Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-20
IF SOME ONE WAKES CONGRESS
COAL STRIKES WILL BE NO MORE
The Wilson Cabinet Is Stumbling Toward
an Industrial Code That Should Have
Been Established Long Ago

Been Established Long Ago
LlVEN the remote prospect Of Goa!
IL famine and consequent idleness,
suffering and industrial paralysis N
g country that has more Goa! within
sight and reach than it knows what to
do with IS intolerable. 1t must inspire
anger and bitter impatence IN every one
whose patriotism takes the form OF ar
honorable regard for the dignity and
welfare Of the nation.
Unforgivable negligence among those
who are supposed to direct national
affairs and the ipcurab!e disposition OF
Congress to talk and act as if 1t existed
in a world removed from the concerns
of the rank and file have made chaos
possible in the coal industry. Doctor Gar
fields ultimatum to the operators yes
terday, like the sudden awakening OF Mr.
Hines, represented an e!eventh-hour
effort to avert catastrophe to which
the country has been drifting open-eyed
for weeks.
The House did not intervene. It
appears never to have thought Of inter-
vention. It prepared with blithe un-
concern for adjournment and left the
country to cope as best it can with
situation charged with dangerous posi-
bilities. The Senate was lost IN tever
Of partisan debate. And meanwhile 1t
must shock the country to realize That
the authority by which Doctor Garfield,
Secretary Wilson and Mr.. Hines are try
ing to avert a widespread calamity is
purely accidental.
If the treaty had been ratified, if
peace had been proclaimed, war laws
would have been suspended and no one
in Washington could have prevented the
operators and the miners from continuing
reckless warfare of a sort that would
stop industrial activity and throw about
$4,000 900 men out of work at the very
edge If winter.
What Congress has been unwilling or
afraid to recognize is the plain fact that
economic rather than political factors
are, for the time being at least, dominant
among the influences that shape and
order the common life of America. The
issues thus showed forward by the force
of circumstances may not be safely
lodged or disregarded. How costly
policy of evasion may be we are per-
mitted to understand by the tentative
plans for industrial embargoes and re-
strictions prepared by Mr.. Hines.
The two parties IN the miners wage
dispute have been permitted to continue
a battle for advantage that is without
justification in any rule Of morals, JUS
tice or common sense. They have been
willing to see confusion spread from the
coal fields over the entire country.
No one has questioned the decency or
sanity of their procedure because saw
age trials of strength are still the only
methods generally accepted for the ad-
justment and balancing Of opposed inter
ests in the industrial field.
Repeatedly in these columns it has
been urged that new method must be
devised, that Congress will have to come
down from the clouds and formulate an
industrial code, enforceable by labor
peace and civilized relationships in indus
try. Some such departure from routine
political action is absolutely imperative
to compel general recognition of the
social obligations that rest with great
utilities like mines and railways.
The mine fields, like railways and
watersheds, can no longer be regarded
only as fields for private speculation:
Coal, we are told now, is commodity
essential to the safety and comfort Of all
people. The people, therefore, have a
greater right than either operators or
miners to controlling voice at the
source of supply. Yet no one has ever
defined or recognized their interest in
the matter. The output isS limited or
greatly restricted by inhuman struggles
precipitsted at regular intervals between
those who control the mines and those
who work in them. No means exist by
which fair and discriminating judgments
might be substituted for violence.
The miners, the operators and the pub
lie are alike without the benefit of "a
tional, humane and scientific decisions.
Strikes are settled in desperation, after
suffering and immeasurable loss. What
might be called the social view of coal
is almost unknown. among the men and
operators. 1t is that view which the
government expressed belatedly through
Doctor Garfield yesterday when the oper-
ators were informed that a continued
blockade Of the coal supply or an effort
to saddle increased costs upon the pub
lie would not be tolerated.
If similar determination had been
manifest at Washington before this the
country would now be far better on.
The cabinet decision on which Doctor
Garfield based his ultimatum represents
a painful and timorous approach to the
enlinhtened method Of industrial. settle