The Connecticut labor news., 1921-11-18
StOne-Age Methods At- tempted to COerce Workers, He Adds, and DeplOres Rush to Government to Elm plOy Military Rule.

sylvania Dehcs the Board," the Rev. Paul l.. Blakely, s. J., in the October 20 issue of "America," a Catholic Re view of the Week, gives what is per haps one of the best analysis of the recent railroad crisis that has yet been placed before the public In it the priest takes the Railroad Labor Board to task for not using it's pow CTS when the Pennsylvania Road de- fled 1t as we'll as it attempted to do when the workers objected to the Boards rulings, denounCes the at tempt to control the situation by a prejudiced military service and in fact goes to the seat of the trouble - the failure of the Labor Board to carry out it's orders. hTe article is as fol- lows:
 AS these lines are written, October 22, the skies are clearing, and no one believes that the railroad workers will strike. That is belief only, how ever. For there are many mysteries connected with the whole campaign. No one can explain why with the prospect of bad winter and only six dollars a month from the unions re- lief-fund, the workers were ready to chance a strike. Nor can it be well explained why the railroad owners and operators were equally ready to shut down the roads aud go on a va t1 ,1.,h was only fuss and feathers, sound and fury, signifying nothing. But that hypothesis does not seem prob able. Three facts emerge from the cloud of witnesses testifying for either side. The first is that the workers cannot accept reduction, and live. The second Is that freight rates cannot be cut unless wages are cut And the third, urged with much earnestness and pathos by the roads, is that they require more revenue.
 Stone-Age Methods.
 For many reasons it would at pres ent be improbable to examine the conflicting testimony. This much, however, seems clear; each contest ant has q good case. That, precisely, is the difficulty If either the work CTS or the roads were plainly in the wrong, there would be no compica- ton. But that cannot be said Of course, men like Mr. w. w. Alter bury of the Pennsylvania are always a danger at time like this. In some respects Mr. Atterbury is a great ex- ecutive, but he always sees red when the word union" Is mentioned, and, as Norman Hapgood has recently re- marked, he seems to labor under the delusion that this crisis is heaven for all, no matter what the United States or any of it's boards may hold to the contrary. Then, too, we are listening to the usual infammatory talk about asking the Government to use the military to run the trains, and worse, about inducing the Govern ment to forbid the unions, by judi cious use of injunctions to aid any man who refuses to go back to work It is probably true that under certain contengencies the Government could and perhaps ought to use both the soldier and the injunction. But either method would set back the so- lution of our real difficulties quarter of a century, We have had quitet enough of that in West Virginia Somehow, the laborer, and even the rest of us, demur when a military man jlngles i'll, sets up an alleged government that has neither legisla- ture, jury, nor even an unprejudiced judge, and proclaims in effect, q don't care who is right or wrong 1T this fuss, but if 1 think it necessary you will take an engine out, or gc down in mine, and stick to the en gnie or dig coal, until 1 tell you tc stop" We feel and perhaps witt justice, that this method of settling a dispute is crude hold-over iron the Stone Age.The military gentle man may remove the dispute by re moving all the disputants he Cal shoot or capture, but he will not re move the causes of the dispute, fo he does not know what they are, ant refuses to inquire 1 am willing tC admit that if a crowd of strikers cam along with the design of burning tn house next to my humble roof-tree the glint of his gold lace would affor' me certain reassurance But eve1 then l should know in my heart that as far as any solution of the question in hand was concerned, he was con siderably less useful than a bull in
 china shop.
 The Pennsylvania Propaganda.
 The center of the present disput seems to be the United States Rail road Labor Board. The capitalist New York Times weeps like anything to see how the workers rebel agains the Board by refusing to accept de cision ordering a reduction in wages This refusal, mouths the Times, i not an ordinary offense. It is |" blow at society which the Govern ment cannot disregard" Now IL