The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1919-11-01
GENERAL COAL STRIKE SEEMS
CERTAIN


general coal strike by the time this article
appears IN print, seems certainty.
The high executive council of the United
Mine Workers of America in session at In
d1anapolis on Wednesday, refused to rescind
the strike call for Friday at midnight
No concealment is made of the fact in
Washington that the situation is frought not
only with the possibilities of industrial chaos
with its consequent untold suffering, but of
war between the government and organized
labor.
Washington reports indicate that the gov
ernment IS preparing to meet force with
force, II necessary, and use every resource
at its command to avert the national calam-
'lty which would follow a shutting down of
the soft coal mines
Attorney General Palmer in stating the
position of the government, says in part:
There can be no doubt that the govern
ment has the power in the public interest,
under the law, to deal with the projected
strike of the bituminous coal miners without
infringing upon the recognized right of men
IN any line of industry to work when they
please and quit work when they please
"The illegality of this strike can and
will be established without in any way i'm
pairing the general right to STRIKE and the
general right to strike is not an issue in
any sense whatever in the present situation.
This is true because the circumstances diff
ferentlate this case from the case of any
other strike that has ever taken place in
the country
"It does not follow that every strike is
lawful merely because the right to strike
is recognized to exist Every case must
stand upon its own bottom and be gov
erned by its own facts. Therefore, when
the President said in his statement last Sat-
urday that such a strike in such circun-
stances is not only unjustihable but llnlaw
full, reference was had only to the conditions
in the impending situation
Referring to the consequences of the
strike, unless counteracted, Mr.. Palmer
adds:
"The proposed strike, if carried to its logi-
cal conclusion, will paralyze transportation
and industry. 1t will deprive unnumbered
thousands of men who are making no COM
plant about their employment of their right
to earn livelihood for themselves and their
families; will put cities in darkness and, if
continued only for "a few days, will bring
cold and hunger to millions of Our people if
continued for a month, it will leave death
and starvation in its wake 1t would be a
more deadly attack upon the life of the ma
ton than an invading army"
The general sentiment of the public re-
garding the threatened strike is we'll ex-
pressed by Governor Lowden of Illinois,
who says:
"When special interest conflicts with
the interests of the people as whole, the
former must give way.
"The strike, no doubt, has been the most
powerful weapon in the hands of labor to
improve its conditions So long as the
strike affected directly only the employers,
the public could not object. The threatened
coal strike, however, is a strike against the
American public. In fact, it is likely that
the public will suffer more than the oper-
ators themselves.
whenever any organization, whether of
capital or labor, becomes so powerful as to
be able to give or to withhold from the
public the necessities of life, such organ
ization must come under the control of the
overnment-otherwise the part becomes
greater than the whole"
An article appearing in the Chicago
Herald and Examiner of October 70 pre-
sents the miners side of the controversy:
John L. Lewis, acting president of the
United Mine Workers, tonight in a state
ment regarding the proposed strike of the
bituminous coal miners, said:
'I am an American, free born, with all
the pride of my heritage. love my coun-
try, with its institutions and traditions
With Abraham Lincoln, I thank God that
we have a country where men may strike
May the power of my government never be
used to throttle and crush the efforts of the
tollerS to improve their material welfare
and elevate the standard of their citizen
ship" >s~qN
Asked to make a statement on the right
of the miners to strike in the face of the
critical conditions, he said:
''The coal operators have not offered
single constructive suggestion designed to
avert this catastrophe All through the
negotiations at Buffalo, later at Philadelphia
and still later at Washington, the miners
waited in vain for any counter proposal to
be submitted by the operators.
During the conference with Secretary
Wilson at Washington we said many times
that we were willing to re-enter negotiations
with coal operators without reservation to
conclude the making of an agreement forth
with. The offer that we made was repeat
edly declined. The responsibility for the
stoppage of work in the bituminous coal dis
tricts must necessarily lie with the coal
operators"