The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-08-25
some OF The FACTS OF THE
WEAVERS' RECENT TROUBLE
A LITTLE BIT OF THE OTHER SIDE THAT WAS NOT
PRINTED IN OUR DAILY PAPERS

millman works the street because that
is the best place to get recruits for
his side, and the picket works the mill
frontage because there he can do
most for his side. An Injunction pro-
hibiting the employer from getting re-
cruits when and where he could, other
than at his own office, would be as
fatal in its effect on his interests as
an injunction preventing pickets from
seeing strike-breakers at their work
(the only place where they can be
seem, would be fatal to unionism.
Such an injunction issued to the en-
ployer would be a recognition of
property rights and the worker in the
! first case cited could with quite as
much logic apply for that injunction
as his human right, if human rights
were much contemplated in the great
body of law
The right is one that union men
must use sparingly or risk being
beaten up by overwhelming forces of
strike-breakers urged on by the direc-
tion of their boss and in the knowl-
edge that armed thugs stand ready to
effectually second their efforts with
bullets and bludgeOns.
The action of the police in the Sat
urday morning occurrence will be al
most unbearable by those whose COM
posite of the police character has
been gathered by watching them ON
street crossings or holiday parades.
That striker could be beaten help
less and be dragged to the edge of a
bluff to be thrown over it, being
saved only by the protest Of one of
those who had aided in the beating,
that such an incident could occur in
full view of the police without them
making move to stop it. cannot
easily be believed, but can readily be
proved
Policemen may and occasionally do
make an effort in such contingencies
to protect helpless pickets, who al
ways lie under the aspersion. what
ever may happen, of causing trouble.
but in this instance of seventeen men
being beaten up Ga rather wholesale
affair it will tie admitted. no such
human impulse inspired the consti-
tuted authorities Instead they settled
themselves into soft and delicious
freedom from FLEEING care and enjoy
ing the spectacle so hugely as to de-
mand an encore, offered as a slight
testimonial of their appreciation of
this charming pleasantly that they
had done nothing to prevent seven
teen being beaten by seventy because
the line marking the city limits had
powers of sultation, however unob-
structive ii had proved to their vision
When. however, on the nearly same
ground, festivities of the same kind
were resumed in the evening with
happier success for the pickets, the
police flew to the assistance of those
who had so lavishly dispensed pun
ishment but ten hours before, firing
several shots, finally shooting a
striker in the hip and thus indicated
the intention to kill
The employment of force is at all
times deplorable-such, at least. is the
verdict of Labor, which, down all the
ages, speaks through having suffered.
And such is the verdict of Capital.
though ii Is singular that thing so
deplorable should so often be called
to its service.
The picket line of the shingIe
weavers was beaten up at the COM
mand of employers who are assuredly
honorable men condemning violence
except when it is administered by
their order and to their advantages
The armored knight of the feudal ages
made a "kultur" of killing ragged
peasants fighting with oak slaves.
When gunpowder was invented and
all the armor was junked because of
the slight resistance il offered to
bullets, the virtue of force rose in
the estimation of the peasant as ii
fell in the appreciation of the tasseled
noble.
The sole proposition of Col Hartley,
that on which he bases his candidacy
for governor, is the long-felt need of
force to stifle the spirit of Labor; that
the gunman of the private employer
should be superseded by the cossack
J Continued on Page Three)