Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1915-09-16

Tn the part OF the workers, the pos
sibility Of peaceful settlement may
be destroyed by refusal to discuss
claims, by internal discussions which
render collective and definite action
looking to a settlement impossible,
and by the issuance of ultimate
which allow no time for considera-
ion and negotiation. In any one of
lese situations the employer has only
he choice between tame submission
~1r absolute resistance to the demands
Violence and Strike Breakers:
c. The immediate cause of violence
n connection with Industrial disputes
almost without exception the at
tempt to introduce strikebreakers. to-
take the place of the workers who
have struck or who have been locked
out. The entire problem Of policing
industrial disputes grows out Of the
problem Of the strikebreaker and the
attitude Of the State toward him.
All experience shows thit if no at
tempt is. made to operate the plant,
violence and disturbances recurring
the police are practically unknown,
whereas the attempt of strikabreak=4
ers to reach the plant, particularly
where strikers are enjoined or pre-
vented from using reasonable means
to inform them Of the existence Of the
strike and to use persuasive meth
DDS to keep them from entering the
plant, is invariably accompanied by
disorder and sometimes by active VIC
lence.
The plea of the workers for the as
sumption Of new attitude in relation
to strikebreakers is. based not only
upon negative character Of the rights
of the employer and the strikebreaker,
but upon a positive though somewhat
undefinable demand for recognition
that strikers have a right to the jobs
which they have left until their griev-
ances, are in some way adjusted. The
argument is not only that when work
ers are willing to strike and sacrifice
their livelihood, the conditions against
which they protest must be assumed
to be socially injurious, but, even
more, that the. worker who has struck
in support of his demand for better
conditions has not abandoned his
job, but, IN fact, has a. keener inter
est in it than when quietly submitting
to distasteful conditions.
At the very basis Of the workers
contentious, however, lies the realiza-
ton that working conditions can be
impdoved only by strikes and that no
strike can be won If the employer
can operate his plant without diff
Guilty. This is becoming increasingly
true with every step in the Nations
industrial development. During more
primitive periods, If workers struck
their places could not be filed except.
through the existence of surplus of
qualified labor in the community Or
BY enticing workers from other en-
ployers. Now, the development Of
transportation, the establishment Of
specialized agencies for supplying
strikebreakers, and the growth of
large corporations which can shift
employees from one plant to another,
have given each employer a command
of the labor market of the entire coun-
try. There are agencies in every
large city which win contract to sup
ply any kind of labor on short notice.
while almost any Of the large indus
trial corporations can either supply
the normal demand with one half or
three quarters Of their plants or re-
cruit from the surplus labor around
their various plants skeleton organi-
zation which can resume operations
IN short time.
a. The greatest disorders and most
acute outbreaks OF violence in connecs
ton with industrial disputes arise
from violation Of what are considered
to be fundamental rights. and from
the peryesion or subsefsion Of Gov
Ornamental institutions.
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