Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-03
The Constitution and the Strike.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
The coal strike, now in it's fifth month,
seems no nearer adjustment or solution
than it was at its incipency. Meanwhile,
unrest, gloomy foreboding and the more
tangible discontinue of positive necessity
have grown apace. An early adjustment is
imperative. That memorable decree. Thus
far and no farther, is imminent That it
will be needed, no matter what operates to
produce it, whether by arbitration or other
means, seems highly probable In all great
crises in the affairs and concerns of civil-
zation--with the conservative and phlosoph-
ical-the principle, "peaceably if we can,
forcibly if We must has obtained; and
while resort to the latter is always and
ever to be regretted and avoided if posi-
BILE, yet the eXasperating delays and fail
ureS of the former. coupled with neceSStouS
conditions, has ofttmes combined to make
it dernier resort. Apropos of the reported
cabinet consultation and the manifest in
cinaton of the administration to call a
halt in the calamitous strike, it would
it is within the power, province and purview
of federal authority to act in the premises.
OF the objects and purposes for which the
Constitution of the United States was
framed (article vi, clause2)-the supreme
law Of the land-as enunciated in the pre-
amble, does there appear anything which
more generally directly or Intimately af-
fects the people than that which ENSURES
this winter for lack Of fuel and inability to
obtain it, and the forced deprivation is su-
perinduced and continued by intolerance
and violation of moral and statutory provi-
sionS, will domestic tranquility" be ram
pant or couchant? If there be any tran
GUILTY. whatever, it will require lens of
greater focal power than any at present in
the naval observatory to discover it. The
course of the participants in the strike ap-
pears deSpotic, monarchic and in repug-
nance to section of article of the Con-
stitution, which ordains that the United
States shall guarantee to every state in
this Union republican form of govern
ment."
Lawyers, of course, differ; contrarety of
opinion among them is natural. The SIM
pie fact. however and notwithstanding,
mains-law-and the Constitution of the
United States is the grandest monument of
written law extant-consists Of certain rules
of conduct, prescribing certain things as
necessary to the peace and order of
ciety and forbidding other things as repug-
nant to and inconsistent with the peace and
order of society," Is this strike from any
order of society? From it's direful effects
upon every avocation and industry, does it
benefit or is it harmful to the masses? Is
it indicative of the best interests of the
people? Should it be tolerated in a gov
eminent "of the people, by the people and
for the people?"
The whole affair is to be deprecated, as
any conflict between labor-the basis of sus-
tenance, the foundation of peace and plenty
and capital should be. The interests Of
the two are identical, and if it were posi-
BILE for them to arbitrate their differences
amicably, without involving everything and
everybody, how much better would affairs
and conditions be. Unfortunately and un-
happily this condition does not obtain. The
rightly inclined and philanthropic hope is
that amicable and satisfactory adjust
ment may be soon contaminated; If not,
may the conscience of this nation, that SUI
preme arbiter from whose decisions there
is no appeal. settle the controversy in form
and manner commensurate with its dignity
as world power.
THEO. H GREENE