The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1916-08-04
Railroad Strike Threatened

1t appears from advertisements that
have appeared in this paper from time
to time, as well as from reports in the
metropolitan press, that a general
strike of all the railroad employees in
this country is impending. In COM
menting upon this situation, which is
fraught with gravest consequences, not
only as regards the general prosperity
but the absolute necessities of the ma
tion as well, we make no attempt to
analyize the causes of the controversy
nor of the merits of the claims of the
parties thereto, viz. the railroads on
the one hand and their employees on
the other. To do this intelligently
would require knowledge of a vast
amount of statistical data, of which we
know and can know next to nothing.
But there is one principle involved
which we believe more important than
the statistical part so far as the or
dinary citizen, nowise connected with
railroading, is concerned. 1t is that
regarding the settlement of this diff
Guilty along rational lines and avoiding
the hardship to the general public that
strike in so vital and comprehensive
an industry must certainly bring about.
The railroads have offered to refer the
matters at issue to the Interstate Com
merce Commission, the nearest repre-
sentatives of the people themselves
who are intimately connected with the
transportation business, for adjudica-
tion and settlement. They have also
offered to arbitrate the whole matter
through the machinery of the national
arbitration laws. Either of these means
would afford opportunity for the statis-
tical studies that are absolutely nec-
essary to an equitable settlement of all
the matters at issue. But up to date
the officials representing the different
organizations of railway workers have
refused these offers, we are told, and
exact full compliance with all of their
demands, in default thereof threaten
ing strike the influence of which upon
the whole country could not fail of be-
ing disastrous to degree almost inn
possible of comprehension. For ex-
ample, what would happen if one of our
great cities, with its population reach
ing into the millions, were deprived of
its outside food supply for a week; of
its milk supply for day? What would
the whole country do if its transporta-
ton facilities were tied up for month?
The mere thought is staggering. 1t
would not seem possible that either
employer or employee could contem-
plate it. And yet between these two
forces, so essential to the national well
being, substantial justice should OBJ
tain. How can this best be brought
about? The answer is that the prin-
ciple of arbitration, which is but another
form of trial by jury" is the most
rational, the most practicable and most
fair means of settling difficulties be-
ween man and man that has yet been
devised. 1t is open to abuses, unques-
tionably, but it is the best that time
has evolved, and the principal who re-
jects it leaves vide the way to the pre-
sumption that there is something in
herently wrong with his case. The
only means for the peaceable settlement
of difficulties between capital and labor,
in the complex age in which we live,
especially in public service industries,
is to be found in arbitration and friend.
ly, earnest, honest conference. and
those who reject it, whether as repre-
senting the one side or the other, lay
themselves open to the charge of seek
ing TO establish and maintain a monop-
oily in which the paramount rights of
the whole people are wantonly ignored.