Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-07-11
1.-THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED"
HAS BEEN SAID TOO OFTEN
Industrial Peace is Dependent on the
Official Assertion Of the Supremacy
Of publie tntereat

which cannot safely be ignored.
The first is that the public is the chief
party in interest In each case and the second
is that every man has n right to work for
whatever wages are offered without molestn-
tion from those who are unwilling to work
at those wages.
President Iardng's suggestion TO the
coal operators and miners that they submit
their differences TO commission composed
Of six of their representatives and five rep
resentotives of the public indicates his be.
lief In the preponderating interest of the
public. There would be three REPRESENT
tives of the miners and three representatives
of the operators on the commission. If the
five representatives. of the public agreed on
plan Of settlement II would take the vote
Of only one Of the others to carry it.
Unfortunately. however. the interest Of
the miners and the operators is opposed to
the interest Of the public. II is possible
that the six men on the commission would
combine in opposing any plan conceived
primarily for the benefit of the consumer.
The only way that the preponderating inter-
est of the public can be protected is by
giving TO the public sufficient power in the
commission to enforce it's will.
Indeed, the time should come when COM
missions created TO adjudicate disputes be-
tween employers and employees in essential
industries will be composed entirely of rep
resentatives of the public. When n case is
tried in the courts II is not tried before three
Judges. one representing each lit!gant and
third representing the public. The Judge is
supposed to be impartial, with no interest
save the establishment Of justice. He is not
supposed TO bring about Il compromise be-
tween conflicting interests regardless of the
equities.
We are on the way to the establishment
of the theory that coal must he supplied to
the consumers at q reasonable price. II the
miners and the operators fail to produce the
coal then the Government will step in and
see that It is produced. The only thing that
can check this movement is the abandonment
Of the present attitude Of mind of those con-
nected with coal mining an attitude resting
on the assumption that the public has no
rights which they are bound to respect.
The situation is substantially the same in
the railroad industry. The public is de.
pendent on the uninterrupted operation of
the trains for its daily supply of food and
fuel. There is not large city in the coun-
Try which would not be on the verge of
starvation within week after the cessation
of the operation of the railroads. And the
producers are just as dependent on the
operation of the trains. Their pershable
crops must be got to market expeditiously or
they will rot and be n total loss.
Farmers in the neighborhood of this city
have already been holding meetings to see
what they could do TO get their crops to
market In the event Of a railroad strik" that
would tie up the trains. Their peaches and
their summer apples must be shipped as soon
as they are picked or they become valueless.
and their market is beyond the reach Of
automobile trucks.
So much for the interest Of the public
II the right of a man to work were univrr-
sally recognized as President Harding has
said it must be. the danger of interruption
in these essential industries would be much
less But strikers or their sympathizers
sometimes assume to deny to any one else
the right to take the jobs which they had
filled.
The Government cannot permit Il condi
any man TO accept days work where it is
offered II has asserted itself on several
occasions. but on other occasions it has
permitted matters to drift until there has
been n violent outbreak
II was laxity on the part of Government
that made the Herrin massacre possible.
| That trouble was brewing was known for
many days in advance. but the local poll
! ticlans in charge Of the peace officers did
nothing Timely precautions would have
prevented the trouble. just as they prevented
II in the >Gary steel strike when General
Leonard Wood was sent to the district with
Federal troops.
The general announced that he was not
| concerned with the dispute between the
employers and the employed. but that he
was concerned with the preservation of pub
lie order and the protection of life. The
strikers might hold all the meetings they
choose. they might parade in the streets II
they wished and they might engage in con .
versat0n with any man at work in the steel
mills but he snid he would hold the men
personally responsible for any disorder that
arose because Of their acts. There was nc
disorder thereafter and the strik" was soon
settled
Nearly every instance of industrial dis
order has come about because those respon
sible for 1t have counted on the inactivity o
public officials who had chocolate eclai,
When public officials do not insist that tn,
public interest is supreme 1t is not sur.
prising that the employers and employees
igrore 1t in their disputes.
There has been incipient violence alread,
in the railroad strike, and National Guards
men have been ordered out in Illinois an,
are under arms awaiting orders in severa
other States. The disorder will not stop /
the impression gets abroad that this exhibi
ton OF force il II mere political gesture.