Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-09-19
Editorial Comment
Americas Greatest Weakness
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Hoston JournaD
The most damaging blow yet dealt
| against American success in the war
| both q moral and material blow-is
the ironworkers' and metal trades
strike in San Francisco. calling out
$4,000 men who were working on rush
contracts for the government.
All the pacifists, all the spies, all the
traitors, could not, by their combined
efforts devise such a calamity as the
slump in American shipbuilding now
threatened by this single strike.
Paciflsts can be disregarded spies
can be shot, traitors hanged. we have
an excellent secret service. But
strike is lawful, and not to be adjust
ed by brute force and secret police.
And paralysis of American ship
building or any part of it Is the worst
misfortune that can befan America
today.
So much for the material burden
| The moral aspect is darker still
What must be the effect of such a
! strike upon the country-a country
asked to sacrifice its all in war, and
plainly told that success depends upon
the building of ships? What Of the
army Of a million and a half men
(wage 800 per month"; whose lives de-
lend upon the shipbulding program:
What of the hordes Of laborers in mine
and shop and mill who have been i'm
plored in freedoms name, to support
their country in war? Isn't the spell
Of patriotism and unity strained a
little, here?
We aren't blaming the strikers. who
feel that they are entitled to living
wages. We aren't blaming the en-
ployers, who feel that they can't afford
to pay more. Whom. then. can we
blame? Nobody; nobody is to blame.
| There is in this country no respons-
Utility for labor peace and efficiency.
Nobody is responsible--and the
whole shipbuilding plan is in danger.
Nobody is responsible-and a nation
in arms sees its dearest hope receding.
Nobody is responsible--and a whole
! world waits for America TO deliver the
high gift Of democracy.
That's it--that's the trouble: nobody
is responsible.
Not Samuel Gompers, president Of
the American Federation Of Labor,
who is fitting about the country
drooling his patriotic platitudes from
| the rostrum: not the federal Depart
| ment Of Labor which exists by court
esy and works on paper; not the Pres
| ident of the United States, whose pow
or where labor is concerned lies only
| in appeal none Of these are respons-
ible.
Serious strikes now in existence in
clude that in the New York marine
trades, affecting 10000 workers; in I'M
form shops. 10000; Seattle shipyards,
5000; Butte copper mines, $4,000; East
| Kentucky and Tennessee coal mines,
$4,000; Arizona copper mines 5000:
Central States coal mines. 10000: Great
Lakes shipping trades, 5000; San
| Francisco metal trades and transpor-
| tation, $4,000. And besides these there
are less serious strikes in non-war in
dustries, all Of them disturbing to IA :
Dor morale and affecting, in various
parts of the country, about 10000
workers.
Add UP the sickening total and guess
what will happen If this labor disrup
ton continues. Compare also this fig
ure with the total of conscripts.
And then reflect that-nobody today
is responsible.
The United States must have a
responsible labor department which
shall have both the tact and the nu-
thority to prevent and TO settle strikes.
Whatever the San Francisco workers
demanded and whatever their employ
ers refused, there was no need for a
strike, and there would have been no
strike had the business Of prevention
been in capable hands
Nobody was responsible. so $3.50 00n,-
0o0 worth Of shipbuildng is held up in
definitely.
| Congress lad best not adjourn with
out at least discussion Of the strike
danger. Samuel Gompers. head Of the
greatest labor organization in the
world. might he called 10 Washington
to give an account Of his Stewardship.
his talk has been big, his performa nee
zero
President Wilson, who arbitrarily
settled the projected railroad strike
last fall, thereby assuming the posi-
ton Of the foremost arbitrator in the
country, might he expected to offer
some solution of the fearsome prob
lem confronting US.
This much is certain: we shall either
soon emerge from labor difficulties as
France and England emerged, or we
shall advertise ourselves rs tho most
| helpless nation in the Hor'd-and con-
foss failure In the war.
Well may Washington sit up. these
nights, as we approach the turning
point in our ponderous preparations
| for war.
IIDEDTv