Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-05-23 | Page 6 | Without Parallel

WITHOUT PARALLEL. The civic authorities of Winnipeg have disclaimed, with some warmth ot feeling, that the Manitoba capital actually actu-ally is under soviet rule as a result of tho labor troubles and consequent strike which lias paralyzed practically every industry in that cit' of more than 200,000 people. Doubtless Winnipeg Winni-peg is not actually ruled by a sovictj but virtual!' it is. At tiny rate, it is not being ruled by its constituted authorities. au-thorities. The, strike committee is directing di-recting every business activity remaining remain-ing in "Winnipeg. Tho mayor and other city officials are without means of enforcing en-forcing regulations. Even the police remain on duty by sufferance of tho strike leaders. The "Winnipeg situation is without a parallel in the history of labor disturbances disturb-ances on this continent. An astonishing astonish-ing condition prevails in tho Manitoba met ropolis. Just to ' what extent the city is suffering because of tho dislocation disloca-tion of its industrial and commercial machinery cannot be told, since a press censorship has been established by the strike committee, which passes upon accounts of the trouble. The only means for escaping tliis censorship is in taking the news dispatches across the international boundary and transmitting transmit-ting them from an American point. It is little wonder that the provincial provin-cial and dominion authorities are alarmed at the Winnipeg situation, involving, in-volving, as it docs, the possibility of similar disturbances in other parts of Canada. The Ottawa authorities are reluctant to adopt drastic methods to put an end to the intolerable state of affairs in Winnipeg, since all accounts agree that there has been no violence. One reason for the inability to adjust matters may be found in the fact that Ottawa, considers that the trouble is one for the .Manitoba provincial government gov-ernment to deal with; the provincial government in turn thrusts responsibility responsibil-ity upon ( the city of Winnipeg government, govern-ment, and the latter protests that the situation, having gone out of bounds, must be handled by a stronger power. . Meantime, the newspaperless, phone-less, phone-less, street earless, almost foodless and milkless residents of the Manitoba capital, cap-ital, helpless and hapless victims of a situation created by no fault of their doing, deserve the sympathy of their fellows elsewhere, coupled with the earnest hope that sane counsels will prevail to put a speedy end to their misfortunes.