The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-10
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND
THIS EMINENT PRELATE TALKS on
THE STRIKE SITUATION.
WAS NOT ASKED TO MEDIATE.
AND DID NOT IMAGINE 1T WAS
PROPER TO OFFER HIMSELF.

Ii is, He Says, the Legal Right OF
Strikers to Work or Not, but Not
TO Interfere With Others .sThe
Personal Freedom of the Individ-
uni Citizen is the Most Sacred and
--PFeeious Inheritance of Amer.
icans"-He Hopes That Peace VIII
Soon Again Reign.
New York, Aug. 9.-This afternoon
Archbishop Ireland passed through
New York, returning home from the
Catholic Total Abstinence Convention
at Hartford. To the representative of
the Associated Press he said the re-
port in some New York papers to the
effect that he had been invited to make
efforts tending towards the settlement
of the strike,or that he had himself the
intention of putting himself forward
in this connection, was utterly un-
warranted and without foundation. No
one had suggested to him that he
might do any work in that direction
and he had never for a moment imag-
ined that ii was proper to offer him
self as capable to do anything Being
further urged to express an opinion
upon the present strike and strikes
in general, he said:
I'm common with all citizens, l can
not but deeply deplore occurrences of
this nature. A strike is always a thing
most regrettable and only under most
extraordinary circumstances may it be
countenanced. A strike not only infiicts
most serious injury upon parties inn
mediately concerned in it, whether
employers or employees; it disturbs the
business of the country, interrupts
public prosperity, opens the way to
bitterness of feeling between classes
and endangers social peace.
"Of course. to employees entering
willingly on a strike, the matter is one
that is their personal concern and 9TH
ers have but to concede to them their
legal right to act in such matters
as they will. Men are the masters of
their hands and of their labor; the
liberty is theirs to work or not to
work, providing they understand the
consequences that follow: and are
satisfied to accept and endure such
| consequences. Not only indeed is this
| liberty at all times theirs, but we must
| furthermore grant that occasions NAV
| arise and do arise when a strike how
ever serious the consequences for the
workmen, is a means, at times, perhaps
the sole means through which rights
appertaining to them and which are of
vital Importance to their ultimate well
fare, can be secured. When il is that
under this aspect of things strikes may
be allowed, or even commended, is a
question to be determined by close ex-
animation of the circumstances of each
particular strike. / am laying down
general principles of ethics-not de-
Gliding the merits of any particular
case. But while the right to enter
upon a strike is and must be conceded
as a right belonging TO the personal
freedom of workingmen, this much
must ever be demanded-and in the
name of the same principle of personal
freedom under which men act who re-
fuse to work-that they who cease to
work must in no way interfere with the
liberty of others who may wish to
work. The personal freedom of the in
dividual citizen is the most sa-
cred and precious inheritance
of Americans. The constitution
and the laws authorize IT,
the spirit of the country proclaims it,
the prosperity of the people, the very
life of the nation, requires it. What
ever the other interests at stake, that
of the personal freedom of the individ-
ual outranks them all, and thisA must
be sustained even if others are to be
sacrificed. So long as this freedom is
respected the questions evoked in the
present strike may be left, in my opin-
ion to the men, employers or employees,
who are directly concerned in it, al
though meanwhile all citizens have
many reasons to hope and to pray that
brotherly love and calm counsel will
prevail both among employers and en-
ployes, and that peace will soon again
reign in the land"