Arizona republican., 1901-09-04

| OR STATUTE? riot, and of violence
 against the workers who refuse to strike, and that always means that the end of the strike Is at hand. for it means that the really supreme law of this land, public opin. ion will not tolerate riot, will net tol- crate assault and murder, and will not tolerate destruction of property by mobs. When that issue is raised all other questions are swept aside. and the American people insist that first there shall be law and order, protection of life, property and home. And the pathetic features of this as of nearly all other tiikes are, that the honest laborer on strike has no hearing for his original grievance; the cause and provocation of the strike are lost to sight in the determination to restore order and personal security in the com munity; and, worst of all, the strikers as body are made to suffer because of the lawlsss acts of men that they cannot control-more often than other wise men who have had no part In the strike except as hyenas hanging around the outskirts of the camp.
 The San Francisco strike, which for so many weeks has paralyzed business in san Francisco and injured trade throughout California and to degree in Arizona as we'll and the strikes of the machinists and of the steel work CTS in the cast. have demonstrated again that one of the most vexatious problems before this civilization is a proper adjustment of the differences between labor and capital. It is conceded that under our consti- tuition and laws compulsory ar bitration Is out of the aues- tion, and even supposlng that the con stitutonal barriers could be overcome the fact would remain that the exper- fence of New Zealand in compelling arbitration does not warrant us in be- coming enthusiastic in its favor. Rec ognizing that legal remedies are im- potent, unprejudiced students of the labor problem are inquiring whether public opinion is not more effective than any statute that can be enacted.
 It cannot be denied that the results of many strikes and labor disputes have bsen dictated by the popular mind. Certainly no strike has ever won unless backed up by pubic senti- ment. Under existing conditions the at a disadvantage in getting his side of the case before the public in a clear and ineligible manner The issues are obscured on the one hand by dem agogues who insist upon talking for the laborer, and by sensational news papers whose unreliability makes it necessary to discount all they say, and on other hand by interested employers who enjoy always the better facilities for placing their version to a good ad- vantage before the people. It would
 
 would be gained if each state had labor commission whose duty would be- in every case of strike, to ascertain all the facts underlying and connected with the trouble and make them public for the judgment of the disinterested public. The present stesl strike is case in point. The origin of the diff culty was so obscure and the issues have since been so c,ouded by the in terss,ed parties to the controversy that 1t Is next to impossible to ascertain on which side the equities lie. Here in Ari- zona We had recent object lesson in the Jerome strike. the origin and merits of which had so many conflict ing explanations that the public was at loss to know the facts. Discussing the advantages of a state bureau for the collection and dissemination of facts relating to labor troubles, and the effect of public opinion after the assimilation of the official knowledge SO furnished, Mr. Charles Francis Adams calls attention to the experience Of Massachusetts in that direction:
 Tn the state of Massachusetts. there Is. and for thirty years has been, board of railroad commissioners In the event of differences between corpo- rations and their employees, even when resulting in strikes and 'tie-ups, the commissioners had no special powers It was merely their duty in general way to taks official cognizance of the fact that the community was sustain ing an injury or an inconvenience, and to investigate the cause thereof Hay Ing so investigated. the beard was em- powdered to locate the responsibility for such injury or in -onvenience and | make its recommendations ac- But those recomms nda- tions had a moral force merely. They | could be addressed to the parties con cerned and to pubic opinion only. | Their effect, greater or less, was meas ured by the justice and good sensa inn l pressed upon them.
 At o'clock D. m. of the 12th of | February. 1877. all the locomotive en-