The New York herald., 1922-09-02
The Government Acts.

az &OvChhAAAhCAaN SASSSs
The country knows this morning
that President HARDING meant ex-
actly what he said when he declared
in his speech at Marion on July 4
that Liberty is gone in America
when anybody is denied by anybody
the right to work and live by that
work." The country knows that the
President meant exactly what he said
when he declared in his address to
Congress on August Is that he was
resolved to use all the power of the
Government to maintain transporta-
tion and sustain the right Of mel
to work
The application OF the United States
Government for an injunction to pre-
vent the warfare which has been
going on against the railroads and
their employees was more than an
ordinary legal procedure. 1t was a
declaration OF the right OF the Amer
lean people to be free from the men
ace Of any group or any organization.
The Attorney-General Of the United
States, Mr.. DAUGHERTY, went to the
very heart of the situation when he
said that the underlying principle in
volved in the action before the Fed
eral District Court in Chicago was
''the survival and supremacy Of the
Government of the United States"
We shall hear from the strikers
that Washington has resorted to gov
ernment by injunction. Well, II gov
ernment by injunction Is the swiftest
and surest way to combat govern
ment by terror, then every American
citizen who has watched with indfk
nation the lawless efforts to break
down the transportation system Of
this country will welcome govern
ment by injunction.
What it really is, this direct and
courageous lifting OF the gage thrown
down by the strikers and their allies,
is government by law. The Execu-
tive department of the Government,
represented by the Attorney-Generai
as the mouthpiece Of the President.
is applying to the Judicial depart
ment for relief from the menace that
is trying to break down the country
by breaking down the railroads.
This menace is not that men quit
their work but that they are pre-
venting other men from working. In
the process of intimidating the men
who wish to work trains have been
derailed, bridges dynamited, bombs
thrown at cars. The mails have been
delayed or discontinued. loaded
freight trains have been maliciously
disabled. factories have been closed
for want of fuel or materials. The
crops that must be moved IL the
farmer is to be paid, the food that
must be freighted IL the cities are
not to starve--these are in peril.
This campaign Of threats and vio-
Ience was intended so to intimidate
the public that pressure would be put
upon the railroads to break their
pledged word. discharge the men who
had stayed at their posts and let the
strikers return with all rights unim-
paired. But the railroads kept their
pledges and now the Government. in
the interest not OF the railroads but
OF the hundred million people whose
health and prosperity are at stake,
has struck a blow for order.
And order is all that the railroads
need to restore themselves to their
normal condition. All that the in
junction, directs Is that the shop
unions refrain in every way from in
terfering with the railroads and their
employees and properties. II can
hurt no innocent man. Only those
will decry il who believe that as
members OF a powerful organization
they have the right to bully indi-
viduals who are not members. These
apostles OF intimidation and force
had quite forgotten the existence Of
that greatest OF Unions, the Ameri-
can people.
The man in the White House is a
very patient man and some persons
evidently have mistaken his patience
for something else. This morning
they realize how we'll he knows the
American desire for action against
the forces that menace the whole
land.