Evening journal., 1919-11-14

While the soft coal miners are re-
turning TO work or considering q re-
turn. representatives OF The Washing
ton Administration are arranging for
negotiations by the operators and the
union officers. This IS what the pub
lie would like TO see-renewed negO-
tiations, not on a pistol at your head,
but on a fair and square, give and
take basis, with both sides remember
ing that, however wages and other
costs increase, the lead will be slapped
upon the public.
Meanwhile the American people viii
not forget and the Government OIL
cials interesting themselves in the set
tlement OF the wage scale Itself should
not forget how the union leaders were
brought TO their senses.
Nobody can be sure that all the OIL
GERS OF the coal unions regard them
selves as Americans before union men,
although there Is no doubt about some
Of them, Nobody can be sure that
they all act in good faith when they
order the men back 10 work, although
some do beyond question. Nobody can
be sure that all the men Will go back
to work, or that all those that do
so back will mine coal the best they
know how.
Everybody can be sure, however,
that the officers OF the coal unions, the
officers Of the steel unions, the OIL
GERS Of other unions and the officers
Of Mr.. Compers' Federation OF Labor
now realize that they very badly mis-
Judged what they were doing. They
now appreciate that they went too
near the edge Of a precipice. They
now know that II they had stayed
there longer the American people
would have shot them clean over that
edge. 10 will be just as well for the
American people to keep them in that
frame Of mind
And the American people, we are
frank and glad to say, include a big
union labor itself. Nobody knows bet
ter than the general membership OF
organized labor thoa the tyrannizings
and terrorizings by Ms leaders and
committees are not all directed against
those outside the unions. Anybody
within the union gets his II le dares
TO question The pollccy or TO object to
the dominance OF tbe strong, self
wlled union junkers who are pos
sessed Of a passion for power aud OBJ
sessed by a mania for abuse OF it.
These union autocrats ran go far In
side as well as outside their unions Il
their determined efforts to have their
own way about things. They can DO
this because the public and the news
papers generally accept union labor
as a fact, believe in il as IA principle
and support 10 when it is right. But
there is a line beyond which the head
strong leaders cannot go without run
ming up against the public.
When union labor leaders or union
labor members have disrupted bushes
and strangled industry, endangered en-
ployment and pumped air into wages,
they get warned even by their own
family.
When the penalty Of preposterous
wage scales or unproductive working
hours is expressed in the price of the
/ shoes the union workers wife puts Oh
her ehildren's feet, expressed In The
| price Of the chOthes she puts on theil
| backs, expressed in the price OF th'
food she gives them to eat. expressed
! In the price OF the very roof she rents
for shelter over their heads. she knows
and she is among the very FIRST 10
make her breadwinner know that
somebody, high In the councils OF the
unions and potent in the enforcement
Of his arbitrary will, is Leading them
all on the path Of peril
When a national strike programme
is peremptorily laid down by dicia-
torial leaders without anybody, EN-
ployer or employe, having a word Il
say about Il, union labor itself can see
that it IS coming into collision with
/ disaster head on When these leader;
make war on the laws OF the nation
/ on the courts Of the nation. on the
authority and power Of the nation
! much OF union labor itself, alOne
with an the rest of the country, get:
ready TO call a halt on such reckles.
! leadership
] This is why the insolent, arrogant
seditious programme OF union leader
and union committees to dominate tn
Department Of Justice, dominate tn,
courts, dominate The White House
broke down with the cry, I'VE ar,
Amerlcansv
But nobody wants 90 forget thai
when the American people, after put