The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-25
Some Opinions on
The Present Strike
From the Brooklyn Eagle.

II HAT MAN cannot throw up place and
hold on to It, at the same time. ought TO
u be plain. But It Is not plain to hundreds
Of thousands Of men. That a place one
man leaves another is free to take ought TO be
plain But il is not plain TO hundreds Of thou.
sands of men, The failure TO realize two truths
plain as these makes all the trouble Of any
strike II makes nearly every large strike
cause or occasion Of violence, involving riots
killings, woundngs, destruction Of property aud
other like results. 1t makes a strike a war be.
tween capital and labor, as they are called,
though labor is capital and though the care, use
or employment Of capital involves lahQr in no
small degree.
Either these two truths will have to he re-
spectcd or abandoned II they are respected,
strikes may continue to be possible, but they
will cease to be violent Wherever they have
been abandoned, the result has been due to the
recourse to violence, generally marked by the
features set forth. The contrary to these truths
Is that a man has property in a place and
that when he ceases TO use that property by
leaving that place, his property does not end,
but remains in him. The contention further
gees TO a claim that any one who assumes that
place does SO, as robber, at the peril of his
life. and can rightly he injured or killed. This
contention is maintained only as to places OF
organizations, or unions as they are called.
There ia no clerk who claims property in place,
but there is hardly car conductor, a miner a
train man or any of the mechanics formed into
unions who fail to claim it, Tho matter can.
not he looked at as a merely academic one Il
is fact. As fact it has a vital relation
10 the industrial wars, known as strikes, which
prevail and Of which, out in the coal regions,
is occurring now, a very large scale.
The forces there are divided into men who
have struck voluntarily. into those whom the
first class have forced into striking, into those
who do not want to strike at all but are being
forced to do So and into outsiders who are ap.
plying for the places which the strikers have
left, hut which they still claim belong to them.
Some Of those who have voluntarily struck, hav.
ing abandoned mining, have not, however, become
idle. They have set to work forcing others to
strike who do not want to do and violently
interfering with those who are asking for the
labor which they have thrown mp. The char
acteristic Of the situation is violence. The
cause Of the violence is the claim that places
belong to men, ii they are union labor men, to
have and to hold whether they use them or not,
and to men who have a right to destroy any
others who seek those places. Men have got
to he educated out Of that idea, or the com
munty has got to he educated into IT, The
other cause Of civil war can be- for these strikes
really are civil wars on a small scale.
II men are TO he educated ont of that idea.
it is high time effort was made to do SO. II
the community is to he educated into il, Il Is
high time that effort was made in that direction
The subject cannot be dismissed The mere
fact that it is forced on view in the heat of a
presidential election, and that use is knavishly
made OF it by dcmagogucs and oIFcc.scckcrs, is
incidental. Nor is the fact that this strike oc.
ours in good times surprising. Good times
make strikes. Strikes form of insstcnce
BY wage-earners upon larger share Of pros
perity than employers have conceded to them.
To strike on a rising market in a prosperous
time is strategicaly wise from the military
standpoint Of that war which nearly every strike
brings on. Surprise at these facts is the result
Of not thinking. Thinking should create sur.
prise that any one is surprised by recourse to
strikes in times Of prosperity.
4 nation generally refuses to look at things
absolutely 1t prefers to consider them, as it
says, practically" This tendency accounts for
the prevailing demand for the settlement of this
and other strikes by "arbitration." One trouble
about arbitration is that not enough things are
submitted TO it. One of the things withheld is
whether a man can have a place and leave it,
too; whether, leaving it, he has a right to kill
any one who tries to get it. In short property
| in place is not put out to arbitration and thus
the gist, or the substance, or the bottom prin.
ciplc under every strike is avoided and will he
avoided, until that is put out to arbitration. The
drift of America toward compromise thus makes
arbitration difficult to start with, frequently a
| failure, only a short-livcd success when it Is
not a fiat failure, and conclusive Of nothing per,
| mancnt in any circumstances There will bc
| no property in place until our government shall
| be made a socialism. That will not be done for
several presidential elections, to say the least.
q
The coal strike is today at what is called it,
| 'crisis" That is TO say the peace forces OF
| the state, in the form of conStables, ShcriiTs
| their deputies and militia, are dealing with tho
| violence which has been started. OF course
| those forces Of peace will win. Whether the
| political motive at the bottom of this strike
will gain or lose votes for the side making use
| OF it cannot be determined. All that can bt
| determined from the past is that, because burn
| ing, mayhem and killing have been started
| therefore, this strike will fail. But the set
| tlement Of the matter lasting basis or the
| allotment of praise or blame to either side can
not be made now, simply for the reason that
| confronted with violence the American people
| stop thinking about anything else, until that
| is brought TO an end. And when it is brought
| to an end, they are often OF such a volatile
compassionate or changeable temperament that
they prefer to think OF other matters in ordei
to get rid Of the questions which strikes rudel,
| force on their attention.
| From the Rochester Post.Eyprcss
The public authorities must maintain order
and il the civil authorities are not sufficient IN,
aid Of the military authorities must be calle,
| in. No body OF men, no matter how inst ma,
| be their grievances, can be allowed TO interior,
with the right of other men to work. and ussai
| and kill them. That crime cannot be tolerated
/