The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-10-30
DOWN WITH THE STRIKE


Minneapolis Journal - The strike
ought to be abolished. 1t Is barbarous
and out-of-date. 1t does not cure the
ills for which it is invoked. 1t causes
untold sufferings and losses, not only
to those who are actually battling
against each other, but to innocent
%neutrals who have no responsibility
for the conditions and no power to
change them. The strike Is often at
tended with violence and disorder. and
always with loss Of earnings to work
ers n Of profits to employers. Both
sides come out of a prolonged struggle
in a weakened and impoverished con-
dition, no matter what the settlement.
And usually the public, or a consider
able section Of it, suffers almost as
much as the participants in the war
fare. War is a great curse, though
fortunately it does not occur often.
Blu industrial warfare is an everyday
occurrence. This is a strike-ridden
land. Always there is concerted idle
ness on the part of workmen some.
where. The steel industry is now ham,
pered by a great strike which is slow
ly ~dwindling away. The coal indus
try is threatened with another great
strike in a week. The longshoremen
in New York have paralyzed shipping
in that great harbor by their strike.
The magazines have suspended publi-
cation while a dispute in the printing
trades is fought out. The railroad men
are formulating fresh demands which
they are ready to enforce by brand
ishing the strike weapon. And while
the strike fever spreads, while indus
try is demoralized by these stoppages.
while worke everywhere are LOSING
their wages, while prices are forced
still farther upward by this enormous
economic loss, the presidents hand
picked Industrial Conference finds it.
self unable to agree on any counsels
of Cancellation, any method of abolish
ing strikes and substituting the dis
p%ensation of industrial justice with
out warfare. We have just been en-
tertaining in Minneapolis Sweden's
delegates to the International Labor
Conference in Washington next week.
They have had a message for us, if
we had ears to hear it. Sweden, it
appears. has practically solved the
problem of how to abolish industrial
warfare, and for more than a decade
this had industrial peace and pros
perity. The employers of Sweden and
the trade unions of Sweden have each
formed national associations, which
cooperate in settling all controversies
on a basis of justice to both sides.
All b agreements are referred to
them. and all settlements must have
their approval. There is a spirit of
cooperation and mutual tolerance.
Not all the workment belong to the
unions. Those who do not are treated
with respect by their union brethren.
1t Is recognized that unionism is a
matter on which men may disagree,
and on which each is entitled to his
W opinion. There is no effort to
dragon the %nonunion men into the or
CARNATIONS, and their right to stay
is respected. The Swedish plan
may not be applicable to American
conditions in all it's details. But it
is plain that somehow we must arrive
at an industrial armistice, so that the
.contending sides can come together
and formulate a perpetual treaty of
industrial peace. Its first voice should
provide that strikes are forever atol-
ished, and that peaceful means CT set
Ting all disputes on a basis of COM
plcte justice are 10 be adopted. In
the mind of the American people the
is slowly hardening that
the strike, with it's paralysis of COM
and industry, with it's rough
and sometimes bloody battles, with its
heavy cost to the combatants and to
the public, with the bitterness and
hatreds it engenders, must be cast
out forever. And if labor would re-
aliZe the truth the strike IS Is worst:
There is a better way. The
strike must give way to a peaceful, a
just, and American method of settling
industrial disputes. 1t is up to the
government to lead the way. 1t is
up to all good Americans to follow.
Wv. S. S.