Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-10-24
they would call no strike If m

| they would call no strike If m.
other matter up for decision by TIL
Railroad Labor board was decided
to suit their view of what wal
right. This second decision had t.
do with working rules which they
deemed favorable to them and
which their employers wished
changed. The decision Of the
Railroad Labor board on tina,
point was also one not to the
liking of the men. On the top OF
this the railroad executives served
official notice on the board that
they were about to ask for an
additional reduction Of wages
amounting to ten per cent more,
and that this reduction, if granted,
would be applied to general re-
duction Of freight rates, 50 that the
cost Of living might be reduced,
and the public get the benefit Of
the last mentioned reduction in
prices. All these things put to-
gether exhausted the patience Of
the railroad employees and their
leaders, and a strike beginning the
first of next month has been Or
dered by them.
Some persons think the brother
hood men are simply bluffing and
that there will be no strike.
Others think they are in dead
earnest about it, and all trans
portation will cease soon as far as
the railroads are concerned.
Events will soon demonstrate
which view is correct. Meantime
we are inclined to take the view
that the spokesman for the brother
hoods mean just what they say, and
that the much talked of railroad
strike will soon be an accomplished
fact as far as they are concerned
unless they receive important con-
cessions or the government takes
much more vigorous stand against
a strike than they expect them to
take.
The official heads of two Of the
brotherhoods have called the at
tention Of the public to the fact
that the supreme court of the
United States and the constitution
of the United States gives them
the right to strike. They are un-
doubtedly correct in that. 1t is a
right guaranteed by the constitu-
ton both of the United States and
the several states for any citizen
to refuse to work for wages or
under shop rules that do not please
him. 1t is also his right under
the constitution of the United
States to work for any wage that
pleases him and for as many
hours in each "a as he pleases to
work. Yet our courts have re-
peatedly upheld minimum wage
laws that denied a citizen the
right to work for less than a
stated sum, or to work for more
than certain number Of hours in
one day, constitutional rights to
the contrary Notwithstanding.
These laws, which abridged the
constitutional rights Of the citi-
zens, were sustained under the So
called police power" of the
sovereign, and justified because
they were needed to protect the
health, morals or general vel
fare of society" No fixed limit
has ever been put by the supreme
court on the field in which this
vague power called the police
power may operate and "the gen
eral welfare" of the citizenship Of
the country is a wide open, far
reaching phrase.
Beyond the vague hint that
Uncle Sam has something up his
sleeve that will be equal to the
protection Of the public welfare in
case of strike, we are not in
formed by the Washington dis
patches; Postmaster Hay says
that the mails will move all right,
in spite of the declaration of the
brotherhood leaders to the effect
that there is no obligation on the
part of the railroad employees to
move the mails. Perhaps the crux
of the question may come over this
question Of carrying the mails.
Grover Cleveland, in the Debs
strike in Chicago many years ago,