The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-09-02

tttciAnS are worrying over tne
probable political effect Of the coal
and railroad strikes. Since every
American yoter ID more or less Sof
70 politician and since, there are
more voters now In this country
than ever before, that means that
. considerable amount Of worry
Ing will be done before the Ides Of
November.
Great Industrial upheavals such
~ the present summer has wit
messed are ffaught with conse-
Quences that are widespread and
far-reaching. They take q toll in
money and in lives that is stagger-
| ing. Statisticians throw up their
hands when asked to compute the
financial cost Of such disturbances,
for aside from the concrete Joss in
almost every line of business and
industry there is no way of esti-
mating the full measure of pros
! perity that the country might be
enjoying but for their retarding in
| fluence. AS for the cost OF lives,
the direct loss is not SO great per-
/ haps, but it is recognized that the
strikes have had powerful psy-
Geological and physical effect upon
hundreds of thousands of individ-
uals.
! But when it comes to the proba-
Bile Political effect, speculation and
Imagination can run riot. Elections
turn on far less momentous influ-
ences and the result of the cleo
ton this year may make history for
half century. And international
affairs are in such state, with
this country in such a key position
that change in the political com.
plexion of the American congress
might have an effect that would be
felt around the world.
However, statesmen are the ones
who worry about matters of thai
kind and comparatively few of oul
politicians are statesmen. The
politician is concerned about what
may happen to himself as a candi.
date for office, or to the candidates
in whom he is directly interested
and the overwhelming bulk of the
worrying that is going, on in the
present situation springs from that
source. He may talk a great deaI
about the welfare of the country
land the future Of his party, but the
politicians fundamental idea IL
that everything will be all right il
the gets what he wants out of the
election.
Republicans Deeply Concerned.
1t may be stated without any evi.
Idence Of partisanship that the Re.
publicans are more worried thar
their Democratic brethren over the
possible political effect of The
strikes. They admit that without
any equivocation. The reason fol
this is that the Republicans are IL
power and it is always the party
lin~power that is menaced by any
social or economic development
that arouses the people generally
1t is traditional that administra
tions have been blamed even fol
poor crops and the Republican
count themselves fortunate thai
the prospect this year is for q
bountiful harvest.
Still that is not a source of un.
alleged satisfaction, for the fac
that there will be bumper crops
complexities the situation arising
from the strikes. Tho crops mus
be moved promptly if the farmer!
are to profit by them and fear i!
expressed that, the railroads viii
; not be able to meet the emergency
Railroad equipment is shot t
pieces as a result of the strike o
shop workers and at the time whel
; every available car and engine
would be pressed into service Il
move crops there will be extraOr
binary demands from the coal in
dustry.
The new supplies Of coal mus
be handled during the period whel
ordinarily the transportation sys
TENS would be carrying peal
load due to the requirements o
the farmers and unfortunately
neither emergency will wait upol
the other.
, Naturally the people who are in
convenienced or who suffer losse
as a result of this situation will
have their troubles on their mind
when they are deciding how the
will vote in November. They viii
, be quite certain that affairs woul
not have come to such a pass
there had been no strikes, or if tn
controversies had been settled i
! their fncibiepcy, They know tina