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Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

"President Wilson's Addresses"

You sometimes stop
the courses of labor, but there are others who do the same, and I
believe I am speaking from my own experience not only, but from the
experience of others 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 have not 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 now
got to transact business, and a settlement is never impossible when both
sides want to do the square and right thing.

SETTLEMENT HARD TO AVOID
Moreover, a settlement is always hard to avoid when the parties can be
brought face to face. I can differ from a man much more radically when
he is not in the room than I can when he is in the room, because then
the awkward thing is 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.
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.


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