The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-24
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Regarding Organized Strikes


To the Editor of The Age Herald
To my mind it is passing strange that
great strike should have been threat
ened in this country one that would have
tied up numbers of railroads and brought
untold damage to thousands of innocent
citizens throughout the nation, and that
it was only prevented at the instance
of the President of the United States
and the sidetracking of all other legisla-
tion in Congress to enable it to pass a
special act for arbitrating the matters
involved.
Is there not something radically wrong
with public sentiment that it permits any
organization to claim and exercise such
tremendous power over its members? Has
rot the very end and aim of government
been overthrown by the formal recogni-
tion at the hands of the chief executive
of the nation of any such right?
Did not Governor Brown have a Just
conception of the danger arising from
such organizations when he made the
following statement in his retiring mes
sage to the Georgia legislature, in ref
erence to- striking street car and railroad
employees at Augusta?
There is no escape from the conviction
that those employees of the Augusta
otittt 1df COilpdHy ana the
| railroad, put themselves In a state of open
| rebellion to the laws of Georgia They
ignored the cardinal tenet of republican
government There shall be equal rights
to all, special privileges to none, and
arrogated to themselves special privileges
| settling their quarrels with their respec-
| tive arrangements at the expense and
serious Inconvenience of the public. and
in manner which embedded defiance of
| the law which Of oil Il,
| this state having differences which they
cannot peaceably adjust to submit them
| to the states courts"
| | have always maintained that ii was
| dangerous to society to permit any class
to think they had rights which they could
] take into their own hands for settle
ment regardless of its effect on others.
| through the Inauguration of a strike. This
| Is clearly subversive of government for
1t Is the missic1 of government to place
all citizens ON the same plane in the
| settlement of differences which they can't
amleably adjust Given to one class the
| right to settle differences by a strike
| ana you impress all classes with the in
Justice of any such special privilege, and
| 1t is an easy step to disregard all law,
with anarchy as,its logical sequence
] If any class can be brought to believe
| and act on the idea that they are not
| pound equally with their fellow citizens to
! settle their differences in the courts of
! the land, it follows that the members
OF those organizations will defy the courts
| as we have seen done at the hands of
their leaders This is sowing seed that
| means harvest of ruin to the nation
| and proclams our boasted government a
| failure.
An organized strike is crime against
| organized society and should be treated
! as such. 1t partakes of every element of
a conspiracy, for those who order them
and participate in them are actuated by
the same motives as conspirators, they
seek to wreak wrong and ruin on those
who Will not bow to their rule and de-
| mands. Let us return to a rule of law
and bar the strike forever from our ma
tonal IRE n. f. THOMPSON.
Birmingham, July %, 1913