While we are fighting for freedom we must see, among other things,
that labor is free, and that means a number of interesting things. It
means not only that we must do what we have declared our purpose to
do--see that the conditions of labor are not rendered more onerous by
the war--but also that we shall see to it that the instrumentalities
by which the conditions of labor are improved are not blocked or
checked. That we must do. That has been the matter about which I have
taken pleasure in conferring, from time to time, with your president,
Mr. Gompers; and if I may be permitted to do so, I want to express my
admiration of his patriotic courage, his large vision, his
statesman-like sense and a mind that knows how to pull in harness.
The horses that kick over the traces will have to be put in a corral.
Now, to "stand together" means that nobody must interrupt the
processes of our energy if the interruption can possibly be avoided
without the absolute invasion of freedom. To put it concretely, that
means this: Nobody has a right to stop the processes of labor until
all the methods of conciliation and settlement have been exhausted,
and I might as well say right here that I am not talking to you
alone. You sometimes stop the courses of labor, but there are others
who do the same. I am speaking of my own experience when I say that
you are reasonable in a larger number of cases than the capitalists.
I am not saying these things to them personally yet, because I
haven't had a chance. But they have to be said, not in any spirit of
criticism.
But, in order to clear the atmosphere and come down to business,
everybody on both sides has got to transact business, and the
settlement is never impossible when both sides want to do the square
and right thing. Moreover, a settlement is always hard to avoid when
the parties can be brought face to face. I can differ with a man much
more radically when he isn't in the room than I can when he is in the
room, because then the awkward thing is that he can come back at me
and answer what I say. It is always dangerous for a man to have the
floor entirely to himself. And, therefore, we must insist in every
instance that the parties come into each other's presence and there
discuss the issues between them, and not separately in places which
have no communication with each other.
I like to remind myself of a delightful saying of an Englishman of a
past generation, Charles Lamb. He was with a group of friends and he
spoke harshly of some man who was not present. I ought to say that
Lamb stuttered a little bit. And one of his friends said, "Why,
Charles, I didn't know that you knew So-and-so?" "Oh," he said, "I
don't. I can't hate a man I know."
There is a great deal of human nature, of very pleasant human nature,
in that saying. It is hard to hate a man you know. I may admit,
parenthetically, that there are some politicians whose methods I do
not at all believe in, but they are jolly good fellows, and if they
would not talk the wrong kind of politics with me I would love to be
with them. And so it is all along the line, in serious matters and
things less serious. We are all of the same clay and spirit, and we
can get together if we desire to get together.