Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-08-15
DARROW and OTHERS

Growing out of the noted strike in the mills
Of Lawrence, Mass, is a fiery attack on present
day methods of dealing with industrial and con
stitutional questions by a writer in. recent
number of the. North American Review. The
scenes Of violence during that strike, the, doubt
full help of the militia and the pOlicein preserv
inc order and the. well-fOunded stories that in
many cases the arm of the law was used solely
TO drive the strikers into submission, gave the
basis for an argument that the United States is
not settling it's Industrial problems by sober
resort to reason but by a resort to force. The
writer now quoted, Percy S. Grant, declares that
the United States has turned over the settlement
of such problems to a ''strong arm squad, and
continues his Indictment as follows:
"Instead of referring labor controversies to
boards of Cancellation or to courts Of arbitration
we ring up the police, arm bands of private de,
tectiyes, swear in special deputy sheriffs, call out
the militia and organize yigilantes, who proceed
to gag discussion, to arrest labor-leaders, to in
timidate strikers to wound and to kill. Force
and free speech, are ;igain arrayed.
Zone of the deep rooted grievances of honest
working people iss that during strikes, in order
to clear the streets, police magistrates will ac-
cept the, unsubstantiated testimony Of the police
against prisoners who have been arrested upon
charges Of yagrancyl or of disorderly conduct,
etc. and that these judges railroad troublesome
pfckets or labor leaders to Jail. In this way the
police and the courts act together and judicial
position becomes merely accessory force; that is
to say. it does not perform the function of sift-
ing evidence and securing justice; 1T is only
another heavy hand pushing the workingman or
labor-Ieader to prison. ~
The indictment is severe one, and is justi-
fled in a measure, but the writer fails to take
into account the fact that almost invariably Sc
rious strikes lead to violence on the part of the
enraged employees, and that the only argument
such people know is the argument of the butt
end of gun or the stick of a policeman: When
the strikes in the United States cease to be led
bN emotional, over-wrought Italians, profess
sional agitators Of the type of Haywood, who
was tried for the murder of ex-Gov. Steunenberg
of Idaho; when the leaders of the strikers will
refrain from calling together street mebs and
exhorting them Ito a wild pitch of hysteria !;
when, in brief, the strikers keep steady hand
on their impulses and are in a mental condition
to listen to argument and arbitration there will
be no need for force
The trouble has been that strikes have been
and are the expression of trades unionism, and
in the United States such men as Gompers, Moy-
er, Haywood and the like have been the leaders
and such men as Harry Orchard, Ortie McMani-
agl and the McNamaras have been the weak or
tools. If the, trades unions will
purge themselves of the men by whom they are
brought into disrepute, their complaint against
the use of force will be needless. ,
The subject is vital now because of the i'm
portance Of the barrow trial. Regardless of the
outcome of that trial, there will certainly remain
a moral conviction in the minds of the majority
of people that barrow is guilty at least of know
ing bribery was going forward. That an attOr
ney as closely in touch with his case and as keen
of intuition as barrow should be ignorant of
Franklin'S coarse work is unthinkable Wheth-
er or not the Chicago attorney engineered the
dirty deal designed to corrupt the Mcnamara
jury cannot be definitely told from the testi-
mOny, but barrow is discredited. He is no Ion
ger an asset to uniOnism. He is an argument
against the structure built up under GOmpers.
Now that the Aston baby has been born, the