The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-06-13
ANTI-STRIKE LAW
URGED BY BECKETT
Day of Club and Fire and Sword
Now Past-Employees and EN-
ployers Must Take Dispute
To Courts, Says Former
Governor

of the community or mass conscience
the forcing of all disputes of govern
ments, organizations and individuals
into the courts and the enactment of
national labor laws to prevent both
walkout and lockouts in industry
were advocated by Thomas Walter
Beckett, former governor of North
Carolina, speaking on MASS Con-
science" at the graduating exercises
of the 116th commencement of the
University of South Carolina yester-
day morning.
'The peculiar obligation of the
goth century," Governor Beckett said
''is to produce a just community.
Ours is the task to make the public
conscience as sensitive as that of the
individual. A mob will lynch a pris-
aoiler when no man in it would COM
NIT murder The sense Of personal
responsibility is lost in the crowd.
Likewise, men banded together in
corporations, in communities and in
states absolve themselves of all in
dividual responsibility for the con-
duct of the aggregation. They think
of the corporation, of the community
of the state as an entity entirely
separate and distinct from them
selves. The time now demand, how
ever, that there be driven into the
hearts Of men the truth that If a
corporation commits grand larceny,
every officer and director in it is a
petty thief and every stockholder a
receiver of stolen, goods. If one ma
ton makes war upon another in the
absence of supreme necessity all
the citizens of that nation are guilty
of manslaughter. Today the whole
world has through agony and bloody
sweat been driven to the conviction
that the great command, 'Thou shalt
not. hll," is as binding on the con-
science of a nation as that of an in
dividual."
Day of Force Now Past.
Long ago, Governor Beckett point
ed out, governments decreed that in
dividuals should not settle their diff
ferences by an appeal to "blood and
iron, The people have learned this
lesson, WELL" he said. "They have
become enamoured Of the principle
and today the mass conscience is de-
manding that governments shall be
as careful of human life as they re-
quire individuals to be-" The very
existence Of civilization. Governor
Beckett, contended, depends upon
the universal acceptance of two basic
principles; that governments as we'll
as men shall come into court and
that no man or group Of men has
any rights, the assertion of which
would be fatal to the peace and hap
piness Of all the people. =
Congress-" Governor Beckett
continued, "owes it as debt of
honor to the American soldier to
enact a law that will absolutely
guarantee to the people the constant
and efficient operation of all public
utilities engaged I'm Interstate COM
merce. OF course any such law
would of necessity provide a tri-
bunal Of the people to hear griev-
ances and if necessary, to fix wages
but all men engaged in operating
such utilities, whether employers, or
employees, must be made to under
stand that they are the servants of
the people, that they can trust the
people to deal fairly with them and
that they cannot come before the tri-
bunal of the people with a plea for
justice in one hand and six shooter
in the other.
On Level With Fists.
"Walkouts and lookouts are on a
dead level with fists and clubs and
fire and sword, and unless we can
devise some saner method of ad-
justing industrial disputes that men
ace the lives of the people, our civ
ilzation will collapse and we will
bark back to the law Of the jungle !
and let him take who has the pow
er and let him keep who can"
n