The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-09-13
THE STRIKE AND FORCE.

THE STRIKE AND FORCE.
The Standard, late the single-tax or
gan, declares that the s.rike cannot be at
tonce successful and peaceable. Which is
TO say, then, that this is not an age of
+, reason, but of force. That kind of chatter
Is of the order of expression that is doing
! labor great harm. The Standard insists
that in contest of endurance organized
can wait for profit, while labor aI,es.
What is the hog - such an arg mont
Simply that force ought to be the agen ;,
TO correct the ills claimed to exist. Carry
that out in all fullness, and we have an
apology for1coercion by labor, which, if
attempted by capital, would meet with
excited protests and manual resistance
from labor organization. Yet if there is
any justification whatever for the one
thing, there is precisely the same for the
other.
The orator on Labor Day in Sacramento,
Professor Moses, gave the labor organiza-
tons far better advice than did Mr..
Georges single-tax paper, lately de-
ceased. Professor Moses said to the in
telligent and very large audience OF
wage-earners who assembled to hear him:
No one in sympathy with the great body of
workers, who has followed the history OF an
tagonisms, that have resulted in class wars,
can hut feel grave anxiety in view of the grow
ing disposition TO let physical force play q
part in this conflict between laborers and their
employers. They are Solicitous not because
they see any other means than conflict for
settling these questions, nor because they al
low the consideration of the few lives that
may be lost to overbalance great good but
because they are convinced that by the use OF
force the desired end cannot be reached.
He emphasized his remarks by point
ing out historic incidents and events
proving that ''the great achievements in
behalf of the working class. in behalf OF
the great body of the people. have been
won in the past through bloodless con-
flict."
Organized labor does notinvite the hos
tility of society by peaceable methods,
while it is inevitable if force is employed
IL hldbObOA oOCICty D6COulSS
hostile by reason of assault upon it, there
must come failure, unless society is reor-
ganized and upon a basis in harmony
with that which antagonizes it. So that
the argument of the Standard leads in
evitably to revolution, which in land
where the ballot-box furnishes bullets is
absurd.
All alleged wrongs of labor that are
genuine are susceptible of correction
without resort to force to maintain the
strike. If this is not true, then self-gov-
eminent is failure. But it is not wholly
true that while capital waits labor starves.
It frequently is exact to say that both
starve. Of all investment labor receives
over 80 per cent, while of all labor cap
ital receives less than seven per cent.
profit. If in this there is such inequality
as to justify the strike, the latter cannot
invoke violence and hope to win real sue
cess except upon the outrageous theory
and claim that labor gains vested right
in the investment of capital which en-
ploys it. If that be true, then where cap
ital makes no profit, labor should con-
tribute of its earnings to repair the losses
of the employer.
So we come around again to the unde-
niable TRUTH that if labor may by force
prevent enterprise from acting, close its
works and by threat Or arms prevent its
movement by others, so too, when labor
ceases capital may be justified in en-
ploying force and arms to compel labor to
return to the forge and lathe. 1t is rule
that must work both ways if it will work
one way.
But the strike, which is human and
a legal right, does not need physical force
and lawlessness. The law protects the
striker in his right; if he breaks it down
he acts in direction that will justify en-
forced labor, or slavery. Where the gov
eminent is by the people and for them,
and there is not monarch but the ballot
box as arbiter, the employment of force
never can make strike successful, nor
can it be invoked without putting at haz-
ard the rights of labor. If one body OF
men may justify menace and arms to
prevent another body of men from work
ing, when the latter outnumber the for
mer they may by the same right use the
same means to enforce their right to La
Dor.
1t is civilization, law and orderly pre-
cedure that is to maintain all rights and
right all wrongs in popular government,
not savagery, the power of might or the
fickleness of the strong side. which may
be this to-day and that tomorrow.
THUS far the campaign is clean one.
Let us hope it will so remain. The only
bad temper manifested is to be charged
to Mr.. Cleyeland's account. The state
ments relative to his attitude toward the
Des Moines River land settlers have an
noyed him, and he writes letter de-
nouncing his opponents as 'baseless
iars;n possibly he meant "base liars,