The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-10-03

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Whole East Aroused BY Struggle
Employers Violate Constitution
Much Speculation on Conference
Called BY Wilson for October t.
Plumb Plan Stops Rush to Return
koads-Delegates Gather for In.
ternational Labor Meeting Under
League Of Nations-Lodge Quotes
Miners as Against League.
Washington, D. C.-All observers
in the East consider the steel strike
an event of first magnitude. The
whole world Of eastern industry holds
its breath over the possible outcome.
In a special sense it is a struggle be-
tween the old order and the new.
The great steel trust broke up the
unions Of American workers over a
generation ago. Native labor was
gradually replaced by workers lureG
from the farms and towns Of south
am Europe. With this raw material
the trust has been able to exercise an
autocracy over the livelihood of its
employees comparable to nothing
found in mere political forms. At the
samc time the trust fastens its ten
tac!es on the federal government and
the government Of every state where
it operates from Pennsylvania to Min
aesota.
Rapidly increasing costs of living
have forced these ordinarily docile
employees to challenge this old order.
as the farmers of Minnesota have
challenged it with a tonnage tax on
iron ore. They have tried to organ
ize, and now they strike first for the
right to organize and bargain collec-
lively and beyond that for better con-
ditions.
The organization has followed ira
ditional federation of labor methods.
Consequently observers see in it a
test of these methods and the spring.
ing up of different types of labor Or
carnations in case of failure. Labor
participation in politics will grow; so
also will the one big union sentiment
As preached by the I. w. w.
PRIVATE WARFARE ALLOWED
Dispatches from Wilson's special
train declare he has decided not to
act, feeling that he has done every
thing possible to prevent the break.
The fact that the United States Con-
.t:+ution, however, is being viol atei
in Pennsylvania by refusal to allow
~orklxen he right Of assemblage and
b. brutal ASSAULTS Of .'nmen on W
armed workers, would indicate that
the administration is not so neutral
as supposed. 1t is not enough to put
the responsibility on state authori-
ties. If workingmcn were rioting it
would not take the federal govern
pient long to see that the law was
upheld, as in the case of the Chicago
ciots in 1892
If, on the other hand, the workers
had voted for men of their own kind
instead of old-party politicians, their
ballots would not now be coming back
to them in the form of clubs, bullets
and suspension Of law. 1t almost
passes understanding that even old
party ofticeholdcrs can allow private
warfare to be waged by the great cor
porations.
CArITAL-LABOR CONFERENCE
What will come of President Will
sons industrial conference, which has
bccn called to meet here on October
s?
Speculation in this rich field is
warming up, as big business men and
leaders of the more powerful labor
unions mystcriously come and go
from their conferences with Bernard
::a"uch, the man who has the affair
in charge for the president.
The first guess of four-fifths Of the
observers is that the men picked to
comprise this conference will put
through a resolution declaring that
the senate should immediately ratifv
the Paris treaty in it's present form,
without amendment or reservations,
in order that industrial peace may be
secured
Beyond that point the estimates
vary widely. Some very well-infomcd
men declare that the administration
has determined to insist upon a ma
tionwide reorganization Of industry
upon a proft-sharing basis, as one
possible safeguard against the spread
of the craftsmanship idea con-
tanned in the Plumb plan for the
railroads. Others maintain that Mr..