The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-05-25
ooNDITIoN Is THREATENINa 9.
Railway Age Discusses the Present
Relations of Labor and Capital


Aa extraordinary and threatening
condition of unrest now affects the rela-
lions of labor and capital throughout
this country, says the Railway Age.
Increase OF wages, shorter hours. larger
paymenf for overtime recognition of
unions and refusal to employ non-union
men are among the demands which con-
front almost every employer of labor,
from railways and ironmakers down to
laundries and lunch houses. In many
cases the demands may be just, in many
they may be unreasonable but there can
be little satisfaction or safety in doing
business while these conditions last,
and both employers and employed must
suffer therefrom- A general increase in
wages means increase in the cost of the
products of labor and higher prices to
the consumers, and it means also in
creased cost OF living to the laborers.
Hence in compelling a general raise in
the level OF prices wage earnerS are
placing increased burdens upon them
selves Where shah the leveling Of
prices cease? What is a fair and safe
basis of pay in each department of
WOrk2 What relation viii increased pay
in one line of work have to wages and
cost of living in ALP Labor leaders
may well pause and consider how and
when the rising flood which they have
invoked shall be checked, and whether,
if it flows higher, it will not be followed
by an ebb tide of disaster for business
and distress for labor. Now as never
before there is need for the greatest wis
DOM breadth of view, patience, fairness
and conscientiousuess on the part OF
those who are in position to direct the
action and sway the passions of labor.
There is occasional indication that the
thoughtful friends of labor appreciate
the danger attending the exercise Of
their strength and are beginning to
realize that there must be a limit to the
power of organized labor over the life
and happiness of the public. In Chicago
y nalr "a nj H.
pany furnishing light and fuel for per-
haps a million people were told by the
board of arbitration, composed Of team
sters and their employers, that they
should not organize d labor union. This
body wisely said. THE safety of the
public is involved in the gas supply,
and it would be dangerous TO have the
gas plants in the charge of a collection
of men who are subject to the absolute
orders of some leader who may not have
the general good of the public at heart. p"
These real friends of labor had the cour-
age to add that the gasworkers' strike
was not creditable to the Chicago FEEDER
alton Of Labor, which had encouraged
it, and they declared that the speeches
of the leaders in the strike were in
cendiary and opposed to the general
welfare of the city as whole and to
organized labor"
Here labor itself recognizes the fact
that no organization should have power
to cut off the necessities OF life from
LndL great IUlIQ party the R0DiASf
which stands between labor and cap
ftal. And if strikers should not be per-
mitted to stop the supply of gas, why
should not u similar prohibition extend
to coal, the vital necessity of the whole
population2 Why not to the water
supply of cities, to the production and
distribution of bread. meat and other
food TO service in hotels, restaurants
and boarding houses; to transportation
Of necessaries of life by wagons through
the streets, by boats on the waterways.
by railways upon whose train service
the comfort and even the life Of COM
munities has come so largely to de-
pend2 Should it be possible for body
Of strikers to stop absolutely the de-
livery of fuel and food al any place and
to freeze and starVe people to death,
while strikers and employers are dis
putting over a question of Wages2 The
refusal of the arbitrator to permit the
gas production to be stopped seems to
have much more extended application.
And yet, strange TO say. it was the
teamsters' union from which these ar
bitrators come that in the cold of last
winter actually shut off heat, light and
power from many business blocks in the
heart of Chicago by refusing to allow
the delivery of coal unless the building
owners would bind themselves not to
burn fuel gas in summeri
Tyranny by labor organizations, as
we'll as tyranny by organized or unor-
ganized capital. must somehow be re-
sJrairable and punishable. VIII labor
leaders be wise and just enough to limit
their demands and ambitions within the
bounds Of reason and public Safety2