Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-06-27

these have seen the purchasing pow CT of their saleries diminish, their ognk accounts dwindle, thc happiness of their homes fade and tho future of their shildren shrinE. There is material here for class antagoism. been an apparent gain-unquestion ably the war-made rich are many. But here, too, the diminished dollar comes into the reckoning, as also redoubled taxation. And there, is another factor, as to which those who are wise to say little. A dangerously large part of the worlds capital has been wiped out. The nations are up to the ears in debt, some of them floating precariously. In this dan ger, which only order, industry and thrift can surmount, labor is no less deeply concerned than its co-work- CTS in the national life. Everything is at stake which it has gained in 8 century of heroic conflict.
 Yet labor proclaims it's right to strike, through the main arteries and the main port of tho nation are crippled. And now the great Fedora tion of Labor has declared for the principle of the Plumb plan, though lit knows well if it knows anything about the matter that Government ownership means increased cost to the public and decreased efficiency. Is it too much TO say that in cling ing to it's right to strike in basic industries and public utilities, that in yielding to the temptations of a fallacious Characterization or indus try," labor is bartering it's soul? As an individual, the wage earner is able to rise to the pinnacle of pow er-as is shown, for example, in the case of the railways, which are with few exceptions under the presidency of men who have risen from the line. With the increase of prosper ity which the war has brought, which means an increase in education and in all opportunities the freedom of the American workman to rise is greatly enhanced. Shall he risk this gain for another experiment along the lines of Greenbackism, the sim gle tax and Populism
 i If he does this, the ultimate result can hardly be in doubt. The great conflicts of the past have been main I ly duels between labor and capital in which the intermediate people had no interest of which they were conscious. Wherever labor had a just grievance the public was it's gen. erous partisan, and was recognized as the decisive factor. Uuder the more radical modern leadership, la Dor is attacking basic industries and public utilities-in the steel strike, the coal strike, the railway strike, the harbor strike. Of their interest in such conflicts the intermediate folk have become keenfy aware. They are embittered, moreover, by sense of personal wrong, which is as just and as deep as that which, in the last century, inspired the great strug- lgles and the great victories of labor. When governor Allen asked Mir.
 Gompers his famous question, MT. Gompers evaded the answer; and when he did produce statement
 many days later, it was obviously ,l notoriously, another evasion. The answer is simple and plain. In any
 basic industry, when labor and cap ital are at strife, it is not duel but
 a nationwide war, in which the pub
 lie has the predominant interest. As
 long as organized labor has the right
 to strike, the public has, by the self
 samelaw, the right to organize and
 break that strike. Make no mistake
 about that. It was the public that
 broke the Winnipeg strike, the Eng
 fish railway strike, the French rail-
 way strike, the Copenhagen dock
 strike, the American soft coal strike; it is the organized public that is now breaking the New York port strike
 It takes no gift of prophecy to tell what will happen if labor persists
 in its purpose to bring public utili-
 ties and basic industries under Gov.
 ernment ownership and control.
 We are in full career, in short, to-
 wards a thing unknown and abhor- rent to American institutions--thc
 submerging of individual liberties in
 class warefare. The spirit that has
 so often misled the American work
 man is tempting him once more again, and at time when the whole fab
 ric of industry is in danger.
 (From New York Times.)