Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1919-12-05
WHEN STRIKES ARE AN OF.
TENSE AGAINST SOCIETY.
(Ry e. E, Miller

between capital and labor. The
country is up against it, and
must decide whether it is to have
Industrial peace or industrial
warfare. The farmers of the
country can determine which
shall he, and it is their duty to
consider soberly this question of
how disputes between labor aud
capital are to be settled.
| Personally, my sympatlles in
any dispute between the employ
ing class and the employed tend
to go with the latter. I realize
that in the past-and in the
present. too-the employers have
secured much more tllau their
fair share of the products of in
dustry. l have repeatedly said
that the labor unions have saved
the laboring men of this country
from industrial slavery; and look
Ing backward over the opposition
raised by the ajority of employ
ers to every movement and meas
ure calculated to give the em-
ployed a fairer share of their
earnings, and a higher standard
of living, | cannot wonder that
the labor unions, now that they
have the whip hand, are using
the strike at every opportunity
as weapon to enforce their de-
mands.
Strikes have beeu, and are,
justified i'll some cases, just as
war is justified in some cases.
But strikes, like war; should be
resorted to only when everything
else fails. For strike is war
war on the employing class, and
toe often of late war upon So
cietY as a whole. The striking
policemen of Boston were as
truly fighting against the city of
| Boston as if they had been drop
ping bomhs on it from Bunker
Hill. All the sophistry in the
world cannot change that fact.
A strike of railway workers that
would tie up the railroads of this
country for a week, with all the
resultant loss and suffering that
would bring, would be as truly
warfare against the United
States as that waged by Ger
many, ard it would be compar-
able in its cowardiee and cruelty
to such deeds as the sinking of
the Lusitania. for it would mean
| the wantou slaughter Of the
helpless and innocent III the hope
that the powerful might be i'll
jured. All the talk that can be
INDUCED in about forced labor
aud such other catch-words can
not change this fact.
Union labor in this country
seems to me to have gone crazy
with the new power it has &C
quired. 1t is time for tue great
body of American citizeus to do
some great thinking about this
matter and to set about bringing
order out Of the present indus
trial chaos. Steadily, inevita bly,
labor" must receive a larger
share of the products of its labor
have more to say about the con-
dlt1ons under which it works :;
have larger voice in the man
agement Of the business 1t is en-
gagged in. But no clique or
group OF men can have the right
to bring disaster to you or to me
simply because those men have
dispute with somebody else. Nor
| eau this country for a minute
| CUuntenauce the idea that the
employees and representatives of
the government Shall have the
power to threaten the govern.
nent or to interfere with it's
workings to compel society to
Comply with their demands.-
When that point is reached an
archy is here, no matter what the
nominal form OF government may
be. President Wilson declared
the strike of the policemen a
crime against the country. He
might well have gone further
and said that the very effort to
organize the policemen, servants
and representative of the whole
people, as a part of what is real
" an army of class warfare was
a crime against the country. It
was criminal in the policemen
who took part in it, and not less
So i'll the labor officials who pro-
noted it. The same thing may
justly be said of any effort to
bring into the class struggle, any
time or anywhere, any body of
men Whose first duty is to, and