The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-05-16
NOT FAVOR-JUSTICE.

NOT FAVoR-JUsTIcE.
Editorial in The st. Louis Republic:
We have ~Tefrained from on
the details OF the issues dividing min
ers and min. owners in Colorado, for
the reason that the questions immedi-
ately at issue are but as the small dust
of the balance by comparison with the
greater question which lies behind
them.
With all our boosted humanitarian
advance in the realm of labor troubles
we. as a people, organized in state and
nation. have adhered closely to a sim
gle princiI lie: that the whole matter
is none of our business.
The bitterness of labor troubles aris-
es out of the fact that both employers
and employees know that, speaking
generally, there is no help to be OBJ
tanned from the force Of public opinion,
and hat the contests that arise must
be fought cut by brute strength. What
recourse has the locked-out workman,
deprived of his job in the beginning Of
winter, with nothing to feed his wife
and child? The employer is within
his rights; we, as members OF society,
are not concerned $50 long as no vio-
lence is done. This is Internal nom
sense. Is it not violence" to take
away a mans job under such circum-
stances? Or take the other side of the
PICTURE: Here is al employer, con-
fronted with wage demands that mean
bankruptcy at a time when orders
must be filled in order to meet notes at
the bank, the proceeds Of which have
gone into material and wages. Sup
pose work is stopped at his plant at
the behest of a labor union and 1T is
picketed to prevent his getting other
men. We look on, and see nothing we
can do sc long as no violence is
done. Internal nonsense again. Is it
not "violencC" to drive q solvent bus
mess man to his ruin?
The demonstration that we can do
nothing is short and simple. We are
told that if the state were to compel
arbitration it could not compel the &C
C~eptance Of the award of a board of
arbitration because that would involve
forced ~labor-which is slavery-or the
a~brogation of the right Of Tree CON
tract. Therefore, we a do nothing
except to interfere "in case of resort
to force.
This demonstration contents itself
| with taking up the things we cannot
do and emphasizing the fact that We
cannot do them. But proof that we
cannot enforce acceptance Of an arbi-
tration award upon unwilling employ
ers or protesting employees only raises
the question whether there Is not
something that we an do which will
ameliOrate the situation.
This thing we can do. under u law,
by making roper statutory provision
for 1t: We can, in any case of serious
labor difficulty, on the instance OF n
party or both, cause a thorough inves-
tigatiOn to be made by q properly con-
| stituted tribunal, without prejudice or
favor, and a solution worked out and
recommended to the contestants for
ratification and adoption. This would
| place the moral weight of a just public
| opinion upon the side Of the aggrieved
party, or, where both were at fault,
would make clear what their resPec-
! tive rights were.
OF all the cases questions brought to
the bar Of public opinion, none, prob
ably, are harder for h average citl-
zen to judge than labor troubles. An
intelligent opinion must include a
knowledge of the state Of the given
industry; we must be able to judge
whether a cut in wages means n
employers are exploiting wOrkmen, or
whether they are simply asking them
to peal their portion of a universal
burden Of hard times. 1t must include
a knowledge of the technical points
involved; how many readers OF this
paper know what drawing pillar
cars means to a coal miner? 1t must
l0CllQ6 a knOWIeUSS Vi lax ShoIOLAlS
of the trade" for obvious reasons.
These requirements are SO severe
that there is little or. no intelligent
opinion on labor matters, and the
average reader of newspapers passes
them up" or forms opinions in the
light Of certain general sympathies or
prejudices. From this it result that
the antiseptic force of public opinion
has, as things now stand, no oppor-
+,.oS+-y - xT,or1r on HiGnNtpa between
labor and capital.
When capital is tyrannical 1T is so
because public opinion cannot get at
it to compel reasonableness. No man
or set Of men in this nation is strong
enough to persist in demands that the
great majority Of right-thinking, law
abiding men consider unreasonable
and unjust.
Neither labor nor capital gets its
rights under our laws. Each gets eX-
actly what it is able to get by force;
in the heart of employer and employe
alike burns that fierce resentment felt
by every man who finds himself COM
PEELED to fight an unequal battle fol
what he conceives to be his rights
unhelped by society. We do not need
to be friendly to labOr" or friendly
to capital" this is not a matter which
will ever be settled by any kind OF
favor or favoritism; we have too lone
discussed labor questions as if they
involved the peculiar privileges OF
privileged classes. What the whole
situation needs is not a special bent
toward n side or the other; it needs
that society hold the balance with ar
even hand and weigh without fear OF
favor.
The power of public. opinion is
greater than the force Of my ,aggre-
cation of capital, of any organization
of working men. By reason of the
completely of labor troubles public
opinion has had no chance to work or
them. We can create that chance ant
the popular sense of justice will dc
the rest. ...
Goldenrod in the Flower Garden.
Many persons are under the impress
sion that America has few, If any
native plants and r shrubs that are
worthy Of cultivation in the hom'
garden. They have been accustomed
to look upon them as weeds and wilt
things, forgetting that all plants ar
: weeds and wild things somewhere
And so unfamiliar are they with thu
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