Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1919-10-02
Forecast Strikers
Will Lose Fight

a large NUMBER OF BogatuSa cltl-
zens will be interested i'll the fore
cast which has been made by the
New York Commercial that the steel
workers will lose their strike and
the publication advances the follow
ing reasons for their prediction:
Wall Street has an uncanny way
of forecasting events. It is an in
Simultaneous barometer of the pre-
ponderance of public opinion. It is
sometimes wrong, but not often. The
stock market yesterday reflected, in
the strength shown in the later deal
lngs, the belief that the strike would
not be a success, for even the steel
stocks themselves were bid up.
In Congress the hostile public
sentiment is also reflected in resoiu-
tons to investigate the strike and in
declaration that q strike for DOW
er should fall within the provisions
OF the antitrust law. Furthermore.
by its action within the past few
days the House of Representatives
for the first time Stree 1908 has vot-
ed down an amendment to the an
preparation bill forbidding the use
of any part of the appropriations for
the prosecution under the antitrust
laws Of farmers associations or la
Dor unions. Hitherto such organi-
cations have been exempted from
prosecution by the lack of funds
available for that purpose.
Labor unions, it would seem,
therefore, have overreaehed them
selves, or are overreaching them
selves, and have in a large measure
forfeited the sympathy Of the public
at large, without which they cannot
succeed. They have forced the pen.
dulum. too far in one direction, so
that its return swing seems about
due, and there is the danger, so far
as the unions are concerned, that
it may swing equally as far in the
other direction. In fact, that re-
return swing may already have be-
gun, for we now hear the open shop
spoken of with more confidence than
in recent times, especially among
workers themselves. They realize
that uniOnism means that the most
skiful worker must be kept down to
the level Of the poorest and that in
dividual initiative is cut off and am
bition is stifled.
The unions themselves have in
advertantly forced this issue to the
front and they may Rave cause to re-
greet before very long that they were
not more temperate lin their de-
manGs, or, rather, that they permit
ted the radical element to obtain
control.
"It is significant that in the steel
strike most of the American work
ers have remained loyal, the iefec-
tons being among the foreign born.
This factor alone must doom the
strike to failure. American citizens
viii not permit themselves to be-
dominated by small percentage OF
population, practicany all of which
consists of aliens. One of the fun
damental principles of Americanisrn
is that honest ambition shall be un-
trammeled, that the lowliest worker
shall, If he has it within him, be per-
mitted to rise to the highest posi-
tons. Among the heads of our great
transportation systems a half dozen
might be named offhand who began
as section hands or the like. Scores
OF heads Of the steel plants them
selves were formerly numbered with
the workers. In no other country is
there such opportunity for high
achievement. Among no other class
of workers is it appreciated to such
an extent as s%long the steel en-
ployes. The labor leaders are en-
deavoring to rob them of this birth
right, but have succeeded only in de-
luding the foreign element, who
neither understand nor appreciate
what such opportunities mean.
"The heart of every American
community is composed of its work
ers. They are higher in the social
scale than similar workers in other
countries. They are intelligent and
accustomed to doing their own think
ing, and for this reason, the great
majority of them being Americans.
have refused to STRIKE. The steel
strike therefore becomes an attack
upon America aism AMI fer that rea-
son cannot succeed. IN. Y. Com