Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-07-23

These hop pickers were treated with
les shumanity and consideration than
are given to cattle: They were tortur-
ed#-for profits. Being human crea-
tut es with some degree of dignity and
SELF respect, the storm that gathered
and brought murder in it's wake was an
inevitable result.
One of the leaders of the outbreak
said: Eve can't agitate in the country
unless things are rotten enogh to bring
the crowd along.'' Things were rotten
enough on the burst ranchS to weld
II nationalities into a prtesting aveng7
ing whole. Rioting followed the inter
ruption of a mass meeting by the sher-
IFS posse. Blood was shed. Human
lives were taken.
Some of the hop pickers were tried
for manslaughter.p Two were convicted
and sentenced-one for life. But what
of burst, the man who tortured men,
women and children to. increase the
profits from stew and citric acid lem
onade? Shall he go unscathed? You
say organized society must avenge it.
sci fagainst misdeeds in order to up
hold law and order. But did society
give even a thought to the wrongs and
the misdeeds committed against these
workers until they rose in their might
to enforce their own ideas of justice?
Now that knowledge of wrongs that
offend decency and the sense of justice
have ben forced upon society, will So
ciety give consideration to these
wrongs?
State laws already exist in Califor-
mia to regulate sanitary conditions of
camps. -Fhe State Commission of I'M
migration and Housing has already
taken steps to enforce them. Such &C
ton should have been taken long ago,
but at least it will help to prevent fu-
ture suffering. The intention is to
prosecute to the full extent of the law
employers who maintain insanitary
CAMPS. The only remedy is to, organ.
izs and educate the camp laborers so
they shall be able to protect their
own interests. Their very necessity
has made unorganized casual migra=
tory workers sassy victims of employ
ers' CRED and \ inhumanity. Raising
standards of work will naturally lead
to raising all living standards.
The facts presented in the majority
report are undisputed. A minority re-
port submitted by Mr.. Paul Scharren-
berg, secretary to the commission,
does not criticise the factss only the
Interpretation and the remedy offered
in the majority report. Mr.. Scharen-
berg thinks that the value and the i'm
portance of the l. w. w. movement are
over-estibated. Hd concluded that L.
w. W.-ism or other form of leadership
of Mi
t'The oily real significance of this Incl
dent liesSin the proof it affords Of the
conditions which make possible such
leadership"
The remedy for existing conditions
lies not in the, intrusion of third
party, finds Mr. Scharrenberg, but in
the incubation of the spirit of self
help. He adds with force:
"Why not give credit where credit
is due and acknowledge that the labor
movement of California-the 10000
|men and women under the banner of
the American Federation of Labor
has already actually cured some of the
worst evils under which the morgan
lied seasonal workers have suffered?
ssThe labor movement has spent
Thousands of dollars in an effort to in
culcate the spirit of self-heln Ii. e., ra-
tional and permanent organizationl
among the casual an rdmigfratory
workers of the state The very law
regulating the sanitation and ventila-
ton in the camps upon which the re-
port dwells in detail and which 1T is
hoped will make Impossible recurrence
Iof the WheatIand riot, was drafted and
placed upon the statute books mainly
| through the efforts of organized labor.
Mr.. Scharenberg proposes to attack
the unemployment evils by means OF
information bureaus under the control
of the workers themselves. He pre-
sents this reason for his method:
sThe real remedy can be applied