The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-09-01
The T'hreateaed Strike

AHEN who stand for fair play can preserve the
AVA peace il they will The brief Geographic ac-
counts of what is happening at the trarnmrnr con
ferences with the President and the railroads at
Washington create the impression that the unions are
not SO sure Of their position they would have the
general public believe. Threats seldom made in
business except by the weaker side The strong do
not threaten. They do not have To-.
The railway unions claim to have grievances against
their employers but instead Of showing willingness to
arbitrate they that the farmers andprUuccrs,
who will be the real sufferers through toppagc of all
freight traffic, will exert direct pressure IN the rail-
roads to compel them to yield. The producers more
than any other element within the state are the ones
who are going to be hardest hit by ruIruad strike
right in the middle of the harvest season.
The farmers not unionizcd nor are they as a
class usually given to fighting labor battles. It the
strike causes heavy financial loss to the people who
can least afford it the whole question o state rail-
. road ownership will be injected into politics with
vengeance.
The labor unions have everything to lose and moth
ing to gain through their refusal to- arbtrac. On
this subject the Nation says RAILWAY brohcrhoods
deciding upon the question OF strike should not
overlook the settlement of railway difficulty by
federal arbitration. Early in May the telcgrapherS
OF the New York Central and Nickel Plate lines de
terrnined to strike but in unc signed an agreement
to abide by the decision of board OF three unde:
Chairman r. X. Dougherty.
"The award has been made. and while it grants the
photographers a liberal increase in wages vacations
with pay. and overtime pay, it does not seem wholly
one sided This difficulty involved but 5000 men, but
last year dispute between ninety eight Western rail-
ways and $4,000 engineers and hremen similarly
adjudicated in satisfactory manner.
"The railway brotherhoods are said to be strongly
in nf their lead free i'm cal
strike and their leaders remarked six weeks ago
that they opposed arbitration because OF the difficulty
of obtaining neutral arbitratorS who knew the in
tricacy of the iSStleS But intricate issue is pre-
cisey the sort that ought to be settled by impartial
experts. reasonable principles, and not by blind
appeal to force.
q Sew will deny that the state Of the law and the
practise in this country relating to strikes what
we call public utilities, is confused backward. and
unsatisfying. We have made ample provision for me
diation and arbitration. Our governmental machin-
cry for investigation has been enlarged That is
WISE for often all that is needed in industrial dis
pute is to have the full truth forth But have
not yet provided ourselves with any means to
prevent the immense dislocations and losses caused
by great railway traction strike Here is clear
and great public interest not safeguarded.
"Yet we have long known what Canadian legiIla-
ton, for example, has done to safeguard it. The
plan adopted in Canada is not perfect, but it has
made great railway strikes without notice, and with
out first exhaustng all the of settlement
virtually thing of the past
"We in the United States will yet have to come
to something of that knd-we mean enactmentS which
place Public Utilities in class by themselves. and
erect legal barriers to protect the public against a
sudden cutting off of services essential the ongOngS
of modern life. Let us hope that we shall not have
TO pay great price-the experience of huge and dis
astrous strkesfor the wisdom necessary to lead
lawmakers to take such a step in advance