Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-06
E E ETERNAL THINGS:
PRESIDENT
ON LIBERTY.

l Fourth Of July celebrations
The eagle screaming is practically
gone. So has the grand firecrackel
and much of the noise which usec
to be characteristic of the Fourth
of July. The safe and sal Fourth
of July celebration is here. 1t has
come to stay, we hope. 1t is a
great improvement on its prede.
essor
President Harding went home to
the town Of Marion to celebrate
the Fourth of July and he made a
speech to his fellow townsmen as a
part of the celebration. In that
speech he touched on the right of a
man to earn his living without ask
ing the consent of any other man
1t is a timely topic in view Of the
hideous denial of that right at Her
rim, Illinois, a few short weeks ago.
He also asserted the right of men
to bargain collectively. No one
disputes that latter right, so far as
we know. But the maintenance of
the right to bargain collectively as
to wages and conditions of service
does not carry with it the right to
deny any individual the right to
bargain individually if he wishes to
do so, or to earn his living at wages
satisfactory to himself. And be-
cause the individual who works
when the majority of his associates
or fellow workers go on strike and
refuse to work he is often subject
ed to persecution, wounds and
death. His act in working at a
lower wage, or at any wage at all,
when a labor union has called q
strike, is deemed a treason to the
cause Of labor that justifies any
punishment, or torture, or death
itself. That is the logic of the
Herrin strikers and their sympa-
thizers. The fact that the law gave
these members Of the shovelers
union thes am right to work that
they had not to work makes no
dent in these men. They say the
shovelers were taking their jobs
from them and deserved all they
got. They even resent any investi-
CATION into their act. They say it
is their business and no outsider
has any right to inquire into what
they did.
The president asserted the right
of all men to work for a living
without asking the consent of any
man. or any association of men or
ganized as a union, but he did not
tell us how that right is to be main
tanned. Most VIGOROUSLY it is not
maintained. Not often is it v~iolat-
ed so outrageously and brutality as
it was done by the coal miners Of
southern Illinois, but it is constant
ly violated just the am Hun
dreds and thousands of men have
been murdered in the past few
years because they attempted to as
sert the right the president tells
US they have to work for a living
with the consent of other men. Very
few of the assassins have been
caught and punished. In this Her
rim case, where a score of unarmed
men were murdered with all the
brutal incidents that used to char
acterize an Apache raid, not a soul
has been arrested charged with the
crime. The county attorney says a
grand jury is o needed. The
sheriff says he does not know a
single one Of the participants of
this crime though it was done in
broad daylight with thousands Of
citizens looking on and melting the
murderers to further brutalities.
What is President Harding going
to do about it? How is he going
to protect the right he says every
American citizens has to work with
out the consent of any other man
or aggregation Of men? We don't
know what he can do to vindicate
this right. We don't know what
he mean to do, or try to do. He
gave no hint of it in his speech
at Marion. We suspect he will do
nothing but use strong words about
it, and that the governor and the
authorities of the state Of Illinois
will do nothing about it. W. ex-
pect that by and by public attention
will be fastened on some other
outrage against the rights of the
citizen, or some scandal in high
life, or some political or social
event, and the murders at Herrin
will be forgotten as murders in
Colorado and Idaho and many other
states in the union have been for
IT, e.. g. AL.AN A. 1.,..