The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-07-19

county In which the Illinois tragedy
of the coal strike occurred A year
ago, or less, It was Bloody Mingo"
or Bloody Logan"-the West Vir-
ginia counties where similar tragedies
were enacted as appalling features of
the controversy in the coal industry.
Washington officials who are not
patisans in this bitter labor fight but
are primarily concerned over the pub
lie welfare aspect of the struggle be-
lieve that the time has come to put
an end to this bloody business. In
the opinion of these officials labor ana
capital have demonstrated conclusive
ly why they should not be permitted to
work out their own problems or fight
out their own battles without interfer-
ence from the government or other
outside agencies. 1t is seen that soon
er or later Industrial warfare leads to
disaster-to lawlessness, violence and
the sacrifice of human lives. newt
ably a community or a state Is dis
graced by some such occurrence as the
Herrin massacre.
Stand Of Parties
Both parties to ndustry-organized
labor on the one side and the larger
employing interests on the other =
have opposed vigorously every pro-
posal or measure to do away with
strikes and lockouts and their accom-
panying evils. In that they have had
one thing in common. Each has SEEM
ed to fear that the assertion of a state
or federal authority to end and adjust
controversies that jeopardize the pub
lie interest would minimize the econ
omic power upon which each relies to
get the better of 1t in bargaining over
wages and working conditions
II Is not suggested that either side
has wanted to be free to commit muir
der or lesser outrages on law and or
der. Neither ever intends to go that
far. They merely insist that they
have right to settle their own differ
ences in their own way and ct the
outset they give every assurance that
their methods and measures will be
perfectly peaceful They talk much
about the folly of attempting to inter
fere with "the free play of economic
forces" and 'the natural processes oil
the law of supply and demand"
Life and Death Struggle
Unfortunately titanic conflict such
as the one in the coal industry is GER
tain to become in the end life and
in the history of such conflicts has
its bloody pages = Homestead, Occur
d'Alene, Paterson, Chicago, Colorado
San Francisco, Los Angeles, West Vir
GINA and now Illinois. The climax is
always the same. The lesson is not tc
be escaped Left to themselves, labor
and capital will fight to the death
literally as well as fguratively, and il
is to check this that measures are
being considered at the capitol
Not the least significant phase of the
Illinois tragedy is the evidence thai
the union miners and their sympathiz
ers are largely if not completely il
control of the official machinery of VIII
Hanson county. This is especially in
teresting in view of the fact that it 1:
the exact reverse of the situation tha
has obtained in Mingo county and Lo
gan county, West Virginia. In the West
Virginia counties the anti-union Goa
operator are in the saddle politically
and officially, and there has been abun
dant evidence that they ride just a:
hard and just as ruthlessly as the
union miners in Illinois.
Condemn Verdict
The farcial coroner's jury investiga
ton and verdict in the Herrin affai
HAS D66H COHu6uu0Q SeH6Tdlly. lH6I'
has been much criticism of the appaI
ent failure of the sheriff and other off
Gals there TO make any effort to pre-
vent bloodshed, and the impotence o
the forces of law and order has beel
attributed to political domination b.
the union miners.
There is no disposition on the par
of official Washington to withhold cor
demnation of what has transpired i
Illinois. There is, however. insistenc
that the record of what has happene
in West Virginia must not be forgo
ten in considering more recent events
For example, the Kenyon committe
investigation of the West Virginia col
troversy showed that the anti-unio
coal operators not only control Loga
county politically, but that they actl
ally pay the salaries of the deput
sheriffs who are supposed to enforc
the laws of the county. The operator
themselves testified that they eXpent
ed over sac. 900 for this purpose in 1872
and over SCI 900 during the first te
months of 1921, and they also asserte
that they believes they had right
prevent union meetings in Logan coul
~. or even to bar from the count
union organizers and sympathizer
The attorney general or west virginia
Mr.. England, told the committee thu
these deputies very often beat up me
in the fields, beat up men that are el
gagged there actively in order to defes
their ticket at the general election
they take charge of elections, they ru
voters away from the polls"
To date it has not been charged tn;
the sheriff or his deputies in William
son county, Illinois are paid their sd
aries by the miners union. In that r
spect at least the miners have not goT
as far in Illinois as the operators hay
gone in West Virginia
Evil in Situations
Senators and representatives WI
are seeking a solution of the stril
problem see little but evil in boz
situations Indeed. from the publ
viewpoint it is intolerable that eth
capital or labor should control II
politics of a county or state and III
that power in relentless warfare
the other. Both sides are entitled
the protection of the law, but Meth
side should be the law in even Il
smallest political unit in the countr