The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1921-10-25
25, 1921
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.

Brakcmen and switchmen employed by the International and
Great Northern Railroad in Texas walked out on Saturday and there.
expect to make progressive until there have been called out 100000
employees of the roads. Even with only partial success the strike.
threatens to still further upset the already unsettled industries of the.
nation, to further diminish the work that is available and still fur
Their to agravate the problem Of unemployment. 1t is he purpose of
movement of passengers, freight and even the mails The latter may
be in part carried by airpanes, motor truck trains will make an effort
to move ~perishables and essentials, but severe hardship and want
would be entaled on practically the whole of the nation.
Employees of the roads give as their reasons for the strike the
cut in wage of u per cent authorized in July and which the roads now
seek to put in operation, requests by the roads executives of the the
the roads are casting into the discard rules and regulations for which
labor worked collectively for more than a score of years.
In the face of the proposed strike the Interstate Commerce Com
mission has ordered the roads to make further freight rate cuts for
wheat and hay for the Middle West.
The railroads have said that they are confronted with bankruptcy
if they cut freight rates further without corresponding cuts in wages.
1t has been urged against them that they should have cut rates before
attempting to reduce wages as an evidence of good faith with the
public.
With employers and employees d~eadlocked, with the labor board
striving for a n adjustment and the Interstate Commerce Commission
ordering cuts in freight rates it appears inevitable that there shall be
a test of the law.
The situation is in a sense anomalous. The government seeks to
fix rates for corporations which it does not own, to tell such corpo-
rations what they shall and shall not do with property which the gov
eminent would control without ownership. At the same time it
would dictate to employees of privately owned corporations the wage
and terms on which they shall work and to compel work upon the
wages and terms dictated.
This is not a brief for government ownership of utilities MOI is it
possibility, it remains to be seen whether government control can
be achieved. Employees will claim and insist that such control is an
attempted abridgement of their constitutional right to labor or to
refrain from labor, to pick their own employers.
Serious and threatening to the industries of the country and to
the comfort and welfare of her people, one side of the question is even
more dark and gloomy, If the strike be attempted there is only one
course open to the government, the effort to enforce the new law
which is on trial for the first time. If arrests of leaders are made, as
is likely, it may well be asked, What will be the effect on the strik.
ers?' Will it fan dissatisfaction into open revolt against the law
Is there a "show down. coming? 1t must be devouuy hoped that in
dustrial disorder and disruption may not grow and spread into social
revolt.
That possibility is the one above all others that must be removed
it is the one most serious element of all the serious threats of a great
railroad strike.