The Connecticut labor news., 1922-09-15
WHAT IS THE PUBLIC
Great Fiction Is Fostered by Public Officials and Time Serving
 Press.
By w. C. ROBERTS, Chairman A. F. of L. Legislative
 Committee.

Much stress is being laid upon the suferings of the public" because of strikes. The newspapers, this includes the most of them, declare that the public" is oppoSed to strikes. The bankers in their publicity propaganda say the public" is against strikes. Individuals who assume they repre- sent the public" are continually writing letters to the press denounc- ing the wage earners for refusing to work for whatever the employers want to give them.
 Tn the suggestions for arbitrating differences the newspapers advocate representatives of the public" to be appointed by someone other than the parties involved in an industrial dis pute. The President of the United States laid great emphasis on the necessity of protecting the "public" from strikes. He even proposed an arbitration board to settle the wages and working conditions of the miners. It was to be composed of three op- orators, three miners and eight rep resentatives of the public" The an thracite coal operators followed the lead of the President. They were willing to permit the miners to have three representatives on a board of arbitration to settle the anthracite strike, they (the operators) were to have three representatives and the umpire" was to be judge, whose name was given, of the federal court in Philadelphia. Thus the anthracite operators, who not only own the coal mines but also own the railroads that haul the coal and thereby make double profits, wanted to name four members of an "arbitration board' of seven.
 Let it be understood once and for all that labor cannot be deceived into recognizing the fails of a "public" which represents less than 4 per cent of the citizens of the United States. talks, for which the newspapers argue and the unfair employers insist is that portion of the people of our country who employ labor, control the banks and great commercial interests and last, and unfortunately not least, the lawyers. The great mass of the peo- pie, those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, and their sympathizers, are excluded from this handmade "public.''
 Not one arbitration umpire of the representatives of the "public" comes from the real public. The representa- tives of the public" on the Railroad Labor Board represent the public so often referred to by the President, the newspapers, and the unfair em- ployers It is the "public" that al- l ways favors the enslavement of la 1 bor; that believes in compulsory arbi- tration, otherwise involuntary servi- 1 tude; that believes in repressing every 1 ambition of the men and women who work for wages to advance the eco homie conditions of themselves and those dependent upon them.
 The President of the United States who asked for the power to appoint the eight representatives on mining commission, would have selected eight men from the minority public, from the "public" that is always against labor" Unless man is wei to-do, or is a known business or f. nancial man, he never is considered 1T the public on any arbitration board follows:
 The public which consists of politi- cal favorites, of the privileged few and their sympathizers and from which the wage earners and their sympathizers are excluded
 The real public that comprises not only the privileged few and their sympathizers but the wage earners and their sympathizers as well. When the parties at interest agree upon an umpire to decide between them that is voluntary arbitration, the greatest incentive for the n1ainteI nance of industrial peace
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