Arizona republican., 1907-08-13
THE STRIKE.

And all this has come about because woman unwisely employed in the Western Union office at Oakland. Cal, was a sufferer of dyspepsia ar unre- uuited love. Whatever her ailment the country is more comprehensively af- fected by a strike than it ever was be- fore.
 Communities which had been joined closely to each other are thrown far apart. business operations which de- pended so largely upon the telegraph are made uncertain if not impossible and many thousands of dollars are be- ing lost daily to the telegraph com panies and their former operators.
 But the Oakland woman is not to be too much blamed. The chaos would have been precipitated anyhow in an- other way if she had had sound stomach and a consequently pleasant disposition or if she had been happily married and become the mother of an interesting family.
 Since it was destined to come 1t does not matter how it came but the thing that concerns us most is when and how it will pass away. There is every reason to believe that it will be fight to a finish. The original grievances Of the operators were reasonable. The wages they received were inadequate and they were subjected to imposi- tions which they ought not to have been called upon to bear. There seem ed perhaps no relief for them save un- organization. Their grievances last June were promised attention after strike at San Francisco which threat ened to overspread the country and doubtless the more serious ones would have been removed shortly.
 Then came the last precipitating cause and the question of unionism was brought directly to the front. It can easily be seen why the telegraph companies will endeavor to crush the strike rather than to compromise or yield in that question. There Is no other business in the world in which strike is so much dreaded and as un- ionism is productive of strikes the companies will almost certainly set their faces more sternly against it than ever.
 It has probably occurred to them that though it may cost them some millions of dollars it will be worth that to fill the hearts of operators with fear for another quarter of a century. as the Western Union did in 1883 when it crushed the first serious strike raised against it.
 The operators themselves in the present strike, in many instances. have acted with a want of deliberation cal culated to increase the companies dread of organization. rendering a compromise on the question of the un- ion more difficult than ever. If such a compromise was ever possible.
 The Associated Press operators of New York last night took a course that they would certainly not have entered upon but for the excitement which the strike of the commercial operators had enigneered Whether or not their de- mands were reasonable. the conditions they imposed were not only unreason- able but wildly impossible since there was no way by which they could have been accuiesced in within the time fixed by them, twenty-four hours after the presentation of the demand.
 The operators would have lost noth- ing and would have risked nothing by giving General Manager Stone week or any sufficient period within which to clothe himself with power to grant or refuse their demands The head long course they have taken will make it the more difficult for themselves to secure improved conditions as well as more difficult for the commercial tele- graphers.
 With this conspicuous instance of unreasonableness before them. the As sociated Press and the telegraph com panies will naturally believe that it would be better to crush out the strike rather than to risk further instances of unrea easonableness some months or some years hence.