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Show THE CITIZEN 2 war on the public and those responsible for it are conspirators against the public. The principle of law applicable to conspiracies can be applied with perfect precision and justice to the strike. It is a principle that a number of men may not conspire to do that which, if done by an individual, is perfectly legal. It is perfectly legal for a company to fix its own prices, but if it conspires with siftiilar companies to fix prices all over the land in restraint of trade it is illegal. may be illustrated in a case where there is no conspiracy. It is perfectly legal for a man to go for a stroll swinging his cane, but if a hundred men with swinging canes form a cordon and block a street they can be arrested. If two men engage in a. fight on the street they can be arrested . , for disturbing the peace. In other words, whether there is a conspiracy or not, the public has a right to protect itself and the government should look rather to the protection of the public than to the coddling of minorities that raise their hands against the government and the public. Representatives of the Wichita trade and labor council denounced Gov. Henry J. Allen of Kansas for sending volunteers to operate the fuel mines. &is act was described as utterly unwarranted. What WHEN RIGHT TO STRIKE BECOMES A WRONG a strange-perversioof view! -- The workmen. who were trying to starve and freeze the people of Kansas into submission considered their events strikeand the sequel their acts warranted, but when the governor took, measures to protect GARFIELD'S resignation, to solve the problems of labor ahd capital. the public he was told that he was acting without warrant. Had he Dr. Garfield saw in the President's proposal a crucial defect of excluded volunteers from the mines the labor council would have apprinciple" and resigned 'hi office. In this way the attention of the plauded, although- he .would have. been- acting only- for a minority. ' public was attracted as never before to the principles involved in When- he acts for the- majority,- exercising the sovereign right of strikes and their settlement. ; society to protect itself, he is denounced. The government has a right,- in dealing with great strikes, to use Usually the descriptive phrase the problem' of labor and capnot only the injunction and other legal means to protect itself and the ital is sufficiently accurate. It is only' when a strike becomes nationand military powers. wide that the people of the United States realize that it is chiefly their public, but to use problem. The public are the majority and hive the; right, and will exert it,' to settle the problem ultimately in their own way. An arGERMAN NAVAL SUPERIORITY mistice between capital and labor which permits capital to increase wages and simultaneously advance prices is a makeshift adjustment. the British navy was outclassed in mainy respects by the THAT but been of that kind, The President's settlements have invariably navy, especially at. the battles oTTCoronel and Jutland, is inasmuch as they simply postpone the day of final adjustment they the opinion given by Rear Admiral Bradley Fiske of the United States are temporary bridges across chasms and lead to no goal. navy in a review of Admiral Von Tirpitz' book. The President proposed a commission of three, one member to In the Coronel engagement, off the coast of Chili, the British and ' German squadrons were about equal in strength. In a few hours Adrepresent labor, another capital and the third the public. The mad of the commission ; the minority by miral Von Spee,; owing to the superior gunnery of his men, almost anjority is represented by s. If the commission follows the line of least resistance it nihilated the opposing squadron. Some weeks later his own squadron will simply increase wages and advance prices. was virtually annihilated in a fight with the British off the Falkland More and more the public has formed the conviction that it must islands. For Von Spee it was a hopeless fight from the beginning. have the deciding voice in strikes and the reasons for this conviction The British had sent out from Great Britain a squadron whose guns are becoming obvious. It is not solely that the interests of the public outranged any possessed by the Germans. The British so maneuare greater than the interests of the parties to the dispute. There is vered their ships that at no time were the Germans able to land efguns on any of their antagonists. an even more important element to consider. A nationwide strike fectively with their short-rang- e The superiority at Jutland was due largely to better German or a strike in a basic industry inevitably comes into conflict with the and materials. Admiral Fiske quotes the British commander, government itself. Each side asks the government to decide in its gunnery favor. Capital frequently expresses a willingness to grant mpst of Admiral Jellicoe, to prove the .deficiencies of the British fleet. Jellicoe the demands Of labor if permitted to raise prices, for usually capital shows that not only was the armor of the Germans better in quality' (it was known to be thicker), but it was more scientifically disposed, can. force the public to pay the wage increase. on the underwater body of the ships, so that the Teuton The strikers seek to coerce the public and the government by especially resisted projectiles and torpedoes more effectively. Jellicoe , means of intimidation and actual distress. While they are engaged warships shells were of a superior also shows that the enemy's armor-piercin- g in this warfare they talk about the sacred right to strike. for use in illuminating the water during a quality ; that his star-shel- l, would A public utility corporation owning a city's water supply night attack, was almost unknown to the .British; that the German meet with short shrift if it talked about its sacred right to deprive of controlling gunfire was more efficient, especially for night system a the city of water, and yet that would be tantamount to strike. fighting ; that the German optical instruments for measuring distances The people are awakening to the fact that there is no such thing and making observations were of a more scientific and practical deas an inherent right to strike. For years they were deluded .by the sign and workmanship; that the searchlights of the Germans were argument that a strike was nothing more than the' exercise by many more powerful, their system of operating searchlights and guns i!j. men of the individual right to quit work. unison excellent, and that their system of firing all guns together A strike is a conspiracy against the public when the strike is of from one central point on the ship was fitted to the guns of even secsufficient magnitude to affect the interests of the public. It goes ondary armament. The British commander states that the Germans spent more without saying that many strikes hardly touch the public at all and are not to be classed withV the big strikes. A strike of magnitude is a money on gunnery and torpedo practice; that the German subma- of dominion over all the world. The good Englishman of Sir Edward's upbringing in the dear old period never questioned but tfiat the English were exerting a God-givright in controlling the weaker races. It was Manifest Destiny and your Englishman bowed to it with a faith that did not quibble or draw back; Carnegie and some other Americans who were essentially in spirit frankly expressed the hope, that the United States and Great Britain would one day join in an alliance to extend their benevolent ' ' rule over the earth. ' It would be a wonderful alliance imposing in its power, quick to reward and destroy like some earth-bor- n deity. Its legionaries would go to the far cdrners'of the globe and with uplifted sword cry, Let. there be peace. ' But it is not to be.. The American spirit' of liberty has 'Conquered. Thouhast conquered, O pale Galilean. The world is to. be made safe for democracy and the only fear is that democracy may. not be safe for the worid, but,at all events, it.is to have its'chance. Sir Edward Grey, if he spoke candidly, probably would tell.usthat only by British imperialism can the world be. saved. .But the world prefers to be, free and to try to save itself. Mid-Victori- an en long-establish- Mid-Victori- an . : : : 4 The-principl- e . .... . . i i n of-th- e - - - - . i - - - ... - its-polic- one-thir- two-third- : 4. e - ed |
