Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-12-06
EDITORIAL OPINION OF
IDAHO EDITORS
COAL SITUATION.
(Lewiston Tribunel

Ihere are numerous controyerted
points involved in the coal mining
lmpasse which tend to obscure the
facts in a fog Of conflicting assertions
although there are some aspects of it
which may be traced out with a fair
sense of certainty. The mine workers
began wrong when they adopted a set
OF unreasonable and improper de-
mands so timed as to take the country
at disadvantage, in the expectation
that the peoples necessities would en-
able them to extort larger concessions
than they could obtain under ordinary
conditions. The operators were wrong
IN asserting the technical continuance
of the contracts based on the duration
OF the war, and in refusing to negoti-
ate with the miners on any other
terms. The government was, prob
ABLY, wrong in assuming the wartime
contracts to still be binding, but the
advantage the miners had taken of
the winter season for going on strike
may have justified the government in
resorting to the technicality as a.
measure of public safety and for the
preservation of the peoples NEST vital
interests. The miners have now
abandoned their untenable position,
the operators have abandoned theirs,
and the government has abandoned, or
at least waived, its wartime claims
and is offering revised scales to go
into immediate effect. Had these
futile and provocative pretensi0ns
never been advanced, the contending
interests could easily shave gotten to-
gether before the trouble ever became
started. Most Of these industrial con-
flicts begin in claims, on one side or
the other, that cannot be maintained
and are not maintained. If little
more common honesty and practical
sense of fair play and fair dealing were
brought to bear on these relations in
the beginning, instead of at the end,
1t is doubtful il the strike threats and
the ensuing antagonisms would be
nearly SO universal as they have be-
come.
The operators and the miners were
very near an agreed settlement the
middle of last week when there was
an offer of 81 per cent advance by
the one and a claim for 81 per cent by
the other The differences could easily
have been overcome, there is no doubt
but such a settlement was probably
predicated on the operators intention |
to pass the cost on to the consumers
by increasing prices. At that point |
the government interviewed, through |
the fuel administration, with the decis-
ion that a IA per cent advance should |
be accepted, as a means of preventing !
higher prices of fuel to families and |
increased cost of production to indus
tries. The award is also declared by
government authority to be fair to
the miners and proportionate with the
wages in other industries. The miners
reject the proposal and also refuse, as
they have heretofore done, to arbitrate
the question. Meantime the strike Is
in violation of the federal injunction
arising under the wartime contract,
and whether that injunction is wise or
unwise it is the law.
The issue is no longer concerned
with wages, hours. prices or other
WISE but it is exclusively one of
whether the government is strong
enough to enforce it's laws, to main
tain the processes of its courts and to
protect the property and lives of the
people from the calamities that would
come in the enforced closing of pro-
duction and industry by a small num-
Der of men who have been unwisely
and mischievously led into antagon-
ism with the government of their
sorry for the miners who remain on
strike because of the suffering It win
bring on them and on their Innocent
families, but this will be only tran
sient condition and one that can be
retrieved. We should need to he
much sorrier for the miners and their
families should the strikers prove 10
be stronger than the government and
above the law ana its processes
Then, indeed, would all be lost. and
so.
Outside the full suffrage st.a |