The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-06-19
sPdper Read Before the Chautd,tQaa Circle
THHAT strikes are wastefuI an

"HAT strikes are wasteful and
selfish to an extent that makes
their continuance unbearable
is quite generally acknowl-
edged, even in the ranks of labor. And
yet strikes continue to grow in num-
bers and individual proportions. The
Belfishness of strikes is we'll illustrated
by one which occurred in the anthracite
coal region of Pennsylvania, where, by
the refusal of the 6remen to work while
their grievances we're being adjusted,
fifty men were thrown out of work for
every idle fireman, and indirect loss
was inflicted upon hundreds of others.
1t is matter of common knowledge
that this is by no means an unusual
occurrence.
As for the wastefulness of strikes, it
might be we'll for labor to ponder on the
statement of Eugene V. Debs, that if
the money lost by strikes in the last
twenty years had been invested, labor
would now have controlling interest
an every important industry in the
United States. This may be an exag-
geration, but that labor has lost more
in dollars and cents than it can ever
regain sis beyond dispute. The waste
fuiness of strikes is illustrated on q
much larger scale by the losses which
the whole country suffers while few
thousands engaged in a particular in
'dustry dispute concerning wages, hours
or terms of employment.
A method of settling disputes and
gaining demands which is responsible
for such abuses endures only because
the rights and interests of the COM
munity as whole are ignored by both
employers and employed. The New
Zealand plan of compulsory concilia-
tion and arbitration of which we have
heard SO much is founded upon the
fact, here ignored, that the interests of
the state are paramount to the interests
of a group of individuals. In New
Zealand there are two tribunals: Boards
of Cancellation, one for each industrial
district, and Court of Arbitration for
the whole country. In both, working
men and employers are equally repre-
sented by men of their own choice.
When a grievance arises, or when there
is any apprehension of a strike or lock-
out, one side summons the other before
the board or court, and after this step
has been taken it becomes punish
able offense for the workmen to stop
work or the employer to close his plant.
Both must continue under the condi-
tions complained of by one or the other
until the board or court renders a de-
cision, and both must comply with the
award under pain of heavy penalties.
This plan is said to work we'll ir New
Zealand since it has been in vogue, and
the expense of administering the law
is about $4,000 year, sum less than
the amount lost in every hour of a
large strike here
But in the United States the consti-
tuition guarantees every man degree
of personal liberty which is held to
preclude the possibility, without con-
stitutienal amendment, of sustaining
a law under which the labOrer could
be compelled to work on terms fixed
for him by another. Our congress and
courts are powerless to say that work
men shall accept employment on GER
tain terms or that employers shall pay
a certain scale of wages for SO many
hours work at given tasks. This is the
prevailing construction of the inalien-
able rights of personal liberty and
private property. Whether the right
to labor is regarded as an adjunct to
personal liberty or the labor contract
is looked upon as an element of private
property, the conclusion is the same.
There is, however, possibility that