The leaders in such movements as the I.W.W. include a large proportion of men whose activities are criminal, and who, as regards civilization and all that makes life worth living for decent, hard-working men and women, stand merely as human beasts of prey. But very many of these fellows are not bad men at all, but merely unfortunates who turn to an evil organization because no good organization offers them relief or concerns itself with their welfare. I am not speaking of theory; I am speaking of fact. I know of cases in connection with the forest service where government officials, by acting on behalf of maltreated crews of lumber companies and by seeing that they got justice and fair treatment, turned them into zealous, right-feeling, public-spirited citizens, who, for instance, worked hard and disinterestedly in putting out forest fires.
It is idle to say that no governmental action is needed on behalf of farmers and wage-workers. Unquestionably such action will merely do harm unless at the same time the interests and permanent welfare of the business men of the country, great and small, are considered. But the action itself is necessary. It should be based on the theory that so far as possible the work of betterment, alike as regards farmers, working-men, and business men, take the form of coöperation among themselves, with the maximum amount of individual and collective private effort, and the minimum necessary amount of governmental control and encouragement. It is not possible to state empirically in advance just how far this governmental control and encouragement shall go. This must be determined by actual experience in settling what is necessary in each individual set of cases. The best result will always come where the organization of private citizens is not limited to any one class, but include farmers, working-men, business men; just as is true of one such great organization in the State of Iowa; just as is true of a smaller but successful organization in and around the city of Springfield, Massachusetts; just as is preëminently true of many of the state councils of defense. There must be sincere purpose to push forward and remedy wrong; but there must likewise be firm refusal to submit to the leadership of either the criminal fringe or the lunatic fringe. Class hatred is a mighty poor substitute for American brotherhood. If we are wise we will proceed by evolution and not revolution. But Bourbon refusal to move forward at all merely invites revolution.
GENERAL WOOD
June 15, 1918
Senator Hiram Johnson has rendered many notable services to the public, and among them is his recent speech concerning the cruel injustice with which Major-General Leonard Wood has been treated and the very grave damage thereby done the army and the Allied cause at this critical moment of the war.
General Wood’s entire offense consists in his having, before the war, continually advocated our doing things which now every one in his senses admits ought to have been done. Nine tenths of wisdom consists of being wise in time. General Wood was wise in time. Moreover, by twenty years of hard, practical work, he fitted himself to do peculiarly well in this very crisis. He was our senior general in rank, he was recognized by the best French and English military authorities as by experience trained to play an immediate and important part in the difficult and perilous joint work of the war. He had testified at length and with exhaustive professional knowledge before the congressional military committees, one year and two years prior to our entry into the war, pointing out all the military lacks, which experience has since shown to exist and which the War Department then denied existed. He is to be credited with the only piece of serious military preparedness in advance which is to our credit. In the service of 1915, in the teeth of indifference and hostility from his superiors, he created the Plattsburg officers’ reserve training camp, starting the system of training camps which has enabled us to officer our draft army.
He is in splendid physical condition. Recently when in France he was severely wounded by a shell burst, and the surgeons reported his recovery as being more rapid than would have been the case with the average young man of robust bodily health and vigor. He has done excellent work in training his men at Camp Funston. He has been unwearied in looking after the health and welfare of his men. He has been rewarded by their loyal devotion; they have been profoundly grieved and moved by having him suddenly taken from them. The refusal to use his great ability and energy means a distinct subtraction from the sum total of our military efficiency, a distinct addition to the risk from disease and discomfort which some of our men at the front will have to incur, and a distinct benefit to the cause of Germany.
No explanation has been given the American people for the action concerning him. Nothing has been made public which warrants our belief that this action was due either to professional or to patriotic considerations.
HELP RUSSIA NOW
June 20, 1918