The Topeka state journal., 1922-08-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. @.
REMEDY SOUGHT FOR LABOR
STRIFE.

wants something done ABOUT IL. Like
the fictional colonel from the far west,
the average citizen "can be pushed
just so far" and it would seem that
his limit has been reached.
Here are a few of the high spots in
| industrial developments of the last
five or six months that are arousing
| him to the necessity for action:
a coal strike that jeopardizes the
interests and welfare of every man,
woman and child in the country; a
railroad strike that threatens to tie
up or cripple the transportation in
| dustry that is as vital to the nation
as the circulatory system is to the
human body; in New England, almost
total paralysis of the textile industry;
in West Virginia, scores of men have
been on trial or under indictment Tor
treason and murder as result of the
civil war that was the fruition
of a conflict between union miners
and anti-union operators-a confNct
no nearer settlement now than 1t was
when it was begun; in Chicago nun
dreds of union officials and other Ia
bor leaders have been arrested for
melting or completely in riotous and
anarchistic demonstrations growing
out of a controversy in the building
trades: in various states and federal
circuits the courts are cluttered up
with injunction suits and actions for
damages growing out of labor con-
troversies of one kind or another; IN
Washington, the supreme court has
said for a second time that a law of
the congress aimed at the evil of child
labor is unconstitutional and the
president and his advisers have had
fully two-thirds of their time taken
up with various phases of the problem
of how to restore industrial peace;
and thruout the country, wherever
workers come together, there are
heard caustic complaints and criti-
cisms, ominous mutterings and sinister
threats.
Evidently there is something fun
damentaliy wrong in the relations be-
tween capital and labor. Just what
that something is may be debatable'
but there is a substantial unanim1ty
of opinion to the effect that the only
remedy lies in the assertion of gov
ernmental authority in the public in
terest. This means regulation, which
will be resisted both by labor leaders
and by most Representatives of capital
in the employing relation
Anti-Strike Law Proposed.
There are those who urge that the
initial step in this direction should be
an onti-strike law-one with teeth
in it, The objection to such a law
is that it cannot be enforced. AS long
as labor is free, men cannot be COM
PEELED to work against their will. II
they are determined, Jail holds no ter
rors for them. If they are sufficient
in numbers there would not be enough
an army of World war size would be
required to round them up and herd
them in stockades or detention camps.
An anti-strike law, to be effective,
must be enforcible in the improbable
but possible situation where all the
workers in every community and in
all industries had gone on strike.
In any event, what kind of service
is to be expected from men compelled
to work against their will, If there
could be such compulsion? Labor to
be efficient and productive must be
free of coercion in any form, and the
wise employer recognizes this and
would not have workers in his plant
who were not there of their own
volition.
To the suggestion that the anti
strike law be made applicable only to
public utilities and basic industries
and to employees in the public service
the reply is made that such legislation
would be class legislation of an es-
pecially objecti enable kind Inevitably
it would tend to create either a
favored class or an oppressed class of
workers, and would drive workers
either toward or away from such en-
ployments. Executives who grow
gray over the problem of labor turn
over and workers who are always
looking for a better Job" will get
the force of this objection.
But if strikes and lockouts are not
to be made unlawful can they be
made unnecessary and undesirable?
Industrial experts answer this ques-
ton in the affirmative. They say that
it is only essential to create conditions
under which both factors in the in
dustrial equation are assured of a
square deal and fair deal. and the
adjustment upon that basis OF the diff
ferences which they cannot settle by
and for themselves.
These experts advocate the estab-
lishment of an industrial code which
defines the fundamental principles
governing all relations in all industry.
Every community. every industry, and
every plant, presents problems in en-
ployment that are peculiar to itself,
but there are certain phases of the
relations between employer and en-
ployed that are universal and basic
and with respect to which there
should be rules or principles that are
basic and universally accepted.
Workers either should or should not
have the right to organize in trade
unions, the right of collective bar
gaining, the right to a living wage,
and the right to an eight-hour day or
some restriction upon the hours of
labor. Women IN industry should or
should not have the right to the same
pay as men for the some or equivalent
service. Employment of children un-
der certain age in mines and mills
should or should not be protected
against Interruptions in industry
growing out of controversies between
capital and labor.
Organic Law of Industry.
Whatever is ethically, socially and
economically just and wise with re-
spect to each of these questions should
be clearly defined and promulgated
as the organic law of Industrial rela-
tions. and this organic law or code
should be accepted and enforced as
the basis of all employment and the
adjustment of all differences between
capital and labor.
If unions are useful and lawful, say
the experts, then that fact should be
established and universally recog-
nized. There should be no denial or
abridgement of that right A situa-
ton such as has prevailed in West
Virginia. for example, is regarded as