The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-05-21
Our Drift Towards
Labor War and ReVo-
luton; Time To Look
For Basic Causes
BY HERBERT Quick,
Author OF 'On Board the Good ship
Earth" and other noted W orks.


our drift toward labor revolt and
revolution has gone SO far that we can
already analyze the type OF civil war
which has become an American tnsti.
tuition,
This type OF insurrection will pres
ent &c the historian the repeated ap-
pearance OF certain active factors.
First. A body OF workingmen who
are normal American citizens in peace
anC are implied by some industrial
force 10 strike work and try TO tic
up industry Failing 10 tie il up, their
actions are directed 10 the end OF
making the strike SO expensive TO
their employers as 10 render them
careful OF mourning such troubles IN
the future.
Second A great employing concern
which refuses 10 treat with the men
on one or more points involved.
Third A body OF mercenaries EN-
| ployed as fighters by the employers
under the name or mine guards, These
| professional fighters are hired out by
concerns organized, like the Baldwin
Feltz company, and constitute priv
ately paid military force. with rifles,
machine guns, and all the parapher-
MALTA OF regular war. They closely
resemble the Free Companies OF sol
diers who fought so ferociously in the
middle ages in Europe on any side
which promised adequate compensa-
ton
Fourth The state militia and the
regular United States troops brought
into the war 10 establish order. and
usually thrown into contact with the
strikers because the situation is such
ordinarily as TO put the strikers in the
wrong legally.
Fighting is sure TO begin when hos
tile bodies OF men are thus arrayed
against each other by forces over
which they have no control. Some
times one party begins hostilities, and
sometimes the other. AS social
phenomenon. ii makes no difference
/ which begins II Is sure 10 begin
remember the time when rioter
was always regarded as being In the
wrong. Law and order were looked
upon as too sacred 10 be tempered
with for q moment But we have so
far drifted toward revolution that per
haps half the people or the United
States sympathize with lawless acts
when committed under the stress or
strike. This is a fearful change in
the attitude OF the people. It's I'M
portance cannot be exaggerated. III
thinss keep drifting In this direction,
we snail reach a point where We shall
| join whole heartedly In the praise
which Victor Hugo accords TO the
mob which in time of stress barricad-
ed the streets Of Paris and fought the
police and the army.
ITO be always peaceful says Hugo,
belongs 10 progress no more than
| to the river: raise an obstruction,
cast in a rock the obstacle makes
water foam and humanity seethe.
Hence trouble; but after these trou-
bles we recognize that some ground
! has been gained Until order, until
harmony and unity reign. progress
Will have revolutions for stations"
TE enty years ago this sounded
strange TO every American ear Now
the masses are coming more and more
10 be receptive TO such ideas. What
does this mean? II means that we
have missed the harmony and unity
az Which the French genius speaks,
and. in missing IL, we have missed the
establishing or society in which
there are no such things as seryile
Instructions, civil wars, armed tu-
mults like that in Colorado.
We are drifting into a French sta
tus A Mexican status. a Russian
status-and we have labor wars TO
notify us that this is so.
At bottom, the matter Is simple. So
unfree Is our society that the man
prizes his job II the Colorado. the
West Virginia, or the Michigan min
ers, or the strikers anywhere, could
get new jobs at fair wages, simply