Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-27
WILL The STRUGGLE GOMEZ

Indications point to mighty strug-
gle between employers and employed
Labor was never so thoroughly organ
ICED in the United States as 1t is at
present. The quiet organization of en-
Movers associations has gone on ST.
lently but not less effectively because
silent. until the mobilization of two op-
posing camps is practically complete.
Each is strong in numbers and In con-
yiction. Both are determined and OPP
timistic. Each fears the purposes OF the
other. It is scarcely probable that a
trial of strength is to be avoided.
The first gun in a conflict that APP
rears to be irrepressible may have been
fred Yesterday in Chicago, where
snecial meeting of the Federation of
Labor was called to receive petition
signed by nine unions involved in the
Kellogg strike asking aid of the fedora
ton and charging the Central Employ
ers' Association with being engaged In
an effort to crush organized labor and
disrupt the unions. II the nine unions
shall make good their charge the fed
nration will be forced into action
against the employers association. This
means war and aggravates the posi-
Aility of general strike with Its at
Aendant train of loss and business dis
Aurbance; and general strike is dis
Aster.
It is doubtful If the federation will
lake UP actively the cause OF the strik-
ing unions in the particular case
Ngainst the Kellogg Switchboard and
Supply Company. The strikers have
been unfortunate in their leaders,
whose vaporings and threats have ar
kayed public opinion against them. 1t
Is the allegations Of the intent of the
EMPLOYERS organization to crush the
Unions that will receive the attention
md stir the resentment of the fedora
tion.
AS it is the innocent bystander
Is oftenest hurt by the mob, so 1t Is
Che public which suffers most by any
Nide disturbance of trade and trans
portation. A general strike would In
Solve calamity not alone to the strik-
YRS, their families and the employers,
hut to thousands of innocent bystand-
hrs" helpless to escape and guiltless OF
Any responsibility for the conditions
buch strikes invariably entail. The di-
/ vision and subdivision Of labor has rem
aered the most remote cities interde-
pendent A strike in Chicago travelling
along the steel arteries of commerce
paraIyzes the pulse beats of western
industries. 1t is this mutual depend
ence that should give the whole people
the right TO know and the power TO cor
rect abuses of privileges on the part of
SrganiZed labor or organized employers.
The public was patient during the long
anthracite strike. 1t has been patient
y paying its cost since it was settled
= 1rices for years to come, but Its pa
sience is not equal to a general and
protracted struggle between federated
labor and organized employers. The
hope of organized labor lies in the ap-
prevail of the public. Right or wrong, a
general strike would make for unpopu-
larity more to the organization that de-
clared 1t than to the other organization
that helped create the conditions that
caused it, The unions should look to
arbitration rather than force in the set
element of the Chicago difficulty, real
izing that the responsibility for any
general disturbance of prosperous con-
ditions will be laid at their door.