Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-09

WILKINSON IL 10 uOW-tue COuuIy IL
which the Illinois tragedy of the coal
strike occurred. A year ago or less,
it wat Bloody Mingo' or Bloody Lo-
where similar tragedies were enacted
as appalling features Of the contro-
versy in the coal industry.
Washington officials who are not
partisans in this bitter labor fight but
are primarily concerned over the pub
lie welfare aspect of the struggle be-
end to this bloody business. In the
opinion of these officials labor and
capital have demonstrated conclusively
why they should not be permitted to
work out their own problems or fight
out their own battles without interior
ence from the government or other
outside agencies. 1t is seen that soon
er or later industrial warfare leads to
disaster-to lawlessness, violence and
the sacrifice of human lives. newt
ably a community or a state is dis
graced by some such occurrence as the
Herrin massacre.
Both parties to industry-organized
labor on the one side and the larger
employing interests on the other-have
opposed vigorously every proposal or
measure to do away with strikes and
lockouts and their accompanying evils.
In that they have had one thing in com
mon. Each has seemed to fear that
! the assertion of a state or federal
authority to end and adjust c%ontrover-
sizes that jeopardize the public interest
would minimize the economic power
upon which each relies to get the bet
ter of it in bargaining over wages and
working conditions.
1t is not suggested that either side
has wanted to be free to commit muir
der or lesser outrages on law and or
der. Neither ever intends to go that
far. They merely insist that they have
a right to settle their w differences
in their own way, and at the outset
they give every assurance that their
! methods and measures will be perfect
ly peaceful. They talk much about the
folly of attempting to interfere with
1.-The free play of economic forces ana
"the natural processes of the law OF
supply and demand"
Unfortunately a titanic conflict such
as the one of the coal industry is
certain to become in the end a hfe
and death struggle. Almost every
chapter in the history of such con
flicts has its bloody pages-Home-
stead, Occur d'Alene, Paterson, Chi
cago, Colorado, San Francisco. Los
Angeles. West Virginia and now Hill
nois. The climax is always the same.
The lesson is not to be escaped. Left
to themselves, labor and capital will
fight to the death. literally as well
as figuratively, and it is to check this
that measures are being considered at
the capitol.
Not the least significant phase of
the Illinois tragedy is the evidence that
the union miners and their sympathiz-
ers are largely if not completely in
control of the official machinery of
Williamson county. This is especially
interesting in view of the fact that IT
is the exact reverse of the situation
that has obtained In Mingo county.
West Virginia. In the West Virginia
counties the a%nti-union coal operators
are in the saddle politically and Off
cially. and there has been abundant
evidence that they ride just as hard
and just as ruthlessly as the union
miners in Illinois.
The ~farcical corners jury investi-
CATION and verdict in the Herrin affair
has been condemned generally. There
has been much criticism of the appar-
ent failure of the sheriff and other of
lltIdIS llItIt l " utdht aug Fii'At ~ pr
vent bloodshed. and the impotence Of
the forces of law and order has been
attributed to political domination by
the union miners.
There is no disposition on the part
of official Washington to withhold
condemnation of what has transpired in
Illinois. There is, however. insistence
that the record of what has happened
in West Virginia must not be forgot
ten in considering more recent events.
for example, the Kenyon Committee
investigation Of the West Virginia con-
troversy showed that the anti-union
coal operators not only control Logan
county politically. but that they actual
" pay the salaries Of the deputy
sheriffs who are supposed to enforce
the laws of the county. The operators
themselves testified that they expend-
ed over $4,000 for this purpose in
1920 and over SOL 900 during the first
10 months of 1921. and they also as
serted that they believed they had a
right to prevent union meetings in
Logan county. or even to bar from the
county union organizers and sympathi- |