The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1917-12-13
AN INDISPENSABLE STRIKE.

AN INDISPENSABLE STRIKE. |
A general sympathetic strike has
been called by the labor unions Of st.
Paul and Minneapolis for today, and
twenty or thirty thousand
men will quit work and parade the
streets of the Twin Cities. Why? Be- !:
cause handful Of street car en-
ployees were denied employment by
the company unless they desisted
from wearing union buttons while on
duty. "
There are two organizations of
street car employees-one represents
80 per cent and the other 20 per cent
of the employees. It was the members
Of the smaller organization that start
ed the trouble. Members of both or
CARNATIONS wore buttons. The matter !
was referred to the Public Safety COM :
mission for arbitration, and a special
commission, headed by President Ker-
foot Of Hamline University was ap-
pointed to make thorough investiga-
ton. On the strength Of the special
commissions report the Public Safety
commission ordered that the members
of both organizations should dispense
with their buttons while on duty and
that the discharged union men should
be reinstated. This agreement, it ap-
pears, was acquiesced in by the street
car company and the representatives
of both the employees organizations,
and the trouble was supposed to be
ended. But the members Of the 20 per
cent union organization persisted in
wearing their buttons and were denied
employment by the company. These
are the plain facts, succinctly stated,
as we understand Them.
The striking union men and their
friends held meetings and rioting fol-
lowed. Now a sympathetic strike is
declared and thousands of men will
quit their work, paralyze business and
cause innocent people loss, suffering
and hardship.
Let it be remembered that these
sympathetic strikers have no grievance
against their employers, and in VIOLA
ton of their contracts with those en-
ployers, strike out of sympathy for
handful Of striking street car men.
Men have the unquestionable legal
right to quit work whenever they see
fit, but from the viewpoint of fair deal
ing between man and man the sympa-
thetic strike in this instance is utterly
indefensible.
AS was stated in these columns last
week the original cause Of the trouble
was trivial in the superlative degree.
To US it appears that it was a matter
of ridiculously small Importance
whether a street car conductor wore
one or dozen buttons or none at all.
But the street car company and its
fraction Of bullet-headed employees
seem to think otherwise, and, as usual
in all such controversies, the general
public are the sufferers.
| We still adhere to the opinion that
the minority street car organization
would have abided by the agreement
reached with the Public Safety COM
mission had it not been for the inter-
ference of mercenary political agita-
tors, some of them sNonpartisan and
some of them ALLEGED Republican
bosses, whose sole desire was to en-
barrass Governor Burnquist. And
now, we believe, the enemies of the
United States have Joined hands with
the political mercenaries to raise all
the hell possible and embarrass the
government in it's war work.
In any event the people of the state
expect the authorities to maintain law
and order and to protect life and prop
erty in the Twin Cities.