The Connecticut labor press., 1919-11-08


JOIN treeIy IN organizations which Will
deliver them from conditions which pre-
vent them beng men. 1t is hight as
to whether one man can COerce the met.
in the industries of five great states.
There are wars beng fought now in
Europe over territories not SO large
and involving the lives of fewer human
beings.
This strike is a strike for democracy.
1t is a hight for the opportunity for
wider citizenship.
People against profit: Feudallsm
against Amer4CamSm-a blacker feudal-
ism than the world has known for a
long time, for IN the most autOcratlc
monarchIes the people had the right of
petition.
If they had something they wanted to
say to Their king, they could say it. He
would read their petition, he would re-
ply to 1t.
Judge Gary is more autocratic than
any monarch. he denies his men the
right of petition. He throws their petl-
tons INTO the waste basket.
FOR principles sake.
Tor prmc4ples sake Mr.. Gary has let
this strike go on.
wounded, they have been beaten, ridden
~AAS
fered IN great numbers, fine and I'M
prlsonment-because of Mr.. Gary's prln-
c4ples.
The people in autocratic nlonarchleS
had another right which custom gave
them. THIS was the right of demon
strdtIon When something happened
that they liked or didn't like they dem
onstrated. They marched IN process
SONS with banners, and Judge Gary
does not allow demonstration.
The rights of the citizens of this free
republic are denied them. free speech
and free assembly do not exist, they
have been killed SO that free organlza-
ton shall be crushed.
More than this, the elementary rights
allowed to the people of despotlc coun-
trleS-theSe do not exist in the steel
districts.
Look around, look over the wide ex-
panse of this country-and there you
wnl see the most dramatic thing in the
World-thouSandS on thousands OF
patient men-dolng nothing.
Hundreds of thousands of patien-.
quiet men staying home. All these men
striking for treedona-some of them
bhndly some of them lgnorantly strlv-
ing tor the right to live a public life.
These men from the north to the
south, from the east to the west are
actuated by common purpose. They
are hghting a common enemy, very
powerful enemy who will stop at moth
ing to break the will of the hundreds
and thousands CT patent to1llng men
the conditions of whose lives he con-
trolls more surel" than has any despotIc
monarch. How stro1g Judge Gary is
he has just shown.
The industrial conference in Wash
ington has lust been ended by him. he
was a representative of the public but
he and he aione closed the conference.
but behind him and supporting HIM were
all the big steel interests SO highly CO.
ordInated, so highly organized, and
vowed to crush organization among
their employees-the men who contrC
the metal miners and who have twice
broken their strikes. All that is anti
democratic and anti-Amerlcan backed
Mr.. Gary. All that was antl-Amerlcan
and antl-democratlc won.
With the close of the industrial con-
ference a new phase of the steel strike
begins.
The steel strike has completed its
fifth week. 1t was born in oppression
and it has grown in adversely. Now it
definitely enters a new phase.
War is on. Capital as represented by
Gary1sm has now come out in the open
and is prepared to wage on organized
labor a war which shall include force
, without STINT or limit.
The industrial conference IN Wash
ington hinged on the steel strike. 1t
might be sad of that conference that it
talked of nothing else. No matter what
other topic seemed to be uppermost it
was really the steel strike which was
under discussion.
The conference split on the right of
collective bargaining or rather It would
be falrer to say that Mr.. Gary was
stronger than anyone else. If the pr1n-
clple cf collective bargaining was ad-
mltted, then the principle Cf arbltra-
ton would be admitted.
Mr.. Gary prmclp4es wouldn't let him
arbltrafe. The President couldn't make
him. Pubic opinion wouldn't make
hlm-nor finally, could pressure pu: on
HIM during the conference.
THIS is rosters ldea of what result
the breakup of the conference will be.
The close up of the conference is
wholesome" he said. 1T has cleared
the air. To have it staggering along
was no good for anyone. 1t kept the
idea of arbitration before the minds OF
the pubic The leaders in Washington
always hoped for it but the organizers
in the field have known from the hrst
lust where we stood-now our position
IN regard to the strike has been proven
the true one
The sL4ke forced Gary to come out
in the open and show his hand. Al
though he was supposed to be a repre-
sentative of the public he was stronger
than an one else IN the conference. de
and the employers were willing to break
I'D the conference and to enter into a
period of open warfare rather than
yield TO any idea of mediation. The
President asked that some means OF
arbitration should be found. 1t IS for
the interests of the public and for the
three hundred thousand men and their
families involved in the strike. Pres
ident and pubic mean nothing to Gary.
This shows the utter falacy n he
theory that the strike could have been
DELAYED. The union men were being
discharged wholesale-and we were at a
point when a series of unco-ordinated
and sporadic strikes were inevitable.
These two things would have destroyed
the organization.
Capital as represented by Garyism
has come to a place where it will listen
to nobody They are the bitter enders
they have always waged their relent-
less warfare on labor secretly, and now
thev have come out in. the open"
The sixth week of the strike begins,
then, with this open warfare, with all
lingering hopes of arbitration gone
and the strike settles down to long