OCR Text |
Show M SSOX OF IIIIC ailllKK. Reports from tho Pennsylvania eoko regions are to tbe effect that tho great . s rike is breakiug. It will, no doubt. soon bo settled; and both sides will then sit dow n and count tho cost. If there could have been a government board of arbitration to adjust tho matter at the start, a vast amount of suffering would havo been avoided. The rights , of the community are so directly affected by strikes that the public has an undoubted un-doubted right to interfere. No one desires an arrangement made that would be unjust to either Interest, but lt ought to be possible to create a com- j . mission that would command the en- A tiro confidence of both sides, and ". i that would havo authority to prohibit V Strikes. It is not likely that any commission operating under state authority could command such contidence, and both the workingmeu and the employers would demand that tho subject bo under national supervision. A commission com-mission composed of such men as Waltkk Q. (Jhksiiam, HoukkQ. Mills, James E. Cami'hkll, "Farmer" Wauk and Joii.n D.u.zKl.r. would bo trusted by all interests. It may bo nrgued that men of that class could not be induced to take such positions. This would hold true if tho matter were left to itate control, but tin re would bo uo difficulty about securing the services of the right kind of men under a national enactment. A commission of that kind would bo fully as dignified as the interstate inter-state commerce commission in which Judge (.'holey, Y. H. MoitM-bos MoitM-bos and other distinguished characters accepted places. If tho law provided that disputes should be settled by men of that stamp iho employer would bo perfectly willing will-ing to have lock outs prohibited, while tho employe would find no hardship in having strikes made unlawful. Since these contests between labor and capital cap-ital always result in loss and sullering, it would bo a matter calling for universal univer-sal congratulation if some means of avoiding them could bo devised. The right to strike is admitted, but it must ' also be admitted that better results would be secured if the necessity for such struggles were done away with, and the struggles themselves made impossible. |