Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-08-04
srRkEs-ouaar THEY 10 BE pRoHrsrrEpa 2

sTRIKEs-oUGHr TREY TO BE PROHIBITED
 The recent strike has demonstrated the fact that number of leaders of both parties m Congress are strongly in favor of the passage of law prohibit ing strikes of workmen in certain en- ployments. This expression, the New York Herald states, "is startling because the demand comes not frI n ignorant and uninhuential writers, but from journals which have Q large influence with their party, because they represent fairly the leading thoughts and policies of its leading men
 The New York evening Post holds that 'the question whether any body of men ought to be allowed for any purpose to inhict this loss and inconvenience on the public is one of winch the growing com plexity of modern society will soon com pei peremptory settlement" It adds: "lt the interruption of business is con- sequently something to which no coun- try will long allow itself to remain ex- posed. It cannot allow strikes by employees in these great public services any more than 1t can allow the corpora tions themselves tG refuse to carry on their business as a means of extracting what they think fair rates of transporta- tion. No Legislature would permit this, and one or two more experiences like the railroad strike will cause every Legislature to take measures against the other. Photographers, railroad men, postofiice clerks and policemen fill places in modern socIety very like that of soldiers" Finally, it adds that fl workmen do not like such restrictions as it suggests they can "keep out of a calling in which strikes are not allowa- ble." The Chicago Tribune, another in- fiuential journal, speaks more cautions ly to the same efFect:-''If 1t Is a fair proposition that the railroads ss com mon carriers must carry for the public, it is fair proposition that the men who run the railroads must do without in terruption the work they undertake to perform. If 1t is fair proposition tha' the telegraph companies must, at what ever inconvenience to themselves, re ceive and deliver the communication of the public, It Is not less to be insisted upon that the employees, by whom alone this service to the public can be done, shall stay at their posts The Mall and Express asserts that If the strike should go through to triumphant conclusion i'll the spirit in which It was declared, the beginning of a new era of tyranny over honest and ambitious labor and ol terrorism over capital will have been ushered ID, and the end thereof will moi be blessed for either labor or capital" The New York Sun, and the World hold similar views.
 It is quite evident there is a strong feeling against strikes In all branches oi business and if the associations exceed the bounds of reason and make de mands which can not be compiled with and which are alike unjust to their em ployes and to the public, law may be passed prohibiting strikes in certain em- ployments. There Is neither logIc or justice in employees undertaking to die tate who their employer shall employ or what constitutes a days work. Such interference may continue for short periods, but when there are antagonistIc forces at work in any business 1t cannot long survive.
 The price of labor. like everything else, IS governed by the demand for 1t, and for this reason we doubt the ex- pediency of passing law for the regu- lation of strikes. We are of the opinion that strikes are not only damaging to the employer, but to the employed. Yet We believe the question in time will reg ulate itsel When there are thousand' of idle men they can be hired for low wages. When there are no idle men in the country high wages must be paid. This has been the case from the begin nIng and will continue to the end and no amount of Legislation or organization will change the fixed law of supply and demand.