Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1916-09-13
THE STRIKE STAYED OFF.


gress and by the unyiclding efforts
OF President Wilson in his insistence
that immediate steps be taken to
prevent tho nation wido strike Of
the nembers Of four brotherh0ods of
organized trainmcn.
1t was, In our opinion, Il master
stroke that stayed the 400. 900 pairs
OF hands that would have struck a
dagger into the very heart of a ma
tion Of l00,00O.000 people in order
10 enforce demands that they claim
to bo--nnd for aught we know may
be-just and righteous. We say
100000 would have struck the dag
ger. acting simultaneously We say
that for the sake of argument and
because that is what the brother
hood heads havo told us in press
dispatches. But is it correct? From
what We can gather from statements
coming from private sources and
from other press dispatches, the bro
therhood men as individuals do not
seem to know chow it happened,
Reports come from various sources.
anu from points widely separated,
shat trainmen n--conductors, engi-
neers, frcmcn-say they arc salts
lied with their pay and their treat
mcht at the hands OF their employ
ers' They realize that they are the
best paid employees in the United
States, and they are at a loss to
know by what means the nation
wide strike was ordered. At least
these things are talked by those who
claim to knOw-men neither rail
ROAD employees nor railroad officials.
But that is not a material point in
the case. The main point is that
quick action by the President and by
Congress has prevented. for the time
being at least. n national calamity
me strike that was proposed could
nave been nothing short Of a calam-
lty had II become effective and had
tt lasted even for so short pcriod
as thirty days. We are not going to
Enthcr wrong in their positions, nor
yet that they are in the right on the
whole. Neither would we claim that
all the wrong or all the right is on
'he side of the railroad officials. We
are great believers in the theory that
there Is much the same amount of
human nature in one man as in ano-
Nher~-ln tho railroad official as
mere Is III the railway con-
'hctor, engineer, fireman 0 other
ir"'nman And where there is hll~
man Gature there is the liability TO
orr, the proneness to cxaggeratc
ones own WRONGS and to minimize
anothcr'S virtues. There was need
OF arbitration in the case in point.
and the brothcrhoods lost much OF
I"'r prestige when, given the op-
portunits to arbitrate their griev-
anccs, whether real or imagined.
they refused to arbitrate. Arbitra-
tion refused is half Acknowledgement
of being in the wrong.
II is enough for the present to
know that for the moment the ca
lamity has been avcrted. The hor-
rid skeleton that has been Haunting
It's grcwsomc figure in the faces Of
100000, 900 people for the past few
days has served one great purpose,
however, and that is to show to this
t,,n1
guardian OF all these hosts, that it
must be prepared in the future to
better guard tho interests and the
lives OF its citizens. Should ano-
''er cf'S's arise. We believe that,
come from what source the trouble
play, our government will have been
committed to the principle of GOV
ernment ownership, or at least GOV
erhmeht control. OF railways, tclc-
graph telephone. and all public util-
Ties. Each OF these great industrial
enterprises constitutes, in its iudi-
Vldual capacity. part and parcel of
the group OF public utilities, and the
government. even If it does not own
them outright. should have direct
supervision over them all. The no-
1l0n's greatest sources Of benefit and
comfort-thcsc things which consti-
tute the very foundation of the ma
tons life-shouid not be longer per-
mittcd to stand az the possible
source of the nations greatest dan
ger.
TIE nationwide strike. had il ma