Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-03

signs that the average clllZen OF the Unlted
States has grown more than bit weary of
the continual conflict between capital and
labor and wants something done about it.
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 few of the hign spots in in
dustra1 developments of the last five or
six months that are arousing him to the
necessity for actions
A coal strike that jeopardizeS the interests
and welfare of every man, woman and child
in the country; railroad strike that threatens
to tie up or cripple the transportation indus
try that is as vital to the nation as the cir
cuiatory 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
for treason and murder as result of the civil
war that was the fruiton of a conflict be-
tween union miners and anti-union operators
coflict no nearer settlement now than it
was when it was begun; in Chicago, hundreds
of union officials and other labor leaders have
been arrested for melting or completely in
riotouS and anarchiStc demonstrations grow
ing out of controversy in the building trades;
in various states and federal circuits the courts
are cluttered up with injunction suits and ac-
tons for damages growing out of labor con-
troversieS of one kind or another; in Wash
ington, the supreme court has said for a sec
ond 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-thrdS of their time taken up with
various phases of the problem of how to re-
store industrial peace; and, throughout the
country, wherever workers come together
there are heard cauStic complaints and criti-
ciSmS, ominous mutteringS and sinister threats
EIyida AIor
wrong in the relations between capital and
labor. Just what that something is may be
debatable, but there is substantial unanmity
of opinion to the effect that the only remedy
lies in the assertion of governmental authority
in the pulic interest. 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 anti-Strike
law-one with teeth in it." The objection to
such law is that it cannot be enforced. AS
long as labor is free, men cannot be COM
PEELED to work against their will. If they are
determined, Jail holds no terrors for them.
If they are sufficient in numbers there would
not be enough jalS in the country to hold
them and an army of World war size would
be required to round them up and herd them
IN SlOCKaQeS or detention camps. An anti
strike law, to be effective, must be enforce
able 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 compulSions
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 especially
objectionable kind. Inevitably it would tend
to create either a favored class or an op-
pressed class Of workers, and would drive
workers either toward, or away from, such
employments. Executives who grow grey over
the problem of labor turnover and workers
who are always looking for "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 question in the affirmative. They say
that it is only essential to create conditions
under which both factors in the industrial
equation are assured of square deal and a
fair deal, and the adjustment upon that basis
of the differences which they cannot settle
by and for themselves.
These experts advocate the establishment