The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-06-10
|ANTI-STRIKE LAW
URGED BY BECKETT
DAY OF CLUB AND FIRE AND
SWORD NOW PAST
Employees and Employers Must
Take Dispute to Courts, Says .
Former Governor
The State, 9.

| Inc CulLlVdIIOll VI Iie SOLlilIullllY
or mass conscience, the forcing of all
! disputes of governments, organlza-
tons and individuals into the courts
and the enactment of national labor
laws to prevent both walkouts and
lockouts in industry were advocated
by Thomas Walker Beckett, former
governor of North Carolina, speaking
on "Mass Conscience at The gradu-
ating exercises of the 10th COM
mencement of the University of South
Carolina yesterday morning.
"The peculiar obligation of the
goth century," Governor Beckett said,
sis to produce just community.
Ours is the task to make the puo!ic
conscience as sensitive as that of the
Individual. A mob will lynch pris-
oner 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 sep
arate and distinct from themselves.
The times now demand, however, that
there be driven into the hearts of men
the ruth that if corporation COM
mits' grand larceny, every officer and
director in it is petty thief and ev-
cry stockholdsr receiver Of stolen
goods. If one nation makes war up
on another in the absence of su-
preme 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 COM
mand, Thou shalt not kill is as bind
ing on the conscience of nation as
that of an individual"
Days 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 WE'LL" he said. "They have be-
come enamoured of the principle and
today the mass conscience is demand
ing that governments shall be as care
full of human life as'they require in
dividuals to be-" The very existence
of civilization, Governor Beckett con-
tended, 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 as
sertion of which would be fatal to
the peace and happiness of all the
people.
Congress-" Governor Beckett con-
tinued, "owes it as a debt of honor
to the American soldier to enact law
that will absolutely guarantee to the
people the constant and efficient oper-
alton of all public utilities engaged
in interstate commerce. Of course
any such law would of necessity pro-
vide a tribunal of the people to hear
grievances and if necessary, to fix
wages but all men engaged in oper-
ating such utilities, whether employ
ers or employees, must be made to
understand 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 tei-
bunal of the people with a plea for
Justice in one hand six shooter in
the other.
On Level With Fists
"Walkouts and lockouts are on a
dead level with fists and clubs and
fire and sword, and unless we can de-
wise some saner method of adjusting
industrial disputes that menace the
lives of the people, our civilization
will collapse and we will bark back to
the law of the jungle and let him
take who has the power and let him
keep who can. "
The enactment of such labor legis-
lation as he suggests, Governor Bick-
ett said, would naturally excite the
shouters of personal liberty. "Alas,'
he exclaimed, chow many crimes have
been committed in that name. The
whole social fabric is built up on the
principle that man may not SO use
his liberty as to injure or destroy his