Norwich bulletin., 1919-11-07

(Written Specially For The Bulletin.)
 According to The Wall Street Jour nal, during a recent strike by electric workers in an Illinois city. the union leader was appealed to by the mana ger of a refrigerating plant to supply sufficient current to keep, that plant at work. This was the strike leaders reply:
 T don't give a d-n if all the meat in the United States rots."
 This answer typifies the attitude of altogether too many strike leaders and strikers. Reduced to it's sinister ulti- mate meaning, it is a direct notifica- tion that those who utter it. or ap- prove it, hold that the suffering and loss of hundred million people is nothing to them, as compared with the temporary advantage of few hundreds or few thousands of strik- CTS. It is just as selfish, just as un- patriotic, just as inhuman and just as brutal as Vanderbilt's notorious "The public be .d-d," when told that his mismanagement of the railroads was unsatisfactory to the public. For in both cases-that of capitalis- tic greed and that of Tabor" hoggish- 1 ness-it is always the public. the in- T which suffers. Vanderbilt's profane admission of his own deliberate disre- gard of public rights raised such a storm of indignation that even he quailed before 1t, and was the directly ! promoting cause of radical revolu- tion in railroad management. The equally. profane and equally malevo- lent confession of this Illinois strike l leader that all the meat in the United States might rot if thereby his union should gain it's point-this ought to l raise just as furious and just as ef- ] fective storm of public protest and l denunciation.
 Commenting on it, the Wall Street Journal says:
 Gan any union man, either radical , or conservative, deny that the farm CTS have trs' right. and power, to or ganize and stop production of all food i stuffs, and the raw materials for shoes and clothing?
 Such a strike would threaten the 1 lives of the two thirds of the popula- ton of the cities and towns. including i the workers in the shops, mills. mines and on the railroads. But what o1 that? Haven't they (farmers) the same right to strike as others? Wher | the railway brotherhoods threatened | to tie up the countrv's transportation wasn't it with full Knowledge that il meant death to many and untold suffering to greater number? i When the coal miners make de- mands to be enforced by a strike, peo- 1 pie must shiver, and many die from | cold .. 1,.
 "T don't give d--n if all the meal 1 in the United States rots.'
 And if farmers stopped production so as to gain their point. would it be surprising if appeals for food were an swered in that way? When we tall exclusively Of rights" and power tc enforce them (with a few wrongs thrown in). forgetting duties and mo , raj responsibilities. we are coastinl downhill to the devil without brakes to save us."
 1t is that last sentence which wist you would read over again and pon- l der on for moment. There is alto i gether too much talk in this world i about our rights" to this and oul rights" to that, and altogether toe little talk about our duties and oul responsibilities.
 Equally, of course. you have your rights" In neither case has either one of us the right to trample under foot or ignore the other fellows i rights" To do that is a pitiful re- version from the human to the beast ial: a deliberate negation of the fun damental difference between civilized men and four-footed beasts.
 All orderly society is built upon the conception of an eternal balance be- tween the defense of individual rights and the performance of individual du- ties. For instance: twenty rods north of me, as I write. runs Tine fence.". I own the. land this side of that fence; John Smith owns the land the other side of it. I have the right" to blow or not to blow up to that fence; to plant the land or SOW it; to raise cabbages on it or Pippin ap- ples; to use it or sell it or give it away. But have no right to push my plowjoint one inch beyond that line, nor to tell John Smith what