The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-06-06
WHY NOT ARBITRATE.

WHY NOT AkBtIhAIEs
The present coal strike is but another
lesson to the American people of the
necessity of providing courts of arbitra-
ton for labor troubles. and yet it Is liable
to be forgotten, without profit. as similar
disturbances in the past have been. As
a nation we are slow to act for our own
become uncomfortable. and then we Won
der why we did not correct them sooner.
In no matter have we been guilty of
greater folly than this of providing no
legal means of deciding labor questions.
We have provided courts for the settle
ment of almost every imaginable ques-
ton that can come up between individ-
uals. but for these vast troubles that
affect hundreds of thousands of people
we recognize no remedy but to fight it
out. and with naive simplicity we insist
It be q starving match. And this course
is the more imbecile because in these
disturbances the public almost invariably
suffers more than either the strikers or
the employers. \ few days ago the
Pittsburg Post said:
1t is the strategy of the strike to
command a general shutdown, and II
places a part Of the miners in the posi-
ton of refusing to work for the wages
they demand because some one else. in
this state or in other states refuses to
pay such wages. As an incident Of this
there Is a great scarcity of fuel, the rail-
road service IS embarrassed, manufacto-
ries compelled to stop, and consumers Of
coal are required to pay eXorbitant prices
fer the necessities Of their households.
We hear Of poor labOring people in Pitts
burg paying 20 cents a bushel for the
coal required for their home use. The
embargo is not right. 1t is on the princi-
pie that all the operators may be
coerced by making the general public,
rich and poor, sufferers by the coal
famine. As a matter Of fact It is only
the poor who suffer.
The Post Is a good friend Of the coal
miners. SO is The Sentinel. We believe
the men are absolutely right in their
wage demand. We believe that the
operators have imposed on them for
years. Under a tariff on coal for the
protection Of American labor" that is
greater than the total cost OF mining
coal, the miners have been kept at starv-
alton wages. robbed in pluck-me stores,
put in competition with the cheapest
foreign labor that could be imported, and
in every possible way been reduced as
nearly as possible to a condition of
slavery. And yet anv man, coal miner
or whoever it may be. must certainly
realize that the people display very little
sense in not providing some better means
of settling these questions between CAPT
tai and labor than the strike and the
lockout. What interest has the public
in these matters that 1t should submit to
bear the evils of these disturbances
rather than provide some lawful means
for their speedy adjustment?
Why does not the public act? Simply
because operators and employers object
to it. We are so saturated with the idea
OF the sanctity of property rights that we
accept their absurd proposition that be-
cause they own property they have the
absolute right to control the conditions
of labor on that property and to fix the
wages at which their employees shall
work We commonly regard the rights
of property not only more sacred than
the rights of labor, but even higher than
the rights of life and safety and welfare
OF the public. As a matter of fact, the
right of labor to control the conditions
Of labor is incontroverdble, and, more
than that. the best and most satisfactory
labor in the country is that which does
control its own conditions. This is con-
ceded by nearly every newspaper in the
country in practice though some Of them
contend for rights to coal operators
which the newspapers do not claim from
their own employees. When the rights OF
property and the rights of labor come
in conflict. the public. in self-defense. has
the clear right TO adjust the difficulty.
and If 1t fails to do so it has no one to
blame but itself.