The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-08-31
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.

attempt will be made to belittle the importance of the railroad strike. Its consequences will be economi- cally too serious and it's affect upon industry too grave to make it at all likely that any person is going to regard it as a storm in tea pot.
 On the other hand the dramatic nature of the climax, the endless negotiations, the persistent prepara- tions for the gigantic struggle may easily lead persons not careful, ill over-rating the importance of unim- portant phases and ignoring the re- ally important issues that are in volved.
 We are so close to this gigantic strike movement that we can easily lose perspective and fail to grasp the essential factors of this great strug- gle. We will mark easily enough the clash of the brotherhoods with the companies which employ them; the interesting and semi political effort of the government and congressional leaders to effect @ settlement; the disastrous results which a stoppage of the trains will have upon in- dustry, and easily enough these things will loom so large before our mental vision that we may ignore totally the real key to the situation which is the class antagonism inhe- rent in any system of private owner ship and private exploitation.
 We say, have always said, that however latent or dormant may be that antagcnism, it is none the less always present under the capitalist economy. There is always and per manently a difference of view and a clash of interest between the views and the interests of labor and capi- tai which employs it.
 The railroad industry, one of the greatest in the entire economy, is no exception. Between the wage workers and tne dividend takers there is an inevitable antagonism which may be held in the leash as during normal times, but which sooner or later breaks it's bounds and stands revealed as in the present crisis.
 And this is the problem which all reformers face, and face without any ability to solve. The very in ability to offer a solution leads the best mentioned men in the world to regard the economic and social forces with which they deal as de- mons which now and then become uncomfortable, and which for that reason necessitate a resort to force to keep them quiet.
 In all the dickering and the bick- ering and the rag-chewing that went on In Washington, we see no re- cognition of the fact that the strife itself is an incident of the class struggle. That it is the effort of the workers to obtain a greater and greater share of the product Ot their labor. Nor have we seen a single railroad President say that the urge for pro fits prevents them now conceding the railroad men their demands be- cause such would threaten diva ends and there was no surety that if those demands were granted today, the companies would not ba called upon to grant still higher demands tomorrow.
 In the entire United Statts no body of men have been so loyal and conservative as the railroad brother hoods. They were in no sense revo lutionary. They did not recognize the existence of class antagonisms. Every conductor, every trainman, every fireman, every engineer carri- ed in his estimation a presidents portofolio in his grip sack. They | boosted for the railroads politically; worked TOT them socially. and gave them service the very essence of | which was docile servility.
 They refused to affiliate with the | rest of organized labor, and even so conservative men as Gompers could not induce them to ally themselves with any organization in which there might turk the suspicion of taint of radicalism. ]