River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-04-02

to remember that all Of the suits hith-
erto brought by the government under
the antitrust law have been in cases
! where the combination or contract was
in fact unfair, unreasonable, and
against the public interest.
Labor Organizations.
| It is important that we should en-
courage trade agreements between en-
ployer and employe where they are
| just and fair. A strike is clumsy
weapon for righting wrongs done to
labor, and we should extend, so far as
/ possible, the process of Cancellation
and arbitration for strikes. Moreover,
violence, disorder and coercion, when
committed in connection with strikes,
should be as promptly and as sternay
| repressed as when committed in any
other connection. But strikes them
selves are, and should be, recognized
| to be entirely legal. Combinations of
workingmen have a peculiar reason
for their existence. The very wealthy
! individual employer, and still more tho
very wealthy corporation, stand at an
enormous advantage when compared
| to the individual workingman; and
while there are many cases where it
may not be necessary for laborers to
form union, in many other cases it
| is indispensable, for otherwise the
| thousands Of small units, the thou.
sands of individual workingmen, viii!
| be left helpless in their dealings with
| the big one unit, the big individual OF
corporate employer.
Twenty-Five years ago, by the act Of
June 20, 1886, trades unions were rec
ognized by law, and the right Of Ia
| boring people to combine for all
lawful purposes was formally recog-
nized, this right including combina-
lions for mutual protection and bene-
fits, the regulation of wages, hours
and conditions of labor, and the pro-
| lection of the individual rights of the
workmen in the prosecution of their
trade or trades; and in the act of
June 1, 1898, strikes were recognized
as legal in the same provision that for.
babe participation in or instigation Of
force or violence against persons or
property, or the attempt to prevent
others from working, by violence.
threat or intimidation. The business
man must be protected in person and
property, and so must the farmer and
the wageworker; and as regards all
alike, the right of peaceful combina-
ton for all lawful purposes should be
explicitly recognized.
Objects to Boycott.
The right of employers to combine
and contract with one another and
with their employees should be explic-
| lily recognized; and so should the
right of the employees to combine and
to contract with one another and with
the employers, and to seek peaceably
to persuade others to accept their
views, and to strike for the purpose of
peaceably obtaining from employers
satisfactory terms for thesr labor.
Nothing should be done to legalize
either a blacklist or a boycott that
would be illegal at common law, this
being the type of boycott defined and
condemned by the anthracite strike
commission.
| The question of financial legislation
| is now receiving such attention III
| both houses that we have a right to
expect action before the close of the
session. 1t is urgently necessary that
there should be such action. Moreover,
action should be taken to establish
| postal savings banks. These postal
savings banks are imperatively needed
for the benefit of the wageworkers and
men of small means, and will be val
liable adjunct to our whole financial
| system.
Tariff Revision.
| The time has come when we should
prepare for a revision Of the tariff.
This should be, and indeed must be-,
preceded by careful investigation. 1t
is peculiarly the province of the con-
gress and not of the president, and in
deed peculiarly the province of the
house of representatives, to originate
a tariff bill and to determine upon it's
terms; and this I fully realize. Yet 1t
seems to me that before the close of
this session provision should be made
for collecting full material which
will enable the congress elected next
| fall to act Immediately after 1t comes
into existence. This would necessitate
some action by the congress at it's
present session, perhaps in the shape
of directing the proper committee to
gather the necessary information, both
through the committee itself and
through government agents who
should report to the committee and
should lay before it the facts which
would permit it to act with prompt
and intelligent fairness. These govern
ment agents, if it is not deemed wise
to appoint individuals from outside the
public service, might with advantage
be members of the executive depart
ments, designated by the president,
on his own motion or on the request OF
the committee, to act with 1t.
am of the opinion, however, that
one change in the tariff could with
advantage be made forthwith. Our
forests need every protection, and one
method of protecting them would be
to put upon the free list wood pulp
with corresponding reduction upon
paper made from wood pulp, when
they come from any country that
does not put an export duty upon
them.
Waterways Commission.
Ample provision should be made