Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-06-24
FATE OF THE COAL STRIKE is SEALED

- The coal strike is lost. 1t has been doomed to failure
) from the beginning because it was a strike against the
economic laws over which no man or set of men can have
control. But the seal of failure was placed upon the strike
by WHAT bound to pass down in labor history as the Herrin
massacre.
Violence leading to the destruction of life and property
- is not to be condoned under any circumstances, but when
the violence takes the form of wholesale slaughter in cold
y blood the outrage horriles the nation and gives unionism a
black eye that will take years to live down, if it ever can be
: lived down. This is to be regretted because the fundamen-
tai principles of unionism are sound. Under wise leadership
these principles would have the support of the public. But
with such outrages as have just been committed in the min
I ing district of Illinois whatever sympathy the public might
5 have is utterly destroyed.
r - It is useless for the labor leaders to express regrets
: over what has occurred and to condemn such methods, in
view of the letter which John L. Lewis, president of the
miners union, wrote to his union officials in the Herrin dis
trct as to the union status OF these men who had gone TO
work. Mr.. Lewis wrote: Representatives of our organiza-
ton are justified in treating this crowd as an outlaw organi-
cation and in viewing its members in the same light as they
would any other commons strike breakers."
John L. Lewis is a highly intelligent man and is one of
the national figures in the labor world. Such a statement
coming from him, their national president, was all that was
necessary to start something among the more irresponsible
element in the union.
Something was started, all right. Men who were exer-
cising their constitutional right to work as they saw fit, see
ing themselves outnumbered by the attacking mob, surrend-
1rede under a pledge of safety. But as soon as the mob
hot their hands on their victims they were tied together in
squads and made to run the gauntlet, being deliberately shot
! down at close range. The dead, in falling, dragged others
who were tied to them down and these were kicked and
stabbed to death, the dying being denied even so much as
aorinK or water. Some were hanged and others were thrown
INTO a lake. Such fendishness has seldom been heard of in
This country. 1t was a carnival of 4 estiaity that has brought
shame upon every American citizen and disgrace upon the
state of Illinois and the officials directly responsible for pro-
tecting life and property and maintaining law and order IN
the district in which the slaughter occurred.
Such methods as these union strikers have adopted in
Illinois do not win strikes any more. They greatly hinder
rather than help the cause of labor. The American public
will not stand for such things as these. The indifference and
apathy that heretofore has been shown toward the coal
strike has gone. The public is aroused, but not in a way
that the striking miners want. .-- -.---
However, there is a desire that justice be done and to
that end it is the duty of the government to take a hand in
the situation without further delay. President Harding has
ample precedent for interfering. He should hesitate no
longer in appointing a commission to go into the whole stu
alton and arrive as definite conclusions. Whatever deci-
sion the commission might reach should be backed by the
whole power of the United States. Such a course is the one
best hope for the miners, as the Herrin massacre has utterly
destroyed whatever confidence the people may have had in
them to win their own cause.