The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-07-27

In one respect. IL directly Involves
more employees than ever were pre-
viously involved in railway strike
in this country. There we're about
475,000 employees in the shops when
the strike order went into effect
Estimates of the number who quit
work differ; but a large majority
quit.
In other respects the strike is sim
liar to those which have preceded
it. Like most other strikes, it was
the result of difference of opinion
between arrangements and employees
concerning the rules under which
the employees should work and the
wages they should be paid. Unlike
other strikes in this country, 1t ds-
regards decisions made by a govern
ment arbitration body regarding the
matters in controversy, but strikes in
disregard of decisions of govern
ment arbitration bodies have not
been unknown. Australia and New
leland have tried compulsory arbi-
trati0n. 1t has resulted in peaceful
settlements when the decisions have
been against the employees, but re-
peatedly has resulted in strikes
when the decisions have been
against the employees.
Differences OF opinion between
employers and employees regarding
how much the latter should be paid
have arisen turnout the history Of
the wage system. Innumerable plans
for so settling them as to prevent
lockouts and strikes have been adj
vocated and tried; but no such
means has ever been successful long.
The employer is prone to underes-
innate the amount he ought to pay,
but public opinion and law can COM
pei him either to pay what gov
eminent tribunal holds just or go out
Of business. Employees, individually
and collectively, are equally dis
posed to overestimate what the enl-
ployer can afford to pay; but up to
the present time public opinion and
law seldom have succeeded in fore
ing them peacefully to accept wages
that they have really regarded as
too low. They often have been
forced to accept lower wages than
they demanded, but the only really
effective cOmpulsiOn has been that
of economic conditions.
Regardless of the employees opin-
ion Of what he ought to have, he
cannot by the strike or any other
means long exact more than the en-
ployer can afford to pay. In the
controversy preceding the present
strike the labor leaders contended
that the railways should be required
to pay an average wage of $2,637 a
year because the employees need this
much to support their families &C
cording to certain standard. But,
hard as it may seem to say so, the
wages any industry can afford to pay
never have been and never will be
determined by what it's employees
need. What any industry can afford
to pay out is determined solely by
what it can earn. A bushes con-
Germ can stop operating just as its
employees can stop working. A bust
ness concern not only can but must
stop operating if for any considerable
time it is forced to incur expenses
which exceed what it can earn.
1t is more difficult for railway
than any other kind of business con-
Germ to stop operating, because to
do so is to forfeit it's right ever to
do business again. Already, how
ever, manv small railways in the
United States have been forced to
stop operating by inability to earn
enough to pay their expenses.
II the demands made by the lead
ers of the railway labor unions
should be compiled with, either an
enormous advance in rates would
have to be made, or every railway
company in the United States would
have to stop operating. The public
would not pay any such advance in
rates. 1t has SUCCESSFULLY insisted
upon a reduction Of rates. A reduc-
ton Of wages was inevitable. The
shop employees refused to accept it.
There was presented such a situa-
ton as has developed in industry
over and over again. 1t had the
same result that it has so often had
"a strike. The decisions and med
fation of the railroad labor board
made no difference.
Will this always be the course of
events in the future? The labor
leaders doubtless will answer that it
will be as long as the wage system
exists. The more radical among
them would avoid the development
of similar irreconcilable differences.
and the resulting lockouts and
strikes, by abolishing capitalism
which is another name for private
property-and the wage system with
1t. They would have all the means
of production and distribution
owned by the public and managed
by the workers under some guild or
soviet plan. But would that prevent
the workers from demanding more
than industry could produce. The
soviet system has been adopted in
Russia; but the workers in Russia |
still have to live on what industry
can produce. 1t does not produce
as much as it did before the hated
capitalist and wage systems were
abolished, and therefore the work
ers have to live on less. The pro-
letariat are supreme in Russia, but
the incomes of the workers are not
based there any more than any
where else on what the workers
need or demand. They need and
= T.