The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-25
A WEAK LEADER.

Mr.. Schaffer, president of the Anal
gamated Association, is not showing
! himself to be a strong man. He talks
too much. The inference from what
he says is that he has no confidence
in his ability to win the fight which
he has begun against the United States
Steel Corporation.
A day or two ago he was so unwise
as to intimate that the Republican
party would lose the labor vote unless
the President brought pressure to bear
against j. Pierpont Morgan to force
him to grant the demands Of the Anal
gamated Association. This effort to
give the strike of the steel workers a
political phase will have no effect
whatever, and will tend to lessen
whatever sympathy the public has for
the strikers. 1t will not affect Mr..
Morgan and the United States Steel
Corporation in the least. If there were
a political campaign in progress the
threat to throw the labor vote against
the Republican party might influence
the Republican leaders to try to bring
about a settlement of the strike. A
similar threat induced Senator Hanna
to assist in settling the great coal
strike during the last national cam
paign
Now, however, there is no political
campaign, and it is probable that the
great majority of the Republican lead
ers would prefer to see the United
Cto4oe C+naI rorporatiop win If Is a
safe statement that many of them are
interested in the corporation Besides,
the strike of the coal miners in the
last presidential campaign was for an
increase of wages. That was some
thing which the public could under
stand and sympathize with Compare
lively few people take the trouble to
inquire into the merits of the demand
of the Amalgamated Association. 1t Is
known of course that the demand is
for the opportunity to unionize all Of
the mills of the corporation, but the
public generally doesn't care whether
the mills are unionized or not, so long
as the workers in the non-union mills
have no complaint to make of the
wages they receive or their hours of
labor.
And most of those who inquire about
the matter are likely to want to know
what the President has to do with the
strike anyway. If he were to attempt
to interfere in it he would be told, in
all probability, that he was meddling
with something with which he had
no concern. No attention would be
paid to him. President Schaffer has
only weakened his cause by trying to
bulldoze the President into coming to
his assistance.
The only thing the President is like
ly to do in connection with the strike
is to assist in preserving order, in the
event that there should be violence
that could not be controlled by the To-
cal and state authorities. And there
is a prospect of trouble. 1t was stated
in our dispatches yesterday that appli-
cation had been made for an injunc-
ton prohibiting strikers from Interior
ing with non-union men secured py
the corporation to operate some or It's
mills. There is certain to be violence
as soon as an attempt is made to run
any of the mills now closed down, and
1t may get beyond the control of state
authorities. There is no doubt that
the President would respond to a call
for troops to uphold the courts if state
troops were unable to uphold them.
President Schaffer may be very
good sort of a man in his way but
there are no indications yet that ne
has the ability to successfully lead
labor in a great struggle with capital
and there is no doubt that the strug-
gle between the United States steel
C,ornoration and the Amalgamated AS
ISOLATION is a great one.