Durango semi-weekly herald. (Durango, Colo.) 1899-1907, 1903-11-16
coLoRApo's RAINBOW.


Surely, Mr.. Pessimist, you will ad
NIT freely that the strikes now vex-
ing Colorado must come TO an end.
After any sort of war always comes
peace. That is inevitable. And
neither in actual war or in industrial
struggles is there any such thing as
perpetual combat or trial OF endurance
on large scale. The larger the scale
of war the quicker will peace come
and the more lasting it will be-
1t is the little desultory fighting and
the condition of threatened war that
are most disastrous and stubborn and
long drawn out, From the standpoint
Of the general public there can be no
doubt that big, decisive struggle be-
tween labor and capital is preferable
to a long. dark period of threats and
chickering's and battles averted.
The period that ushere1 in the
present big strike may be likened to
time of diminishing marked by bale
full uncertainty. Better the active
campaign and the big battle--which
are followed Inevitably by an era OF
peace.
Formerly we laid war ahead all the
time. What was looked for, every
day, was gloomy trouble. Now we
have peace ahead of us What we
look for every day is bright peace.
Therefore the storm now raging pre-
sents SON ething for long time lack
ing-the rainbow of promise.
One positive and unconquerable
fact conironts, nowadays. every com
munity, every locality, every state
and every section of the country. 1t
is that commerce, mining, manufac
lures. building and transportation, ev
erywhere, must be considered as sub
ject to strikes. Only agricultural pro-
duction is free from this Interference.
owing to the one drastic circumstance
that it is not carried on with massed
forces of labor.
No branch of activity wherein there
is concentration of labor can escape
the handicap OF strikes. There is on
ly one known way to prevent this con
dition, and that is the New Zealand
law OF compulsory arbitration, which
is generally regarded as utterly un-
feasible in America. We all believe
that the struggle between labor and
capital will come to a happy solution,
but how or when nobody knows.
The present period OF industry, with
its persistent and desultory wars, re
sembles the constant fighting between
the numerous princes and powers OF
the Middle Ages before the great mod
ern nations crystalized.
1t is a condition OF wars here and
there; of peace here and there; with
uneasiness and threatened trouble,
then the struggle and then peace, and
most fortunate is the place where the
battle is over and quiet is assured
And SO every good business man, in
every part OF the country, realizes that
he must never overlook or forget the
possibilities of these outbreaks. And
we of Colorado and Denver do not
hail Chicago's troubles as an evidence
of the great city's downfall.
Nobody in Colorado and Denver
looks upon the strike of 100000
Pennsylvania coal miners as a sign
of the destruction of Pittsburg or the
degeneracy of Pennsylvania.
When st. Louis was at "a standstill
owing to the suspension of it's car
lines and the fury of mobs, we had no
idea that ii meant permanent disaster
to St Louis and hard times in Mis-
souri,.
Strange to say, only those labor
troubles happening in Colorado are
regarded by Coloradoans as disastrous
And the man who speaks of strike
here as pulling down property values
does not, for a moment, consider the
same sort of trouble elsewhere in thai
light.
And yet the main cause for the dis
quietude shown by Coloradoans is a
fear OF the opinion of others elsewhere
Although we in Colorado do not depre-
cate, in our Imagination. the property
in other states because OF strikes and
lockouts we read about every day.
nevertheless we jump hastily at the
conclusion that people in other places
regard us as We, under the same cir
cumstances, do not regard them.
They don't think what we imagine
they think.
At last the conditions in Colorado
have passed the stage when war was
the always present gloomy prospect.
The conditions have reached the hope
full period when big battles invariably
produce great peace.
And therefore it's not black storm
cloud that hovers over Colorado, but
the rainbow of promise that spans the
blue sky of the states progress.
And. in due time Colorado can see
some other state in the throes of vast
strikes and feel sorry for it, while here
the hum of industry will have no note
of disquetude.- Post
The revolution at Panama was'