The Brunswick news., 1922-07-19
STILL NO SETTLEMENT.


chronic industrial problems likely tc
become acute at any time, but neither
the present rail strike nor the present
, coal strike need have been rs serious
as both have become. Had the Ad
ministration met either situation with
promptness, efficiency and tact-ol
even with promptness-it should have
been possible to avert walkouts or al
least to bring about temporary settle
ments without delay, says the New
York World.
The time to deal with the coal strike
was before it began, when the oper
ators first intimated their intentions
of breaking their pledge to confer
with the miners on a central scale
and when the miners announced their
intention of striking in retaliation.
| Failing that opportunity the Govern
ment should have used its influence to
hasten conference before the breach
had developed into a bitter and violent
struggle.
Instead of acting at once, the Ad-
ministration took the attitude that
since winter was long way off the
public could manage ito get along
without union coal for a few months.
Meanwhile it authorized Mr.. Hoover
to enter into price agreements with
the non-union operators which have
turned out to be as futile as they
looked when made. Not until the
Herrin murders revealed the serious
ness of the situation to every citizen
did President Harding decide to inter-
vene.
His Intervention has taken the form
| of proposal for the formation of a
committee, made up of three repre-
sentatives of the operators, three rep
resentatives of the miners and five
Government appointees, to investigate
costs and fix a wage scale effective
next March. The miners have reject
ed the plan, contending that to accept
would mean a surrender of the lever
age of collective barbaining. Though
their case is weakened before the pub
lie by this REFUSAL there is more than
a little justice in the argument They
prefer to deal directly with the oper-
ators, and there is no good reason
why the government should not have
given them the chance to do SO by
insisting that the operators enter the
conferences which they agreed to en-
ter. The operators could have been
brought to conference and even to
some kind of wage agreement more
easily than the United Mine Workers
can be coerced into accepting arbitra-
tion which they do not want. The
strike, too, could have been ended
two months ago more easily than
now.
The best time to deal with the rail
way strike was also before it began
before the Railroad Labor Board de-
cided to dehate railroad labor without
counting the probable cost in inter-
rupted service. Since the board had
its way unchecked and the strike is
on, the time to deal with it is at once,
and the way to deal with it is to noti-
| fly the railway executives who have
placed themselves on record as too
respectful of the Railroad Labor
| Board to discuss its decisions that no
such plicy is practicable. The rail-
roads would not dare refuse to confer
if they were talking in the presence Of
an Administration that knew when it
was defed.
! Unless the railway strike is soon
ended it is almost certain to spread.
The maintenance men have voted to
90 out and are only waiting for the
consent of their officials. Minor or
ganizations are quitting here and
there: the absence of the shopmen is
| beginning to be felt. With the coal
and rail strikes lending strength to
eac hother the prospect is darker than
has been officially admitted. 1t needs
no prophet to foretell what the conse-
uuences may be if the chain of drift,
maladroit interference and further
drift is unbroken.
For the government cannot run the
trains, cannot operate the mines, can
not extemporarize an industrial fab
ric to take the place of the one which
has been torn across in wage disputes
that did not appear of sufficient impor-
tance to the Administration to take
its attention from the tariff, the bonus
and the ship subsidy. 1t must settle
the strikes. If one plan does not
work, it must try another. The one
obvious method which has not been
tried is insistence on essential confer
ences in which the operators and the
! railroad executives have refused to
: take part.