Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-31
POWER GIVEN
BY LAW MAY
CURB STRIKE
(Continued from Fac one.l
administration would attempt sucl
q prosecution.
Hold Lever Act Violated.

nUAu Lever ACT FfOlaIeQs
But the Lever act, which was
passed for the war time emergency,
has been violated by the strike or
. der according to the view of the
department of justice and no mat
ter If the peace treaty were ratified
/; tomorrow and the law were 10 be
held as expired, the act of making
an agreement such as the strike or
der would still be subject to pros
ecution- Incidentally the congress
sional judiciary committees have
! before them bills to prolong the
term OF the Lever law and fuel
control act for one year after the
war is officially declared at an end.
Thus is labor by forcing the is
, sue in a strike that affects the
. necessaries OF life and the vitality
Of industry itself slowly alternating
J congress, which is Republican and
the executive branch of the gov
eminent which Is Democratic.
Draws Line Between Strikes.
T2fe same Wilson administration
ZFnich has been friendly to labor
& and which sanctioned the passage
F, of that famous rider to a general
Appropriation bill declaring labor
AA4O645 AA4LA0A16 AAOAl prosecution
and later inserted the same sort of
= provision in the Clayton act is now
planning to fight with all its power
strike of the coal fields. While
: disclaiming that the right to strike
1 itself has been in any way abridged,
1t is nevertheless true that the ad-
ministration is being compelled to
draw a distinction between differ
I ant kinds of strikesLs something it
has hitherto not found it necessary
! to do.
I May Block War on Prices.
- 1T is difficult to give true pic
, tune of the damage already done
! by the strike leaders. On the one
hand, the department of justice has
been carrying on a vigorous cam
paign against profiteering and
against other factors that were
: keeping up the cost of living. In
: troduce the strike and the fair price
: committees everywhere can have no
sound basis for calculation. Much
Of the work of the last two months
may be undOne by the Industrial
chaos. Also there is no sure way
TO determine whether profiteering
Is being practiced. The revival OF
the fuel administration is one meas
Z ure contemplated to bring about an
, equal distribution Of such coal as is
On hand and to prevent prices from
going sky high. But it IS recog- !
nized that even that will bring lit
tie relief though, to be sure, meas !
ures to reduce the consumption of |
coal in industries so as to stimu- |
late. conservation everywhere are /
being considered. fl
Memories of fuelless Mondays 1
and the curtailment of work and
production in private industries
are revived as the cabinet meets
and DR.. Harry A. Garfield, fuel ad-
mintstrator, entered the govern
ment's council again.
InauSpfciOus Moment.
No more inauspicious moment for /,
labor's cause has been witnessed
in the national capital for many
years. Refusal by the coal min il
ers to heed the presidents request J.
for peaceful settlement has IN
dermined the influence of those
who have been arguing that labor
kept its contracts and was willing |:
TO negotiate differences in lieu of
economic warfare. In the beauti-
IN r<an-American Union building, |,
Were a week ago the conference
between employers and employees
came to an abrupt and unhappy /,
snding over the right of wage
sarners to combine for strike pur-
poses, there sits another confer
ence now-worId-wide in impor-
lance and significance. The United
States government is not officially
taking part but is conducting the
conference as host to all the other +,
governments of the world as pro-
vided in the peace treaty of Yer
sai1les.
Is TOpsy.TurFy Affair.
In the senate. Robert NJ. LaFol-
Sette, paci1st and anti-war orator,
also the friend of labor, makes a
speech denouucing the interna- :
Eional labor conference because it
might impose foreign standards on
rSasericen labor. One would have
RxnActeda him to be arguing be-
cause America wasn't a member. !
But this illustrates the crisis !
crosses and topsy-turvy character !
of labor's position in Washington l
today. And on top Of it all is an /
fight between the gov s
eminent Of the United States and S
the leaders of the most serious
strike that has faced the country I
in many years. ~