Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-21

many such a man has been betrayed
by his righteous indignation into max
ing declarations fully as ~incendiary and
subversive of law and order as those
things of which he complains.
The radicals or reds are militant
because that is their creed. They seek
to overturn existing forms of govern
ment and social organiaztio and they
know no better way of bringing this
about than through a finish fight be-
tween capital and labor. They are the
ones who commit or incite and are
responsible for practically all the law
lessness that is 50 inexcusable and so
disastrous to the cause of labor.
Those Who Would Stop Fighting
The other school Of thought-those
who would end the industrial conflict
by involving ways and means of set
thing differences without fighting them
out to a finish-includes students of
the problem of industrial relations,
employers who view the relation of
capital and labor in the light Of a
partnership, and government officials
who have tackled the job of protecting
the public against the evil con-
sequences Of strikes. They are all
pacifists, although not in the sense in
which that word was made a term Of
OpIL III LII Il "O4Au
Theodore Roosevelt was of this
school when he ended the great anthra-
cite coal strike of 1902 because he
compelled the miners and operators to
stop fighting and then presented a plan
for working out a peace that continued
for almost 20 years.
President Harding and Secretary
Hoover and others of his associates
have identified themselves with this
school by the efforts they have made
within recent weeks to stop the costly
warfare in the coal and transportation
industries.
John D.. Rockefeller, Jr. the late
81. B. Endicott and Henry Ford have
been conspicuous among the great en-
ployers of labor who have acted upon
the theory that the way to end the
industrial war is to make it unneces-
sary and undesirable. Lord Lever
hume, perhaps the largest employer
of labor in the British empire is an
other such. None of them or of their
kind has ever advocated fighting it
out"
Students Of the Industrial problem
point out that the war with Germany
and Central powers was fought to a
finish, with a result that has not as
yet proved altogether happy. Ult-
mately the world may be all the better
for this demonstration of the militant
idea, but that remains to be seen.
Russia is also cited as an example Of
what it may mean to fight it out.
In the light of history as it has
been recorded during the last century
and a half In the United States it is
not to be expected that either the
militant or the pacifist idea will com
pletely dominate in dealing with the
strike problem. There will be a com
promise. There will be enough of
fighting to demonstrate that it would
be a bad thing for society in general
for either side to emerge from the
conflict a complete victor. Perhaps
there has been that much already.
On the other hand, it will be shown
that it would not be for the general
good to work out q peace that in
side. After all, capital and labor must
live and work together If industry and
civilization are to go forward. and this
is not possible if one is to be sub
ordinated entirely to the other as a
result either of war to the bitter end
or of an %injudicious peace.
One real danger in the present stu
alton, as leaders of affairs in Wash
ington view it, is that the general pub
lie will cease 10 be concerned about
the industrial problem as soon as the
Immediately disturbing conflicts are
over. In that event little or nothing
will be done TO prevent a recurrence
of such troubles or toward working
out q permanent solution of the pro
blem, for such steps are taken only In
response to an insistent, overwhelming
public sentiment.