The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-01
Kansas Governor Appeals for
Nationwide Support.

lIQSI ana Suspicion among workers.
In his speech here the governor said /
| in part.
Outcome of Coal Strike.
THE Kansas court of industrial |
relations act was the outcome of the |
coal strike last winter said Governor |
Allen. 'All of the mines had shut
| down, the state was menaced by a fuel /
| famine. The question arose at once |
as to whether the state had the moral /
right and power to protect the help |
| less people, innocent victims of a |
conflict in the bringing on of which |
/ they had no part.
| 1.-The legislature consumed twenty |
one days in the discussion and pas |
| sage of this legislation The law pro- |
vides for a court of three men APP |
pointed by the governor and approved |
by the state senate. The qualifica- |
tions of the members of the court |
were left to the governor.
A Court of Justice.
! ''The question is often asked as to |
lwhy L did not appoint upon the court |
If I had placed upon this court one
man officially representing labor, one |
man representing employing capital
| and one man representing the So
/ called public, would not have had |
court of justice, but a court of arbi- |
tration.
| "In the Kansas law we are doing |
away with the principle of arbitration
and establishing the principle of adj !
| Indication. When labor and capital |
! fall into a controversy and decide to
| arbitrate, labor appoints its representa-
tative; capital appoints its representa-
4 tive, and these two agree on third
| member of the board of arbitration to
4 be the umpire He may do one of
three things-join capital and get
partisan decision in favor of capital;
! join labors side and get a partisan de-
cision in favor of labor, or he may
1 4 iol- 1-a.I md n
compromise not satisfactory to either
side. In the meantime, the rights of
the public, generally chiefly concerned
when the controversy is over an es-
| sential industry, have been given no
/ consideration.
Strike Is Deadly.
''Thirty-five or forty years ago the
strike was not the deadly thing 1t is
today. If a milk strike came on, you
! could borrow milk from some neigh
Dor who kept a cow. If packers
strike arrived, there were plenty of
people who were still putting up their
own meat.
But gradually the entire system of
! production became knit into ma
chine. Now, when any one part of the
machine ceases to function, its far
flung system breaks down every
where. The public. therefore, is at the
mercy of the system and the need Tor
an impartial adjudication of the strike
that threatens the public is apparent.
1--WE have done away with every
other form of a quarrel Centuries
ago the gauge of battle was removes
and the civil courts established. Later
property courts, domestic courts,
criminal courts-all in answer to the
demand of society's evolution-took
their proper places in government.
Justice for Laboring Man.
IF government may do all this is
there any reason for presumlng tnat
government may not also find justice
for the laboring man In ms contro-
versy with his employer?
This law says that any man may
quit any time he chooses. or any group
| of men may quit, but. after they have
ceased their employment they snail
II not come back with their pockets tull
i of dynamite in order to prevent those
who wish to continue on the 1oo from
| working. The law holds that the
right to work is just as sacred as the
/ right to quit work. ;.
.'It says no more to labor man II
saws to the institution of employment.
IIt forbids these industries to lockout
and declares that they shall not close
down for any purpose to affect a wage
controversy or to increase the price OF
their commodity; that they shali keep
running with reasonable CONTINUITY IN
order that the public may not De de-
nrived of the commodity upon when
it depends for its health and weIfare.
"Gompers said to me in New York
''YOu have taken away from the ldpor-
ling man the only weapon he had-the
weapon of the strike.
81 contend that it is an adequate an
swer to say that in every reasonable
land honorable controversy we have
given to the laboring man the only sa1e
land dependable weapon he ever had
THE weapon of impartial justice under
the responsible government which ne
himself helps to create
81 fully agree that any law. when
lattempted to take away from labor It's
right to strike. without giving to labor
adequate protection, would be going
backward
Strikes Are Costly.
in the forty-five months which pre-
ceded the passage of the court of in
dustriaI relations laws the miners IN
Kansas used the strike weapon 100
times, and all these strikes gained for
the strikers the sum total of SS52S5.
and they cost the miners in loss OF
wages $3,S66,TS0.
1.-The law has been in force since last
February. 1t has rendered fourteen
decisions in causes brought by repre-
sentatives of organized labor, and
. every one Of these decisions, except
one which been appealed to the fed
eral court, has been accepted as satis-
factory. both by labor and by capital.
There has been two cases brought by
| employing capital. in which the deci-
sion of the court has been accepted
by labor and by the general public
In spite of the fact that every decision