The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-09
THE DENVER STRIKE.

The street railway strike situation in
Denver indicates that the strikers
stand to be denied their demands. to
lose the recognition of their-nnion and
many of them to lose their jobs. The
same sort of thing has been taking
place all over the country for several
months but there still are workers
who seem unable to see the trend of
the times. It is unfortunate for the
cause of labor that this is true.
The american Federation of Labor
has gained it's commanding place IN
the industrial field because of its rep
utation as conservative and an up
holder of contracts. 1t was permitted
to grow without serious opposition.
Employers preferred to deal with or
ganized labor for they felt that they
had something binding. The well dis
ciplined union relieved the employer
of a whole lot of responsibility. The
latter could go ahead and make con-
tracts in his business in the knowledge
that the labor question was a settled
factor for a given time. A member
of the union was accepted as fit to do
fair days work or he would not be
member of the union.
This viewpoint has been changed
materially. Many of the labor unions
can not be trusted to stand by their
agreements. Outlaw strikers have
been too common. The men, taking
advantage of the supply and demand
market, have placed not only their
immediate employers but the whole
country in a dangerous position. The
innocent citizen has been arousing
himself. He did not object to higher
wages in the face of mounting prices,
but the manner in WHICH the spiral has
been mounting has made him sit up
and take notice.
The incessant demands Of labor
unions must have a stopping point
some time. Railroad strikes. coal
strikes, steel strikes, textile strikes
have brought upon the plain public a
realization of the danger of collective
strikes, if not of collective bargaining.
Most of the strikes nowadays are ma
tional in scope and effect and no long
err local; and the one is interrelated to
the other, as for instance the transpor-
tation tieup to the coal and steel in
dustries.
The United States Chamber of Com
merce. that has gone on record against
the closed shop, is built on the order
of the American Federation of Labor,
and it draws its sustenance and sup
port from affiliated chambers of COM
merce thruout the country-mother
reminder that Capitalization is the or
der of the hour. Its affiliated mem
bership mounts to the thousands and
in turn represents employers giving
employment into the million.
The argument used by the latter
body is that labor has become IRE
sponsible and dictatoriaL and to per
nit a closed shop would be to place a
halter around the neck OF the nation.
Mr.. Wilson in a message to the stril1-
ing miners recently warned them that
their conduct If persisted in may lead
to the disruption of the United Mine
Workers Of America. the largest single
labor organization in the country, if
not in the whole world.
Conservative labor leaders are COM
ing to recognize the danger that is fac
ing. them from within and without.
Revolt in the ranks of labor has been
facing them;l revolt from employer
backed b. public opinion is at their
back. They know that organized la
Dor generical1y speaking is in greater
danger today than it has been since it
became an Acknowledged factor in in
dustrialism.