The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-05-13

OF all the elements involved in thi
memorable Philadelphia strike, tn
union men have the least reason to b
ashamed of their actions They onl
struck when the agglsssions of nh
company left them as alternatives t.
let their union be wholly disrupted o
to go on strike. When they chos
the latter, they decided not to insis
upon having their own way. They of
fered to arbitrate. They adhered t.
that peace overture from the begin
ming to the end. One point only ther
is which a trade union can never arbi
trate without committing suicide. l
can not suffer being arbitrated out o
existence.
As to the so-called general strike
it was at no time general. The reso
luton passed by the central labor unior
excepted from participation certain
trades as those involving newspapers anl
food supply. Certain national union.
also warned their local branches t.
abrogate no agreements with EN-
ployers. The causes which provoked
both organized and unorganized sympa
thizers with the carmen to Law dowr
their work one need not 90 far to seek
1t was the only way these wage work
ers could protest against the disrepu
tableness of Philadelphia'l dominant
elements. Honest, blunt-spoken and
ough-and-ready labor took this mean.
of rebuking the cowardly and self-seek
ing professional and managing classe;
on whom especially falls the obligation
of foreseeing and preventing financia
plundering in municipal Affairs. Be
sides, as the Philadelphia North Amer
lean said:
"The tactIess and provocative publ
cation of letters and kilograms from ali
over the country gave evidence which
to thousands of workers, was convinc.
ing proof that the struggle was not a
local one against a single union, but
a general one against organized labor
This course of the employing class
is sure to foster unionism of the most
militant order. The North American
continued:
"Laboring men organize only for
protection. But the views of the
unorganized and the organized wage
workers will be found identical when
ever capitalists are guilty of the folly
of convincing labor that a concerted at
tack is being made upon union labor as
Glass;
The Springfield Republicans COM
ment on this point is:
"And if the transit company proves
to be successful, ii may think to have
given local labor mionism a fatal
stroke; and outside employers, view
ing the struggle from a distance as in
the nature of settling a great country
wide battle by the issue of a single
combat, may think that labor uionism
in general would be put to flight. But
they will prove to have been deceived.
This is an animal that can be scotched
ever so many times, but it can not be
killed-not as long as capital is per
mitted to organize and industry re-
mains under private ownership and con
Quoted for private profit"
Homilies on the violence attending
Philadelphia strike have been in
order, in press and pulpit, all over the
country-as if through a tacit under
standing on the part of the non-wage-
earners to throw on labor the brunt
of the blame for offending against the
public welfare. But there are facts
to be considered in regard to this
which convey their lessons. The Phila.
delphia Times made this statement in q
leading editorial:
"For the most part the rioting and
violence are the work of men and boys
not native to America and American
ways"
The same article speaks of "the vast
numbers added to rioting mobs by men
women and children who have no right
to be with such crowds" "rmagin
six, seven, eight and nine year old boy
and girls in the thick of riot, barrel,
able to avoid being trampled uponl
Well, anyone not Philadelphia stree
car manager or anti-unionist nigh
imagine that the riot must be a sort o
City of Brotherly Love affair which i
largely carried on by babies
Another phase of the much-talked-o
violence was described thus in the Ne'
York Tribune:
what came near being a serious al
fair during the noon hour occurred a
the Baldwin Locomotive works, wher
10000 workmen were turned loose !
the heart of the city when the whist
blew at 10 O'Clock As these men wei
returning from their MONDAY met
they congregsted at Fifteenth an