The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-01-07
Strike-Breaking Agencies "Have
Sinned Away Their Day of Grace"

I fasten on them the responsibility for
disorder for which the stage has been
carefully set before the final goad
was applied.
Disorder and violence are to him
the breath of life because his bread
and butter depend on the existence
of disorder and violence The very
fact that he consents to serve as a
professional strike breaker brands
him as a man who has sunk so low
as to be Indifferent to public opinion
and the regard of his fellow men,
who is so desperate that he is willing
to risk an ignoble and shameful
death in violence of him own making.
They Thrive on Disorder
In every strike conspicuous for dis.
order it has been the arrival of
armed guards and the professional
strike breaker that has signaled the
beginning of bloodshed and terrorism
They lose no time in going about
their task of insulting, intimidating,
clubbing and shooting. When they
fired in cold blood and killed or
MANNED twenty-one inoffensive and
peaceful strikers at Roosevelt, N. j.,
in January, 1915, they acted true to
form. The case was exceptional only
because this particular horror occur
red within the metropolitan district
and these was not the usual oppor.
tunity for the employers and their
agents in and out of office to cover
up the facts.
In some instances the employer
knows when he signs his contract
with a strike breaking agency that
he has placed himself in the hands
of the agency and is committed to a
policy of harrassing, intimidating and
goading the strikers beyond endur-
ance. Such an employer sets out de-
liberately to create a situation where,
in passion displaces reason in order
that the merits of the controversy
can be obscured, and that finally the
workers can be crushed by a policy
of blood and iron.
In other instances the employer
signs a contract without realizing
that he is placing his interests in the
hands of professional thugs There
are cases where the employer has
himself been shocked and outraged
by the acts of those he has employed.
For the big agencies send not only
the strike breakers, but an expert
corps of captains, lieutenants, armed
guards, and detectives, who take
charge of the situation and relieve
1.-THE employer of actual, but not moral,
responsibility.
The disastrous consequences of
this violence and disorder with the
bloodshed, passion and bitterness that
| follow, need not be dwelt upon If
only to guard the country against the
recurrence of tragedies like those of
Colorado, West Virginia, and Roose.
welt, congress should enact the bill
that would wipe out strike breaking
as a specialized industry.
Evidence Sufficient
| Enough has been said to show that
the presence of imported strike break
ers means the presence of violence
and disorder, and that the most eff
cient policing force in the country is
helpless to prevent.
: After the professional gunman and
bully has taken possession of a strike
zone, the agency Immediately begins
the shipment of strike breakers of a
Slightly different sort. There are pen.
niless vagabonds gathered from the
slums of the great cities, newly-ar-
rived immigrants unable to speak
English and grasping at straws, law.
less men ready for any adventure
that includes food and whisky, ne
groes from the South. They are re-
cruited and shipped by the trainload
under armed guards. like prisoners
of war or chattel slaves. They are
as a class, less aggressive and less
vicious than the professional strike
breakers who have preceded them
But they are not less undesirable as
citizens of the community
You cannot analize the intense hos.
tility which the home-making, home
loving workman on strike feels
against the strike breaker without
} FINDING its roots in the noblest and
most sacred feelings and instincts OF