The Seattle Star Newspaper, October 29, 1919, Page 11

THE SEATTLE STAR—WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1919 REMOVE THE BARRIER! Shall Seattle grow to be a prosperous city of a million people in the next ten years, or shall she lose population and business, as San Francisco has in past decades? ' That is the question which the Associated Industries places before the business men and the public of Seattle to answer. On the course followed—on the action taken by the people of Seattle during the next few months—depends the future growth and prosperity of this city, depends whether Seattle’s industries and commerce shall expand, Seattle’s population grow by leaps and bounds, Seattle’s prosperity continue to increase, or whether Seattle’s industries and commerce shall be strangled and her prosperity and population decline. Seattle’s industries, Seattle’s commerce and Seattle’s prosperity and progress are threatened by the unreason- able attitude of organized labor under radical leadership; by ruinous restrictions on the individual output of labor; by failure of many workers, singly and in groups, to pro- duce as they should. There are evidences in many quarters of deliberate ef- forts to make business unprofitable to employers, by run- - ning production costs up to prohibitive figures, in a plan to force employers to relinquish their business to their employes or to municipal or national control. As admitted by the Union Record, recent strikes pre- cipitated in this city were not so much for the purpose of securing higher wages as of securing control of the in- dustries by the employes. We see confirmation of this in the unreasonable demands and refusals to arbitrate in the building trades’ strike, the job printers’ strike, the tail- ors’ strike and other strikes recently called here. Seattle today is coming to a standstill before a barrier to her industrial and commercial progress; the barrier of excessive production costs and of diminishing production under those high costs; a barrier which has forced Seat- tle industries to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars of new business and which has prevented many new indus- tries from locating here. If Seattle surmounts that barrier, and produces what 4 she should and can produce, our industries, our com- merce, our business of all kinds will grow mightily and we will become the prosperous city of a million or more to which we aspire. This.country—the world—demands our products, and the growth of our industries, commerce and business will be limited only by our ability to produce. If Seattle does net-surmount the-barrier, if its employ- ers and its people allow its industries and its commerce to be throttled by the radicals who control organized labor and who are seeking to gain control of industry, then Seat- tle will lose its prosperity, its industries and its commerce will languish and it will lose population and business as did San Francisco under similar radical domination. Our future as a city is at stake. If we are to grasp the opportunity offered us to become a city, great in indus- try, commerce and population, we must reduce production cost to a point which will allow us to compete with other cities and other countries, not by reducing wages, but by increasing production and efficiency of both employers and employes and by removing the barriers which now prevent -reduction in production costs. The Associated Industries is determined-that this bar- rier to Seattle’s prosperity and progress shall be removed and that she shall be allowed to proceed in an orderly American way to her destiny as one of the greatest cities of the world. To succeed we must have the loyal support of the people of Seattle, of all who are willing to put forth their best efforts to make this city a good place for all to live in, a rich heritage to bequeath to our children, and above all a city renowned for its sturdy Americanism and for its love of liberty and equal opportunities for all. - ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES OF SEATTLE