Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-08-09
ARBITRATION Law NEEDED.

Since the disasters of the recent
great strike of railroad men have be-
gun to be realized by the people gener-
ally the question is discussed: What
shall be done to prevent recurrence
of such strike? Shall we. the people
of great nation, the most enlightened,
progressive and liberal people in the
world, continually rest under the dan
ger of having the great public high
ways blocked and tied up at any time
by a clash between employers and en-
ployed.
The proposition for law to create a
| board of arbitration to which ali differ
ences of the two elements of employer
and employed may be submitted, with
penalty for obstructing public traffic
by either the roads or the men employ
ed to run them, seems to be the logical
solution of the problem.
Yet there are men who hoot at the
| idea of arbitration in such matters.
For instance, we find the following
untenable objection raised by the edi-
tor of the Tribune of this city. He
says
When a man with capital chooses to
engage in business, he must in the end
decide as to the amount of money
| he will invest and
the kind and amount of labor he
wants. 1t is nobody's business how
| long he runs his business or what his
To- ,nfc cfo in,
decide this question, either for en-
ploy er or employe. We have law as
old as the world on interest and usury,
but has it ever been adhered to?
If the position taken in the aboYe is
correct, then indeed the public has no
rights that organized capital or organ
lied labor either one need respect. If
it is no body's business what the profits
of railroad are and if the law cannot
step in between the carrier and the
customer and prevent extortion what is
the use of an Interstate commerce law,
railroad commissioners, or anything
else ks4at is supposed to have power to
step in and adjust differences.
| AS to the law on "interest and
usury," it is certainly not enforced.
there had not been studied evasion and
collusion with evasion on the part OF
those whom the republican party has
placed in position to administer the
ever heard of the present rates OF
usurious interest being levied and col.
lected during the early history of OuI
country? What other state ever fos-
tered and upheld the pernicious 2 pei
cent. man like Kansas has done through
the long years she has been under
republican ruler Look at the way this
fellow is coddled and petted by Kan
sas people. He is generally a leading
pillar of the church, a sanctimoniou:
leech who goes through the form Of
praying all day Sundasy, and keep:
preying all the rest of the week on ths
unfortunate condition of the poor
Once and while they nominate hin
! for public office-for governor, con-
, gresham, or some position where hi
can use his influence to still further
: Cypress those who are down by making
the laws more easy of evasion and more
on the jug handle style.
What people have been bled through
i extortionate and unfair railroad rate
5 like the people of Kansas have beel
through all the years of republican
misrule? And still these same oil,
t republican mossbacks are weakly, an,
: weekly. protesting that the law has NJ
: right to step in between the wealth,
corporations and the common herd.
: There MUST be laws enacted to pre-
vent a recurrence of the Debs fasco
and if the present democratic congress
does not see the Importance of thei
5 need and act in the matter it will b
j derelict of duty. A labor organization
or capital organization have neithe
: one right to combine to the injur
and loss of the people they do busines
t with and for.
|