The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1920-01-15

legal laws are based on moral laws
they are immoral and not good for hu-
| mainly. / cannot believe that strike
ever did any one any good what ever.
/ am aware that many honestly be-
lieve differently, yet ! cannot see it.
| The late miners strike we will admit
get the miners raise of IA per cent.
/ think they could have gotten that
without the strike, but if not the
time lost was almost IA per cent of a
year and at the end of the year they
will be no better off, to say nothing
of all the loss sustained by others that
was enormous. Some say, look at the
wages labor gets today compared with
what it got before there were any
unions. Yet any union man will ad-
nit that the farmer who is getting
60 cents for his eggs, 75c for his but
ter, SIS for his hogs now compared
to 6 cents for eggs, 10 for butter, So
for hogs before there We're any labor
unions, has benefited just as much as
the unions. / have never heard of an
egg strike or butter strike or a hog
strike yet. --.
I !. 1t is hard for union man to be-
lieve that the scab would ever have
gotten any better wages if it hadn't
been for him. Yet the facts are that
| in America at least wages and prices
advanced at times faster before un-
lens were operative than since.
There is. one law of nature that no
union nor strike has ever been able to
get around and that is our old friend.
the law of supply and demand. Con-
trolled almost wholly by this law is
our volume of dollars and cents. Did
we hear of any strikes during the first
six months after we entered the war ?
Were wages and prices ever raised any
faster in the history of the world?
/! Did the farmers union put wheat
from a dollar to two-twenty per
bushel almost in day, or hogs to
SIS or eggs to 75c. The demand for
labor raised the price of labor so fast
that the unions could not keep up with
it. If they met on Saturday night to
consider strike Monday for Soc a
day increase in their pay they were
surprised to find themselves offered
raise of dollar Monday morning
without the strike. L have heard some
claim that supply and demand had
nothing to do with the cost of our ne
cessities; that all our necessities were
in the hands of gamblers; our food
prices all controlled by the board of
trade, etc. The facts are there is no
other financial body on earth so COM
pletely controlled by supply and de-
mand as the board of trade itself. A
cable from Australia, New Zealand,
the Argentine or any wheat producing
country favorable to the wheat crop
will send the bulls to cover in hur-
ry. A hot wind sweeping the Dako-
tas will send the bears to their holes.
Sixty-six thousand railway ship work.
ers say they will walk out if the an
ti-strike bill becomes law. ThesUn-
tied Brotherhoods say they will de-
mand a billion dollar raise in salary
when the roads are turned back to
their owners if their demands are not
satisfied. 1t may be this is to be the
supreme test to see whether we have
government or no government at all
and I don't know but what it is time
we found out. If we have to fight it
out can't see any use of putting it
off and passing it on to our children.
There is one consolation and that is
railroad men and their families can
not live without transportation any
longer than the rest of us.
Wilson says he won't tolerate. it, or
something to that effect. u don't pre-