Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-09-04
THE ORDERLY PROCESS OF LAW.

lust what the Attorney General hopes
TO accomplish in the proceedings which
he has begun, to enjoin the striking 81 D.
men from interfering with the operation
of the railroads, we are at q loss to I'M
derstand. Under sections 81 and 232
of the criminal code of the United States,
the government has ample authority upon
which to proceed N the case OF con-
spiracy or any other overt criminal act
against railroads engaged in interstate
Transportation. The refusal of any man
or group of men to work is not IN Itself
a violation of any law, but any Interter-
ence with others in the performance OF
their work clearly comes within the
statute and is punishable. But neither
the government nor any other body can
compel men to work by injunction.
If, on the other hand, a man chooses
to remain idle and starve, he cannot by
the farthest stretch of his imagined
rights prevent another from working
and earning an honest livelihood. The
whole question of the strike hinges upon
this point. TO invoke the injunction
is as futile as for the striking trainmen
to resort to the use of bombs or any form
of violence; neither process will accom-
plish the solution of a difficult prob
lem. Either method in our judgment,
will only tend to aggravate it. new
beginning is necessary. Let the President
dissolve the existing Railroad Labor
Board, with which there is much dissat-
isfaction, and authorize the establishment
of new board consisting of three mem
bers selected by the Association of Rail-
way Executives, three members selected
by the American Federation of Labor,
the three remaining members to be chos-
en- at large by the two groups already
named. AS now constituted, organized
railway labor openly charges that the
present board, executing the three repre-
sentatives of labor, is predisposed to fav-
or the railroads and the money power" "
While such a suspicion exists on the part
of the railway employees, a practicable
solution seems remote if not hopeless.
Organized labor on the other hand,
by its utterances has encouraged viola
ton of the law by instructing it's men,
bers to disregard it. Witness the state
ment of Gompers that ln1unctions should
be regarded as Scraps of paper" and
that the injunction is an invasion of their
constitutional rights. When such state
ments emanate from the leading spokes-
man of labor it is not surprising that the
rank and file are misguided and do not
know where their rights end and the
rights Of others begin. To protest that
the injunction is an invasion of the con-
stitutional rights of the striking shop
men gives rise to the suspicion that they
have reason to fear its application. When
the leader of one of the largest organiza-
tions-i in the country instructs its members
to defy the law he treads on dangerous
ground He becomes indirectly RESPONSE
BILE for such acts of violence as we have
witnessed during the past few months,
and, in substituting might for right en-
dangers the cause which he represents.
The one way to settle industrial dis
putes is not by injunction by the govern
ment or violence by labor, but through
common understanding; but it is idle
to say that new methods must be found
as a substitute for the strike, as a work
ing basis for future adjustments, unless
remedy is at once provided. Meanwhile
when both sides to the present controv-
ersy can be prevailed upon to admit that
no one is ever all right or all wrong, a
settlement of their difficulties will not
be far off.