Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-08-05
TOLERANCE NEEDED in u. S.
LABOR CONTROVERSIES
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

general and labor leaders in par
ticular. He was sc vitriolic and so
sweeping in his d%enunciation that
one of his hearers finally asked MIN
If it were possible that there were
no good men among labor leaders.
Profoundly serious and with meas
ured words the captain of industry
replied: The only good Indian is
a dead Indian!"
On the other hand, a man who
has been at the head of n of the
largest of the labor unions declared
within the last few days that the
newspapers and press associations
of the country were in a virtual con-
splracy to misrepresent labors'
cause to the public and were con-
stantly distorting the news in order
to create a popular sentiment adj
verse to labor and to the unions.
If anything happens that is tav-
orable to us you never see a word
about it in the papers" he said
The press associations won't carry
the story and the papers won't print
IT.
All employers and all leaders of
labor are not so blindly prejudiced
as these two men, otherwise the only
way capital and labor would ever
be brought together would be in a
head-on collision. Unfortunately,
however. these W. men are multi
piled many times in the industrial
! world, thereby adding immeasura-
bly, to the difficulties of those who
seek to preserve peace or to recon-
cile differences once open conflict
has been precipitated.
Everyone who has undertaken the
role of mediator or arbitrator in a
labor dispute knows only too well
that there are two sides to every
case, and that neither side has a
monopoly of right or Of virtue. In
the present railroad controversy, for
instance, emphasis is frequently laid
on the fact that the sh.opmen re-
fused to abide by a dec,tion of the
Railroad Labor Board and went on
strike in violation of that decision
Those who make a point of tnat
should be informed that the first re-
fusal to abide by a decision or order
of the board came from the man.
agerial side when certain railroads
undertook arbitrarily to put wage
decreases into effect while the boAr re
had ruled that such action shouI6
not be taken pending Its hearing an6
determination of the question. Later
other roads ignored or violated other
rulings or decisions of the board.
All who discuss this rupture ii
the relations of railroad manage
ment and workers should also knew
tina. there is nothing in the law tina
requires either side to accept or tt
abide by decisions of the Labor
board.
Again, in the case of the Goa
strike, those who criticise the miner.
for not accepting President Har
ding's peace proposal should under
stend that as matters stood tn,
miners had practically won theil
strike and had good reasons for no
wanting to take chance Of havins
the fruits of victory taken ava,
from them by an arbitration com
mission. They had fought a Ions
ami trying fight and surely were en-
tilted to all of whatever success i
hae brought to them.
AT the same time, the friends o
tina miners should understand that i
the workers had been conceded
everything they were striking for
a national agreement, the old wag
scale, and the old working rules
they would be no better off than the,
were prior to April l.. for nothin,
would have been done to cure tn,
uneconomic conditions in the Goa
industry. Without stabilization O
the industry and without some solu
ton of the problem of the non
union districts, the lot of the uniol
miner will never be a satisfactor,
one.
Thus the case is made for toler
ance of the rights and opinions o
others in times of open conflict be
tween workers and their employers
and for the development of an in
teliigent public opinion hat can b
brought to bear when needed.