The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-08-16

Some time or other in the happy fu
ture the pie will disappear utterly as
a weapon of offense in the movies
There will be no more Shermans il
the senate. Poets will succomb tc
the pressure of public opinion and cut
their hair. And in that great day
there will be no more strikes.
The odd spectacles of the railroad
brotherhoods established firmly in
Washington to usurp the rights and
functions of congress by Formulating
revolutionary legislation, not only
as Mr.. Wilson would say-but by a
candid intention to force it upon an
astounded public shows that we are
proceeding swiftly toward the intel
lectual confusion which always pre-
cedes ordered, and even inspired. rea.
soning.
1t is not the method of the brother
hoods that is most interesting in this
instance. 1t is the degree of their re-
lance upon the strike as solution
in time of difficulty. One might sup.
pose, after reading of the Washing
ton news, that strikes expressed the
wisdom of the ages.
Yet strikes and the reprisals with
which they are met in the weary ar
gument between capital and labor are
alike futile and illogical. They settle
nothing. They are trials of brute
strength. The strong man wins and
imposes his will for time upon the
loser.
Which side in strike deserves to
win-and why does itn deserve to
win?
How useful to civilization is one
or another contender for place of
superior advantage in the economic
scheme? What have they given to
the world and what can they give?
No one in political authority asks
these questions when strike is afoot.
But until disputes in industry are set
tied according to some such consider
atoms as these there will be no peace
no settled prosperity in civilized
states. No victory will be permanent.
Ruthless denunciation of organized
labor for its menacing egotism is not
entirely just. Labor when it threat
ems and gestures as the railway broth.
erhoods have been doing may be
charged with follow or selfshness,
Yet it is only practising a method
learned long ago-and often in great
bitterness-at the knee of capital.
Men of the sort who lead the brother
hoods have apparently inherited the
state of mind of their old opponents
on the other side. They are clearly
revealing symptoms of an imperialis-
tic mood which always leads it's vic.
tim to a smash of some sort.
That sort Of reaction was inevita.
Bile. What we need before we can
find a middle course, sober settle.
ments and fixed peace is fixed and "a.
tional philosophy of economic values.
We shall have to have some stand
ard by which to determine the rights
or wrongs of industrial disputes and
theories.
There is only one means of deter
mining the rights of an individual in
such cases and that is a clear con.
ception Of the value and evident of his |
service to civilization and his com.
munity.
1t is the habit of labor men to be-
lieve that all the rights are with the
workers" and the producers" but
they exhibit a painfully restricted un.
derstanding of the familiar terms. |
The man who gets ton of ore out of
the ground is taught to believe that
he is the sole producer of the worlds
riches. Yet his ton of ore would be
of little value If there were not other |