Albuquerque morning journal., 1919-10-31


ALTON WHICH CHALLENGES THE
SUPREMACY OF THE LAW AND
EVERY RESOURCE OF THE GOV
ERNMENT WILL BE USED TO
PREVENT THE NATIONAL DISAS-
TER WHICH WOULD INEVITABLY
RESULT FROM THE CESSATION
OF MINING OPERATIONS"
That is the declaration of Attorney
General Palmer. who announces that
the department of justice will have
charge of enforcement of the statutes
and guards will be used wherever
needed to protect coal miners and en-
able production to continue.
The attorney general deals only
with the legal aspect of the situation.
The general right to strike is not de-
MED, except in this particular case
nor does the department enter into
consideration of the sufficiency of
miners wages.
When the president stated that the
coal strike would be without the
pale of law" miners union officials
asserted they kneY of no legal re-
strictions, as courts had held strikes
We're privileged.
The attorney general responds with
specifications showing that when war
powers were given. contracts were
r,,odo ho+vv,ar y,inarS' officials and
operators so that the government was
able to fix the maximum price that
could be charged for coal and to con-
troll distribution, not simply for war
use, but for the welfare of the people
dependent upon fuel for employment,
for food and for life
That authority, of the fuel admin
istration board has not been revoked,
though exercise of it has been sus-
pended or relaxed.
This brings up the question of fact
as to whether the collective bargain
contracts made between the miners
officials and the operators have ex-
pired. on this point the attorney
general is very emphatic. saying that
war is still on and any contract run
ming until war conclusion is still in
force. What ever weight may be Civ
en- to the argument that the success
full operation of the war no longer
requires such contracts, it has no APP
plication whatever to the large num-
Der of such contracts which expire
at fixed date without regard for the
war period. The armistce did not
end the war. and the courts in many
cases have held that the war emer-
gency statutes are still in force; the
same rule must apply to war emer-
gency statutes. Congress held to this
position so late as October %. when
an act was approved making even
more effective the food and fuel con-
troll act.
Some of the wage contracts were
made with the sanction of the federal
government, operating through the
fuel administration, to run during the
continuation of the war or until April
/, 1920. Many others, however, run
until time still in the future without
regard for the continuation of the
war.
The demand for a new wage agree
ment covered only part of the coal
fields, but the strike order was sent
broadcast to workers in other fields.
where operators had been given no
opportunity to even consider demands
for increased wages or decreased
hours. All this has been done while
the miners in every field, through
their right of collective bargaining,
had entered into a solemn contract
with the operators, fixing wages and
hours for a definite period,
The government still has the right
to fix the maximum prices operators
may charge the public for coal. says
the attorney general, and if the prac-
tice is resumed. as il must be if pro-
duction ceases, or is restricted. the
provision will be of little benefit to
the public when the supply on hand
is exhausted.
If the law still permits the govern
ment in an emergency, to limit the
price of coal, thus holding the opera
tors, 1t must of necessity hold also to
prevent other parties to the contracts
from making it impossible to produce
and thus make coal high priced or
unobtainable. is the point of The legal
department of the nation.
Even If some of the agreements are