South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-11-02

UIIOaI dUu COIHpCI IHt COUNTY, 20 COnPtT IHC
employers in that particular field of industry to
yield to the demands of the men, they are en-
gagged in an unlawful conspiracy.
The sacredness of their individual right to lab
or on such terms as they choose and to leave
their employment when they will. does not pro-
tect or justify them in such a conspiracy.
The extent Of the suffering that the bituminous
miners could impose upon the public can not be
measured.
The suffering would be entailed on those who
are so poor that they could not buy their coal
in advance.
1t will fall upon the poor wage Garner whose
employer would have to shut down for lack of
coal.
The locomotive hremen are threatening a sim
liar strike. If they enter upon this plan it will
constitute a conspiracy to starve the people of
the United States into some kind Of action to
compel the authorities to pay the wages they de-
mand.
1t is a process that must be stopped. When
ever an industrial tie-up becomes Of a nature that
it can be employed to coerce the people. it is
no ordinary tie-up, and thereupon the public
welfare becomes paramount to all others.
1t is regretable that federal legislation to date
has not made it possible for the government to
proceed more upon the broad principle Of peace
rights rather than having to resort to the utility
OF war legislation, but 1t may serve to point the
way to the peace legislation that is needed. and
encourage the passage of (which is a consider
able gain at that.
We need a congress. capable of seeing the sig
nihcance of the existing clash; that there are pos
sibilities of like conditions returning some day,
after the war legislation really has run out-and
we need a congress with the backbone to provide
in advance for that emergency, as the war. and
the legislation incident thereto. has provided for
this one.
~
DUT congress must not stop there. While the
u people of the United States, insofar as they
are not welded to the twin-reds of Moscow, will
stand firm behind the president in his fight with
the United Mine workers. for government SUI
premacy. underlying it all there is another issue
that must be met-else the quarrel is bound to
amount to little more than episode.
Congress must lend it aid to a reimbursement
of industrial and labor conditions, providing the
machinery for settlement of future disputes on
SONS basis of justice and equality that will render
recurrence of these strenuous times. the less
likely.
AS Pres't Wilson said in his appeal to the in
dustrial conference, or words to such effect, IN
DERIVING this industrial unrest. are conditions that
have aggravated the American mind, particular
ly of the working class. into a receptive mood.
susceptible to the bolshevik theories, and to
overcome the menace, we must correct the con-
ditions.
- AlOAAO < just AASbA III ONlCA OIA II
industrial justice prevailed; If there were more
industrial democracy. and less industrial auto
cracy, as John D. Rockefeller. jr, discussing the
situation. has put it. the American workingmen
would not be susceptible to this filthy foreign
philosophy"
And that is the thing we must settle down to,
regardless of the outcome of the quarrel with
the mine workers; or, in other words. it must be
the outcome.
The lesson to be taught the mine workers is
that the pursuit of industrial democracy and JUS
tice, must follow the channels of due process Of
law; this as a lesson. not only to mine workers
but to all workers-and then having taught that
lesson to the workers. we must apply it to the
employers as well.
No other process will ever resettle the Ameri-
can mind to a point where its susceptibility to the
menacing PhilosoPhies-and Panceas-that
threaten our Institutions. will be transformed into
a force of resistance.
Sen. Kenyon's idea is a good one, as a tenn
Porary experiment. for the settlement Of present
strikes-the coal strike in particular, but the fu-
ture demands more than a temporary expedient;
say. for instance, after next April | when the
governments contract with the coal miners ex-
pires, and perhaps. our war legislation will have
lost its force.
EGlSLATION that the government needs right
l. now is exactly of the kind that should have
been passed in 1916 in the stead OF the Adamson
wage law; the law that has been a cue to the rail
roads every since, and has furnished the cue to
the coal miners.
The Adamson law was forced through congress
to prevent a tie-up OF the railroads, with the APP
proach of winter, setting a new pace in wage leg
islation. and providing for investigation and arbi-
tration later on,-and We have seen how well the