Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-09-01
AGAINST LABOR
HARDING'S STRIKE MESSAGE
SCORES STRIKERS
Demands Decisions of X. r. Board be
Made EnfOrceable-Says "ShOck-
ing Lawlessness" Prevails
Gompers Challenges Truth
of Statement

Washington = "Handcuff men to
their Jobs" is President Harding's So
luton for railroad strikes, announced
by his in his personal-delivered mes
sage to congress.
The recommendation was garbed IN
the rhetoric of the day, but the ap-
plause it received from senators and
representatives showed that they un-
derstood the president when he said
decisions by the railroad labor board
must be made enforceable.
A lurid picture of "lawlessness
shocking to every conception of Ame-
rican law and order" was painted by
the chief executive, who declared that
"even officers of the federal govern
ment have been assaulted, humiliated
and hindered in their duties" by rail-
road strikers. This part of the mes
sage was intended to infame the pub
lie mind rather than to develop sound
judgment.
At the conclusion of this awesome
recital of banditry and mobocracy 1t
was acknowledged that no state
authority has confessed it's inability
to cope with the situation nor has any
state asked for federal assistance.
The president blamed the collapse
of railroad motive power on "these
! conditions of hindrance and intimida-
ton"
The message intimated that the
government knows nothing of the
workers long agitation to make the
railroads cease violating orders Of the
L. h. ORC
have repeatedly shown that there have
been approximately 100 of these vio-
lations, but in only one instance, says
the president, chad decision chal-
lenged by a carrier, been brought to
the attention of the department OF
justice"
The president referred to his arbi-
tration plan, which was rejected by
the miners, as settlement so justly
inspired that it was difficult to see
how anyone believing in industrial
peace and justice to all concerned
could decline it."
Reference was made to the "high"
wages paid miners, and in another
portion of the message it was stated
that "in many instances last year men
were employed less than $50 days, in
some cases mach fewer than that"
The president explained the collapse
of his plan to have the coal owners
resume operation by stating that "the
country is at the mercy OF the
United Mine Workers"
The message closed with ringing
plea for the fright of every man to
work" This usual defense of strike
breakers brought rounds of applause
from lawmakers who ignored the
pleas for opportunity to labor made
last winter by millions of unemployed.
In an interview Samuel Gompers
construed the presidents strike mes
sage as an attempt to compel men
to work under threat of bayonet or
Jail sentence, and as an indirect threat
of government by injunction. And If
they refuse, what then? They would
go to jail. In other words, the penalty
of fine or Imprisonment, or both, Will
be the method of enforcing the de-
cisions of the railroad labor board, or
if not that the men will be forced to
labor under guns.
President Gompers deneid the pres
ident's charge that the country is at
the mercy Of the United Mine Work
erS.
"People are Inconvenience by
strikes and lockouts," he said, "but
there is no instance in the history
of industry where the country has
been placed at the mercy of an or
ganization of labor. If high finance
and big business can enforce wage re-
ductions, impairing the buying power
of the mass Of the people, it is a
greater menace to the republic than
any strike of coal miners or shop men.
81 have an abiding faith that at
last the common sense of the people
of the United States will prevail and
that they will not give up principles
of guaranteed freedom because big
business, high finance and subservient
politicians want to go that far. The
people have some notion of what their
guaranteed rights under the constitu-
ton are"