail to safe guard its permanence.

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