Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-25
is A COAL WAR INEVITABLE?
WHO SOUGHT TO PREVENT IT.?
Governor sprouI Still Has Time to In.
woke Such Light on the Proposed
Strike as Would Make for Peace

NSNS SoS' S'S"h oH t'S ''ShSsSS
Strike as Would Make for Peace
GOVERNOR SPROUL feels that a coal
~ strike. with the endless confusion that
It would bring in this State. is inevitable.
Attorney General Daugherty promises
drastic action Mr. Lewis, for the mine
workers unions, and the srokesmen for the
operators predict the greatest strike In the
country's history.
If this State Is to be trampled in a labor
war, If its communities are to be harassed
by contending forces without respect for
civil law, If its peace IS to be disturbed and
its industries threatened, the worry and the
responsibility will lie upon the Governor.
Mr.. Sproul, therefore, should write a
telegram. He should send 1t to Mr.. Lewis.
to the district officers Of the Pennsylvania
mine unions and 10 the committees which
speak and act for the coal operators orsani-
sation. That telegram should run about
like this:
7 eant you TO come to Hdrriso~-v at
once tor a conference ,oith me.
rant that conference to be open TO tho
public. am determined to Keep the
peace. but uant to knop uhat sort Of
peace am keeping.
I ON asking you to meet me and state
pour cases openly because the people Of
Penrsylranid have q right to kno,c the
origin of the troubles ,ohich you are pre-
pairing to thrust upon them rithout their
knorledge or their consent. They rant
TO knor ,chy strike is "meritab'e.
They rdnt to knop in the future how they
may prerent campaigns of ciolence and
social destruction rithin their borders.
They ns tceN as 7 rish to knor BY ,rhose
authority or through whose fault this
State Is to be conrerted into a Jdh'e.
ground.
If there is In Harrisburg or In Washington
any Of the resources of constructive imagi
nation. an organized and intelligent effort
will yet be made to avert the miners walk
out. But the mystic sense Of inevitability
lies as heavily upon Attorney General
Daugherty as it does upon public officials
elsewhere. II the strike IS ineritdble. it is
largely because those hdcing the authority to
force intelligent governmental inquiry and
action hare been content to feel that II is
ineritable.
I'VE shall take action more drastic than
the Government ever took before under sim
tlar circumstances" says Attorney General
Daugherty.
Drastic action, Not scientific action or
enlightened action or preventive action or
humane action. you observe. but drastic
action. Does this mean special work for
the United States Army in this State?
Does 1t mean airplanes and bombs and guns
turned upon misguided and bewildered mobs :?
Nowhere is there any official effort TO
bring the saving elements of light and truth
and reason into the controversy, That Is
a work that Governor Sproul might at least
attempt even at this late hour, If only to let
the public at large put the blame where It
belongs for such cruelties and outrages as
may and probably will be apparent in Il
hard fought and costly industrial war.
For the moment 1t seems that an opposite
policy prevails at Harrisburg. Arsenals are
being swept and garnished. Armortes are
being stocked with ammunition--to deal with
the poignant and complicated human con
Germs out of which strikes are generated I,
Is the soil of this State TO be disgraced by
w q.
Va, or Of the Rand?
"Get out Of the way say the miners
leaders and the operators alike TO the people
Of Pennsylvania. 1--WE are going TO make
an arena OF your State. Never mind what
1t !s all about, but keep your guns handy -
1t will be strange II the Governor can look
with equanimity at the problems thus Gre
ated for him. stranger If he attempts to
apply old fashioned rules Of action to an
entirely novel case. For this time It was the
unions which pleaded to the last for a
peaceful way Of settlement and the opera :
tors who refused TO go into conference or to
respect agreements entered into under the
auspices of the Federal Government
II earlier precedents are followed the
essential truth of this private war will be
obscured by organized propaganda from both
sides, by the smoke Of violence, by shouts
OF anarchy. Mine guards will be armed.
Strikers will become indamed and unruly.
They will riot. Blood will be shed And the
common law and civil rights which the Con =
stitution Is supposed TO guarantee to all
citizens will be abrogated at the nod OF
ignorant local officials In the affected areas.
And all this Is in time when the whole
world Is sick at heart over the mongtrous
futility OF gunplay and brute force
Surely there ought to be enough intellec
tual and spiritual resourcefulness in our
systems OF government TO prevent the hor.
ribly grotesque, economic and social phe
nomenon this strike would be.