The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-08-11

eminent, as are the twin strikes OF
the coal miners and the railway
men. Hesitancy and uncertainty, con.
Trajectory attitudes, have marked
every statement and every move, the
Administration appearing to be
swayed by any and every advisor
that got its ear. At this writing
Fuel Administrators have been APP
pointed, which cannot be interpreted
as anything but a surrender before
a defeat The American people must
regard with chagrin the feeble hands
that grope and tumble around the
nations helm.
The Government itself is sir
wrong" to begin with. 1t was with
Government approval that the rail.
way workers wages were lowered
when it was absolutely certain that
such an act would precipitate a
strike and a tie-up. An agency of
the Government undertook to do the
dirty work of the railway owners, to
give a corporation act the aspect of
a Government edict, and now that
the strike has come, there are United
States officials silly enough to say
it is strike against the Govern
llCllJ. OOIllllllJCCu W lie IdllWS9
owners side of the wage disputes,
the Administration must back up its
folly, or repent-and repentance is
about the last thing to expect i'll af-
fairs of this kind.
And not the Administration only,
but the associated powers of wealth
and exploitation must share the very
serious responsibility. There is no
doubt at all that this strike is part
and parcel of the process of de
flating labor" which was begun so
deliberately and carried on so heart
lessly at the close of the war. 1t
is even now being whispered across
the country. as a kind of secret CAM
paign argument, that manufacturers
especially manufacturers-must be
patient with the present destructive
situation because it is only part Of
"the program Of putting labor where
it belongs" 1t is openly charged
in various reports in the hands OF
the owners of railroads and mines.
The strikes were desired by the rail
road owners because they would en-
courage by fair means or foul the
government purchase Of the roads.
And the strikes were desired by the
mine owners because Of an intoler-
able condition which has been fast
ened on coal mining. The railroads
are so decrepit that even Wall Street
has discarded them in favor of the
movies, as investment propositions
Coal mining has been so separated
from the public by brokerage sys-
tenn that only drastic REIMBURSEMENT
can be of any use.
In both of these instances, how
ever, the Administration is not
blameless. The time for Govern
to prevent it. The Administration
had full knowledge and ample warn
ing Of what was to occur; it knew
the protest of the railway workers
uttered at the time a Government
agency was busy slashing $60,000,-
600 off the workers annual income;
it knew the situation with regard to
coal; yet not by one act of fore
thought or one step toward preven-
ton did it seek to forestall what it
clearly saw would occur, and what it
must have known the enemies of
labor dearly desired to occur. No ac-
count of tardy buster and fluster
will make up for that.
In the railway matter the wages
of the men must be put back. The
strike is wrong, but the men are
right. Railway management has
made its last confession of absolute
failure when it takes its working
capital out of the pay envelope of
the men. The salvation of the rail-
roads does not lie in that direction.
Reduction of wages and increase Of
rates is certain suicide. Reduction
of rates, increase in the quality of
the service and higher wages are the
guarantees of railroad prosperity.
Minds of the old order cannot see
that, but it is the truth of railroad
ing.
And when the service is resumed,
the Administration will have no right
to light a cigar, sit back and con-
graduate itself. Settling a strike
doesn't mean anything any more.
Too many strikes have been settled
without touching the sources of the
strike. The annual chokings of the
nations life have been intended by
certain concealed forces as rehear-
sails for a final choking which should
inaugurate a national struggle for
life. Strikes grow more numerous
and threatening every year, not be-
cause labor grows more threatening
or less American, but because each
succeeding strike has a deeper alien
fringe around it and is a signal for
the activity of Bolshevik and anar-
chist groups that are not related to
the strike at all. These latter come
out under cover of the strike season
and spread their poison. And each
year they find their prospects bet
ter. The Administration has been so
suby with Russia that it has had
little time to give to America. Who
is it, anyway, that is so interested in
keeping our national eyes overseas
when they should be scrutinizing
affairs at home?
AS to the coal situation, the condi-
tionS of coal mining are and always
have been a disgrace to a civilized
people. We have enjoyed our coal
at too great a cost of flesh and
blood. We have permitted our public
press to degrade the name of miner
until it means little less than outlaw.
We have forgotten that the best of
the British stock comprise the bulk
of our mining forces-Irish, Welsh
and Scotch-men whose minds are
fit soil for the seeds of liberty and
Christian justice. We have thought,
because they belong to one of the
most ancient trades in the world,
the trade of mining, that anything
was good enough for them and that
they must somehow be themselves
to blame or they would not have so
many sufferings. And that is about
the total extent of the public's con-
tribution of thought to the mining
problem.
The mine owners want a strike be-
cause, it will reduce stocks, make
coal scarce and raise prices. There
is colossal irony in the fact that the