Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/474

 454 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

side. They honestly believe, whether they are right or wrong, that their position is exactly the same which a nation, in time of war, takes toward a traitor who has deserted his country's camp for that of the enemy. It is possible that the deserter from the army has become convinced that his country's cause is not a just one ; or that his personal interests are best served on the other side, or that he earns food for his wife and children, but his course is never justified on these grounds. The country which has nourished and sustained him has a claim upon his services in this time of war. When he is punished, society justifies it, even when we may not agree with the principles for which his country is at that moment fighting.

These, of course, are the ethics of warfare, and only on this ground can be defended ; but do we realize that the workman considers the entire industrial struggle one of war, and that all the animosity on the part of the community but intensifies this position, and prolongs these ethics ? We regard the treatment accorded to the deserter with much less horror than the same treatment when it is accorded to the "scab," largely because in one instance we as citizens are participants, and in the other we allow ourselves to stand aside.

2. We hear contemptuous references to the walking delegate and agitator, without stopping to ask ourselves why the work- ingman is not entitled to his advocate, paid to represent his legal and industrial rights, quite as much as the manager of the corpora- tion is entitled to his lawyer. We ignorantly allow ourselves to believe that a walking delegate may declare a strike at his own pleasure, without taking the pains to discover that the organiza- tion of a trades union is so democratic that no one man, even in exceptional crises, can set aside the constitution of his union. Indeed, the walking delegate is almost the only professional man whose fees are set by those employing him. He is paid the standard wage received in his trade, and no more, and holds office subject to the vote of his union, which may fail to reelect him at any annual meeting. In case of his failure of reelection, his chances for obtaining work at his trade are much lessened by the fact that he has held this office. At any moment in his