Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-13
Strikes and Public Necessities.

Ont of the frequent labor troubles of the
past few decades has evolved a vigorous
sentiment to the effect that some method
should he devised to render impossible the
stoppage of service in the public utilities,
such as the railroad and telegraph systems.
There is today. with general tie-up OF the
telegraph lines threatened by the strikes of
the organized operators in various cities. a
decided belief on the part of majority OF
citizens that this state of affairs should be
unattainable: that there should be a proc
ess of adjustment so reliable. so automatic,
so certain of results. that there could
never be an interruption Of communications
short of a great physical catastrophe.
The telegraph Is today as necessary to
the comfort and welfare of the people and
the transaction OF business as the railroad
service or the postal system. 1t has become
necessity. having long since ceased to
he regarded as luxury. 1t is unthinkable
that every telegraph instrument in the
United States should cease clicking for even
so long as a day. To conceive such stop
page for week is to conjure up the picture
of a national calamity too far-reaching in
its effects for a. total cost TO be even
roughly estimated.
There is a close resemblance between the
telegraph service and the postal system.
Both are designed for the transmission of
Information. for the transaction of bust
ness. Were the postal service in the hands
of contractors operating a private cor
poration, strike might occur as in the
case of the telegraph companies at present.
No one will believe for a moment that such
a strike would be tolerated by the public.
or that the United States government
would permit the continuance of such an
unlawful condition. The government. in
deed. in 1874 demonstrated it's power in
the premises when the great railroad strike
of that year caused a temporary stoppage
OF the mails. The active intervention of
the federal power broke the strike.
1t should be comparatively an easy task
to render the stoppage of the public util-
ties service impossible. If the states can
not cope with this condition the govern
ment must. Whether by a federal incor-
poration act. affecting both corporations
and unions. or by the institution of a de-
cree of government regulation and control
of the utilities of necessity, some measure
must be devised to the end that no degree
of friction between employer and worker
can ever arise to precipitate a paralyzing
strike in the industries that directly affect
the welfare and the daily needs of the
people
The sentiment in favor of scheme
which will accomplish this end goes in some
quarters even SO far as to advocate a sys-
TEN OF full government ownership and op-
Grafton OF the public utilities of all sorts
THIS is the extreme view. Shading off from
II are various doctrines of regulation all
tending. however. to the same end of guar
anteeing continuous service In the lines of
public necessity. But back of these various
propositions Is always the same thought
that IT is a reflection upon our methods of
managing our own affairs a people that
we should be perennially beset by the strike
menace. causing increased prices and rates
and tolls and diminished service.
In the matter of this impending telegraph
strike the sentiment of the people will set
strongly against that side which may be re-
spOnsibe for the stOppage of the service
That Is the last test of the public sympathy
the test of collective selfshness, and it is a
powerful factor for the evolution Of re-
forms.