The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-09-01
Is the Nation Ready

The great question raised by the
strike negotiations at Washington i:
not whether the railroads ought tc
grant the eight-hour day or not, OF
whether arbitration of all matters al
issue by a competent tribunal ought
to be assented to; it is whether the
American people will take measures
to put an end 10 state of things un-
der which the life, health and bust
ness prosperity of the whole nation
are left at the mercy of informal con-
ferences at which the representatives
of the people have no authority what
ever and not even right to be pres
ent except by courtesy of the contend
ing parties.
We, the people, who have chartered
the railroads, granted them the right
"a governmental one-of eminent do
main, furnished the capital to build
them and paid both the wages of the
employees who live by the roads pros
perity and the profits on the capital
investment, are strangers and out
siders when roads and labor organiza-
tons fall out, and sit helpless when
their misunderstanding threaten to
cut off milk and food from our towns
and cities, fuel and raw material from
our factories and the labor supply
from our harvest fields, to halt the
mother on her way to the bedside of
her stricken child, the invalid in search
of health and strength, the laborer on
the road to his work and the seeker for
knowledge on his way to school,
IN knan
healthy is to keep its several elements
in position to assert and enforce their
rights. The attitude that sends cit
izen of democracy, hat in hand, to
beg on sufferance that which he should
claim as right threatens the very
foundation of free government.
We, the general public, are in this
attitude with respect to both the rail
way managers and railway employees.
We have, in the past, enforced none
Of our rights with respect to the pres
ervation of industrial peace. Our con-
stitution and our statute books con-
tain scarce an intimation Of con-
seriousness that SUCH rights exist. Ev-
en- such elementary facts as that mod
ern transportation and modern in
dustry are built up, not on the exer-
else of the natural rights of man, but
on privileges grained by charter I'M
der special conditions; that the sue
cess of managers and the prosperity
of wage earners are not the mere re-
suit Of individual enterprise on the
one hand and industry and thrift on
the other, but consequences of special
privileges and immunities granted to
corporations by the State-even such
elementary facts as these Sound
strange in the ears of the average cap
italist, the average workingman.
This is not the fault either of man
ayers or workers. In democracy
each man defends his own rights; and
managers and wage earners have each
been keen enough about theirs. 1t is
the fault of the blind, indolent gene
raj public, which has lacked the ener-
gy of thought and will to study, as
sert and enforce its rights with re-
spect to industrial peace and continu-
ity, and has preferred to wait until
workmen were locked cut or strikes
paralyaed industry, and then to beg
and plead with either manaGa,s of
capital or leaders of labor 7aecording
to which happen to be the upper
dog'-to remember public that had
forgotten itself
This is no time to worry about "pre-
cedents." When we begin at the bot
tom--for the American people is ca
pable of such fundamental. construc-
tive political tasks-to train our cit
liens to know their rights and con-
struct the machinery necessary to en-
force them, we shall in those very ac-
tivities sweep away all the "prece-
dents" which we have formed by dodg-
ing our duties and responsibilities and
permitting well-doing employers to be
ruined by sympathetic" strikes, and
well-doing workmen's families to be
starved by lockouts, thus training
both sides to rely on force and to de-
spise justice for us as we have de-
spised it for them.
This is the constructive task Of the
hour. We must not shirk it. We shall
never accomplish it by patching up;
we must begin at the bottom. And
we cannot do justice to manager and
workmen except by beginning with the
assertion. by proper and adequate
laws of the public's own rights. Are
we ready to begin now?-The st.
Louis Republic