San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-10
PUBLIC RIGHTS.
IN COAL FIGHT.
ARE PRESENTED.
Commission Finds People
Should Not Freeze in
Midst of Abundance.
REPORT TO COOLIDGE
Necessity Of Supply Trans
cends Rights Of Miners
or Operators.

Washington. ID. C.. Sept. 1O.-Cola-
pairing the controversy in the coal sit
uation to that over slavery just prio:
10 the Civil war. the United States
Coal Commission declared in a report
submitted to President Coolidge today
that the national interest requires tho
establishment of fixed code for Sc
Element of this and other industrial!
disputes
Regardless of the inherent right,
possessed by both sides. the commits
sion held that the necessity of coal
to the general public makes it in
cumbent upon both operators and
workers ito make some personal sac
rifices in the interest of the commo3
veal"
The condition resembles the con-
flict between the def Iition in the
Declaration of independence concerh
ing human rights. and the then clear
ly constitutional right Of human slay-
cry" the report said. The great mass
of those arrayed upon either side Wel
unwilling to compromise or adjust. II
was permitted 10 go on until the
agony of Il fraternal war solved the
problem. 1t is TO be hoped that we
have learned wisdom by experience.
The outbreak at Herrin, ILL.,. IN
June. 1922. and the more recent di,-
turbance in the West Virginia fields
were cited as indicative of the serious
aspect the general situation has taken
The commission reviewed the history
Of both cases in detail but declined 10
fix responsibility further than to say
the serious results might be attributed
, TO the intense passions which had beeh
gradually fostered among the members
of the two opposing camps and to the
attitude of the communities involved
toward law and order.
Herrin Officials Lax.
While public officials at Herrin I'M
doubtedly were lax in performing
- their duty. the report said. there l.
:. no evidence that the United Mine
Workers foresaw the fatai conse'
eueAces Of the conflict between union
and operator at that place.
IF industrial peace is TO be hoped
for" the commission said, then some
method must be found to guarantee, aS
near as fallible human judgment may
equally exact justice TO capital, &c
labor and to the public. There mus
be one yard stick adopted by which
all controverted questions are to b,
measured. Public interest demands thai
certain fixed principles shall be recoc
nized by both capital and labor a:
this yard stick"
Declaring it would be better for
the participants themselves to work
out the exact terms of the code, the
commission set forth as the frame
r work, the following principles:
l. No contract is of any valid bind
ing force in America which has no:
been freely and voluntarily entered
into.
.. The right of a man to work.
p when, where, for whom and under
what conditions and at what wage be
chooses, so long as he elects to asset :
his individual right. must never be in
terfered with, and the state must fur
nish him protection and peace while LIE
exercises this right
Collective Bargaining Upheld.
). In a free government men have
a right TO combine themselves togeth-
er into organizations for collecti, L.
bargaining with reference to terms
and conditions under which they will
. work; they must exercise this right