The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1912-11-15
THE JACKSONVILLE
STRIKE.

The settlement OF the Jacksonville |
street car strike hinges upon lust one |
point of disagreement between the men
and The company-the right of the men
to organize and be delt with as an Or
panization in their future relations with
the company. The company says il
will take the men back provided they
will renounce their union. The men
insist that they have the right 10 or
ganize and that this right must be re-
cognized by the street car company.
The sympathy of all fairminded men is
with the strikers. II capital has the
right TO organize for concentered ag-
grandiSement and public exploitation,
surely labor should have the right 10
organize for selfprotection.
The strike has been on now for near
~ four weeks, and early in the present
week there were signs OF general
strike OF sympathy among all the labor
unions of the city, situation that would
greatly cripple business. Up TO the
present there has been some rioting and
few broken bones have resulted from
the disorder. These disturbances were
moi caused directly by the striking car
men, but were started by sympathiSerS.
The mayor of the city has shown
himself to be spineless politician and
wabbling official; he wanted TO stand in
with both sides and has managed nicely
TO get himself deSpised by both. The
police, most of whom came up out of
human families and have not forgotten
their training, have leaned toward the
strikers, especially where the imported
StrikebreakerS were concerned.
The Governor called out the military
power OF the State 10 guard the COM
pany'S property and protect the import.
ed strike breakers. Everything that
could be done 10 protect the rights of
the organized company was brought
into play; the only thing that looked
like sympathy for the rights of labor
was few misdrected brickbats.
Even the military department did
some strutting through its higher COM
mSSioned officers, who issued few
orders and manifestoes. Field Marshal
Lord J. Clifford RobeSpierre Foster, K.
c. B., showed most humiliating epistle
to Lieutenant Colonel Lord Cromwell
Gibbons, relieving him OF his command
before the said ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
"Order No. ~ had had time TO soak
into the public conscience. The epStle
also placed the army in the hands OF a
new man comparatively unknown in
politics.
The strike has cost the people of the
State many thousands of dollars. That
cost would have been as nothing had
any good been accomplished, but in
stead of good the warning elements are
further apart than ever by reason of this
show of military power, the unmaSking
of spinelesS mayor and the play Of
cheap politicians.
A few men in Jacksonville have kept
their heads and thereby grown in the
public esteem. John n. c. Stockton
was one of them; he urged the governor
10 refuse military assistance because il
was not needed, and when it had been
furnished over his protest, he made de-
mands for its recall. Claude L'Engle
also took similar stand.
The whole strike and the causes
which led up TO il are disgrace 10 civil
ization, especially the latter. The com,
pany paid its workers (all white but
$1.7O per day for y hours duty. The
men were naturally dissatisfied and pro-
posed to organize themselves into a
union TO enforce better conditions and
conditions that they could not secure as
individuals, Those who had joined the
union were discharged; then the others
quit and decided 10 stay quit until their
union was recognized. The company
agreed to raise the mems pay, but not TO
recognize the union. They would be
taken back only as non-union men. OF
course this means that as fast as the
strikers can be replaced by new men
they would be turned off. With the
union this could not be done.
So long as capital is allowed TO treat
labor as commodity, something that
can be barganed for in the open mar
ket and beat down until it can be Sc.
cured at the buyers own price and with
out regard for the rights and needs of
the laborer, this thing will continue
Labor is not commodity, it is human
service. Strikes and diSCord and broken
heads will be the order until this truth
is recognized by the state.
Property has rights, one of which is
the right TO protection. Labor also has
rights, the same right TO organize as is
guaranteed to capital, and the right to
share equitably in the joint product of
partnership in he which the one is
powcrleSS for accomplishment without
the other.
And SEVENTEEN CENTS AN
HOUR did not represent labor'S share
in the profits of the Jacksonville street
car system, not by long shot.
Both the constitutional amendments
n.,..nrnnAl.. ..-.... l.. ....- 1 ILL.