Arizona republican., 1902-10-18
PHOENIX, ARIZONA. OCT IS, 1902.
The Strike and Its Lessons.

Thanks to a republican president, the most mcmentous strike in the annals of the United States has been settled on terms satisfactory to all concerned and a national calamity has been averted. Had the strike of the an- tbracite coal miners lasted but a few weeks longer the distress and suffering and financial loss would have been so widespread as to resemble the results of a devastating war. President Roose- welt could afford to rest upon this achievement his claims to a high place in his country's history. While it Is Q subject for general congratulation' and every citizen has a right to reel happy. republicans are excusable TOT pointing to the events oi the past few days as further evidence of the fact that their leaders are always equal to every emergency; that the rights Of the most lowly as we'll as the rights of the most powerful have equal and impar- tial consideration at the hands of a re- publican administration, and that equal and exact justice to all is the guiding principle of the government when it is administered by republican hands.
 It is true that in technical sense MT. Roosevelt went outside the lines of his constitutional duty. While he was absolutely correct in insisting that his actions must be regarded as those of a simple citizen of the republic, and not as the republics chief magistrate, the fact remains that it was the pow erful influence which attaches to the presidential office that enabled him to bring results which amount to compul- sorry arbitration. Democrats who are jealous Of constitutional limitations may view with alarm" the new vista of centralized power" opened to their frightened gaze by this unwarranted interference of the president but the country will remain undisturbed by any forebodings of evil.
 Personally, President Roosevelt may wei feel proud of the fact that from the moment that he undertook to settle the strike there was q general confi- dence that he would succeed, some  how. Undoubtedly, the knowledge of this confidence strengthened him to put forth all his efforts. and it enabled him to listen with unconcern to partisan in- nuendo and deprecation. While that great democratic leader, Benjamin R. Tillman, was advocating |" a few hang ings'' as the only means of settling the strike; while demagogues were doing their utmost to infame the minds of laboring men all over the country by assertions that the government was in the hands of labors "oppressors," and while he was assailed on the other hand by the coal operators with charges of despotic interference in their affairs, MT. Roosevelt never swerved from his determination to bring the strike to settlement.
 Incidentally, it is all at once brought home to the country that Theodore Roosevelt has led the way in blazing cut a new pathway to the effectual settlement of great industrial disturb ances. For years the merits of "com- pulsory arbitration" have been dis cussed. and legislation providing for compulsory arbitration has been pro- posed time and again. Suddenly we appear to have reached the era of com pulsory arbitration without legislation to ,.lat end. For when the president of the United States, clothed with the majesty which invests the first citizen. says-albeit "unofficially"-that strik- CTS and employers must submit to ar bitration. his word falls little short of the authority of law. This is because public opinion rules in this nation, and when the great masses speak through their president there Is none powerful enough to resist the weight of that opinion.
 Returning to the political phase of the strike settlement-for it has a po- litical phase because of the efforts of democratic politicians to make capital of a deplorable situation-the wage workers of the country will rot lose