The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-19

way of attempted revolution, there Is a | form of disobedience to constituted au- ! thority which Is becoming unfortunately | too prevalent and which is freighted with danger. I refer to those disturb
 auces which attend what are commonly known as strikes.
 | As have heretofore pointed out, obe- dience h the trueSt sense of the term Is
 an active virtue. It calls not alone for personal conduct. but also for active eff fort to make obedience the universal rule. Industrial combination is fact
 of to-day; large manufacturing and l transportation enterprises on the one
 hand, with great bodies of employees on
 the other. Combination and organiza- | tion exist on both sides. Our constltu- tional guarantee of equality gives to either party the right to terminate the
 relation of employer and employe. It l is true that if such termination involves | a breach of contract an action for dam | ages will lie, which may be something of value against the employer and not
 much against the employe But the | termination of that relation, whether
 involving breach of contract or not car
 ries with it no right of coercion. No
 matter what inconvenience to the em- | blower. or disturbance of his interests,
 the summary stopping of work by the employees, singly or in mass, may pro
 duce, the law does not attempt to com | pei them to work. An equality or right | is possessed by the employer. He may terminate the relation of employer and
 employe and the law will not compel
 him to reinstate it. If there be breach of contract he may suffer in an action
 of damages, but the law does not forci-
 bly, re-establish the relation, As the employees may act in body, 80 the en- ployers may treat them as a body. l
 am dealing now with the legal rights of l the two parties. l take no notice or conditions which may exist if compulso- ry arbitration ever becomes feature of our law. There may then possibly be coercion. Neither do l stop to take
 notice of that pressure which comes | from public sentiment and which often 1 and justly influences one or both par ties to seek to re-establish the relation;
 nor even of those ethical principles which ought to influence us all, and which doubtless in the days to come
 may be more and more incorporated into positive law. I am dealing, as said, simply with legal relations, and
 the obligations of obedience to the laws
 which go hand in hand with those rela- tions.
 | While many of these strikes are set
 tied peacefully, yet it is sad fact in
 respect to many that they are attended
 by violence, collision, destruction of
 property, and sometimes of life. It
 may be true that in many instances
 this violence and destruction are not the work of the strikers themselves, but of
 mere sympa thizers, or even of the mob of the idle and vicious who are sure to congregate where there is prospect of
 trouble. But he who calls mob into
 being cannot be pronounced wholly
 guiltless of that which the mob may do It Is not my purpose to inquire which
 in any given case is primarily the most responsible, the employer or the en-
 ploye. What I wish to emphasize is that those collisions involve matter of disobedience. It is one thing to ex- ercise a right which the law gives, ana in the exercise of that right one is en- titled to the fullest protection; but 1t is an entirely different thing for one par ty to endeavor to prevent another from exercising an equal right under the law It makes little difference whether the attempted coercion is by force or intim- idation. In either case it is an effort not to change, but to break the law In either it is matter of disobedlence in the truest sense of the term. It may be wise that all who are engaged in pur- suing the same avocation should be or ganized into one body, but whether they
 should be so organized or not depends
 as the law now stands, solely on volun- tary action, and to attempt to deny a laborer his right to work whether he be within or without an organization, or to
 deprive him of full protection in that
 work implies a plain disregard of the
 mandates of the law. If it be- as 8
 matter of political economy, wise that there should be consolidation of all employees into one or more organizations and that no one should be permitted to work except he be member of such organizations, let the lawmakers so en- act and whenever a constitutional en- actment to that effect is passed, then every good citizen should strive to en- force it. But until such enactment there is no justifsble excuse for at- tempting by any form of coercion to deprive one of his liberty in respect to labor-a liberty included within what our fathers declared to be inalienabe rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
 Another matter which illustrates both inc spirit and result of disobedience, and which is a blot on our national life, Is the frequency of lynch law. It used to be said that was an experience Of the
 frontier, in communities which had not become fully organized and where the forces of the law were not yet in suc-
 cessful operation. But now it may al-
 most be said to have become habit of
 the American people. Scarcely day
 passes that the people of some commit nity have not, as it is said, taken the law into their own hands. The time was when these acts were so rare, and
 coming only under conditions of terri
 ble excitement and atrocious crime, that thev startled us. They were called thunder storms, and 1t was said in their Justification that like thunder
 storms they cleared the air. But now they are so common that we pay little
 attention to them, and look upon them
 as almost a matter of course. It is a convenient, inexpensive and expeditions way of putting some worthless scoun- drel out of the world and the fact that