The daily Alaskan., 1911-08-28
PROGRESS OR RETRoaREssION2

city government for an order sending the striking street railroad men of that town back to work on the old terms and directing the railroad com pany to receive them. The order was obeyed, although it started a legal fight which may be carried far and may have interesting and import, ant results. says the Cleveland Lead CT.
 In this case the cause of the strike was not dispute about wages or other conditions of employment A conductor had been discharged when accused of knocking down" fares, and his fellow workers insisted that he must have a hearing before losing his place. Temporarily, at least, he got his old job, and threetOre the strikers had no raeson to refuse to obey the order of the court
 Labor leaders in Des Moines hailed this novel setuemept-Ior the time beiug-ot a strike which began with many signs of serious trouble, as a  noteworthy victory. Samuel Gompers president Of the American Federation of Labor says that it is a blow to trades unions and to wage earners. Some outside students of economic questions call it progress; others disagree with them. Certainly the question is two sided.
 That this is so is amply proved oy the recent strike of the employees Of the stateowned railroads of France. It is likely to be demonstrated again by the strike on the municipal street railroad system of Glasgow. Scotland.
 The French government ordered out the army reserves in the dis picts most affected by the strike. That made the strikers soldiers un- der military discipline, Then they were ordered to run the trains as usual, and they dared not refuse, Disobedie0ce would have meant mu- tiny and that might mean death. In Glasgow the strike on the city owned street car lines may end in scarcely less vigorous assertion of the power of public authorities,
 In the American strike case, at Des Moiues, the suikres were willing to return to their cars on the terms fix ed by order of the judge, but what if they had not been of that mind2 The courts have only one way to en- force their edicJs, and that is by fin ing or imprisoning those who disobey them. Are Amreican labor leaders who say that the action taken in the Iowa city was a good thing for labor ready to face the chance that many working men might be sent to jail because they did not return to work when told so by a judge? @
 President Gompers considers this question with a wider range of vision chan the conditions in one city or one strike. He remembers what might happen in a Southern city for in stances which vas dominated by classes either hostile or cOntemptu- ous in their attitude toward a body of workmen of an alien race, such as the Cuban Cigar makers of Tampa. There the weight of the local feeling and the pressure of social and politi- cal influence might be adverse to the strikers and strongly in favor of such an order as the Judge in Des MOines issued. sending back to work all of the men who had quit their jobs.
 Would that be good or bad for la bor? Is the essence of compulsory arbitration favorable or unfavOrable to the progress of trades unions? In the broadest view of the interests and welfare of wage earners, is the Des Moines experiment in judicial sup pression of strikes, progress or retro
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