The daily morning oasis., 1919-10-29
A DOUBTFUL PROPOSITION.

"A the aftermath of the recent abortive Indus
"a trial Conference not at all reass,lrlng
It seems as though matters drifting rapidly into
a deadlock where all hope of settlement will dis
appear; and that there can be nothing but an i'm
passee in which rebelOus labor will have the coun-
try by the throat, or the public will have to back
government into using force against labor.
Labor leaders claim that they are ready and
willing to treat and come to agreement, but
that EMPLOYERS will not do So In that connection
it is probable that while employers not saying
much for publication their attitude is that while the
representatives of the miners assert willingness to
treat they insist upon conditions precedent that
make treaty impossible. To an impartial observer,
with leaning toward the cause of labor it would
seem that there is some force IN the latter poStu-
late; for surely thirty-hour week is beyond all
reason. Even admitting that the miners should
have higher wages than they are paid now (Which
cannot be denied at this dstance) it is not right it
is not just to the rest of the people in the country
that the hours of labor be reduced twenty-five per
cent.
A great number of employers throughout the
country, doing business in small way, straining
every nerve to make ends meet and pay wages to
the help they employ in order to do so have to work
twelve to eighteen hours daily. There are prob
ably more thousands of that class of men than
there are coal miners out for eight hours pay and
only six hours work, with an advance of fifty per
cent in the cash Stipend and they look askance upon
proposition to add to the intolerable burden they
demand of the coal miners, which, if granted would
not only add to the cost of the coal consumed by
Them but to the cost of hauling every ton of freight
every 1000 cubic feet of gas, every 1000 kilowatts
of electric light power land through those fac
tors adding in arithmetca ratio to the cost of all
kinds Of commodities.
And, then, another point; That 10000 men
less than onesixth of the entire population of the
country, no matter what their grievance, can hold
up the entire life of hundred millions of people
is condition situation that is utterly intoerable
Even granting that the operators have been cavalier
and that the truclent attitude Of Judge Gary in the
Industrial conference stfened the operators in their
refusal to treat with their men, more than ninety
nine million of people should not be made to suffer-
Perhaps the threatening to strike have grievan-
ceS; So have the greater part of the more than
ninety-nine million peopfe-we all have grievances
with their various lots in life. But "The Oasis"
doubts whether theey will let the government sit SUI
number to remedy their own grievances by adding
greatly to the grievances of all the rest.
Then the outcome of the industrial conference
was extremely dscouraging Some of those discus
sing seem to think there is yet hope and that an
other conference can be framed and carried out that
will adjust differences, bringing about industrial
peace The argument is that in the conference
which failed there really very little difference
in the balance of voting power; that the employers
voted to reject collective bargaining by but scant
majority and that had they disclosed how closely
thew were divided it would have encouraged the Ia
Dor representatives to remain in the conference and
work until a majority Of the employers there would
have come to their view.
But the trouble is that the employers there
could not have bound all the other employers in this
country, even though they permitted themselves to
be led to take the labor view of the problem.
And then neither side is entirely frank in state
ment of the real ISSUE Labor leaders say the en-
blowers stood for refusing collective bargaining en-