The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-24

When two unreasonable parties refuse to reach an agreement, their quarrel should be confined to themselves alone; it should be prevented from doing harm to others. But when two reasonable parties cannot come to agreement it is time to look behind the scenes for a third party whose in terest is to keep them quarrellng. This applies to labor disputes as well as other disputes. Some times both employer and employe are unreasonable and do not seek agreement but conquest; in which case their unreasonable ness ought not to be permitted to cause inconvenience or loss to the public. But there have been occasions when both employers and employees were reasonable enough to be able to reach an agreement, and were prevented by hidden influences.
 It should not be forgotten for single minute that though a strike~may mean loss of money, time and peace of mind to all di- rectly concerned-to working man, manufacturer and public it does not necessarily mean the same loss to everyone.
 There are interests that make money out of certain kinds of strikes. If these strikes did not pay somebody, there would be fewer of them.
 An analysis of the matter shows that there are three kinds of in dustrial disputes.
 First, there is the justifab ble strike-the strike for those prop CT conditions and just rewards to which the workingman is in all fairness entitled.
 The pity is that men should be compelled to use the strike to get what is theirs by right. No American ought to be compelled to strike for his rights. He ought to receive them naturally, easily, as a matter of course
 These justifab1e strikes are usu- ally the employers fault. Some employers are not fit for their job. Employment of men, direc- ton of their energies, arranging that their reward shall be in hon est ratio to their production and to the prosperity of the business that is no small job.
 An employer may be unfit for his job, just as a man at the lathe may be incompetent The lathe man gets into trouble with his work, and so does the incom- .. petent employer with his. Justi- fable strikes are a sign that the boss needs another job-one that he can handle.
 The unf.- employer causes more trouble than the unfit employe. You can change the latter to a more suitable job. But the for mer must usually be left to the law of compensation.
 The justified strike, then, is one that need never have been called if the employer had done his work as he ought.
 But there is a second kind of strike-the strike which may be named The Strike With a Con cea1ed Design. In. this kind of strike the workingmen are made the tools of some hidden manipu- lator who seeks his own ends through them. Whoever this manipulator may be, his designs will not stand the light.
 To illustrate this kind of strike: Here is a great industry whose success is due to having met public need, to its efficient and skilful methods of produc- ton, and to it's known record for just treatment of it's working men. Such an industry presents a great temptation to speculators. If they can only gain control of it they can reap rich benefit from all the honest effort that has been put into it.. They can de- stroy it's beneficiary wage and proft-sharing, squeeze every last dollar out of the public, the pro duet and tba unrLinsnaAn- and