The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-31
THURSDAY, DEC. 31, 1908.
THE BIGGEST QUESTION.

In the opinion of The Boston Journal, the biggest question before the Ameri- can people today is the labor question, and the most important feature of that question is the right of any man to work for whom he pleases and for such wages Rs he can get and elects to accept. And that right must be understood as existing without the interventino of any outside party, organization or individual In the words of The New York Commercial, "the wonder is that the serious the thinking, the patriotic among our eighty-odd mil lions of people are on the whole so slow to sense it, so cautious in admitting that the present attitude of organized labor toward the industry and the business Of the country presents a constant menace to the survival of the principles laid down in the Declaratino of Independence. standing obstacle in the path of our prog ress and prosperity as a people" And The Journal, referring to conditions now ex,sting in Chicago, truthfully argues that it is a condition "that cannot long be tolerated in a free country. Unless we are to give up law and order and govern ment. and accept anarchy as our normal state, the forces of society must assert themselves to put down, at whatever cost, such attacks upon decency and the social order.'
 Both The Journal and The Commercial are correct. It is difficult to understand how liberty-loving people as Americans ars popularly supposed to be can submit to a form of tyranny as bad as any that exists in Russia Here, too, as in Rus sia, the few tyranize over the many and the many tamely submit. It will not be claimed that in Chicago, for example. the members of the various unions form a majority of The male population of the city, yet flor weeks the dsorderly ele- ments of the unions have maintained what is little better than a reign of ter. Tor, during which the very dead have been desecrated.
 The Journal may be-we hope it is-cor- rect in it's assertion that such condition of affairs cannot long be tolerated in d free country" There has been so much patience and tolerance already that we hardly know whether to expect any change or not. It really seems that the labor organizations ought to set them- selves to the task of correcting an evil which they certainly see is injuring them, and which must drive frmo them all sym pathy if persisted in. The idea of labor union was a good one, perhaps, at the outset, and within certain limits much good for the working men might be ac- complished, but those limits are passed when intimidation and violence are re- sorted to In order to carry their point, and especially when such violence is re- sorted to against the dead.
 Discussing Chicago conditions The Evanston ull) Press says: Shoot, and shoot to klll, any un4on man who att tempts to stop hearse," and that ad- vice shows the feelng that is becoming widespread throughout the country. Vio- fence breeds letanation, for "whosO she'd deth mans blood, by man shall his hood be shed," says the Scriptures. and th., same good Book tells us that The that hilleth with the sword must be killed with the sword" And so, those who in- itiate or began violence will ultimately become the victims of their own example. One crime almost surely leads to another, and one transgression against peace and order and human life is laying a predi- cate for retaliation in kind, or something worse There must be stop put to union intolerance and violence ,and If it comes by blodoshed the fault will be on the heads of those who commit the first of- fence.