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Show M Labor Strikes H J a GREAT strike of railroad engineers was H ! - barely averted on CUristmas Day. That is Hi a question which is vital to all the people. H The stoppage of railroad traffic for a week in this B country would result in acute distress to hundreds H I of thousands of people. The possibility of such u B ' calamity has never been considered seriously by H the people. But to cut off the fuel and food sup- H ply to our cities in mid-winter, is unthinkable, be- H; cause of the distress which would follow to the H' people, for thousands live but from day to day and H ; week to week upon what the railroads bring them. H Railroads are not private, but public property. In- Hj asmuch as their life and value depends upon the H patronage they receive. This being true, the pub- H He has claims upon them which must not be Ig- H:' norcd. Ht Labor unions are essential to the skilled labor- , ing men. Wisely conducted they are a mighty H factor in exacting justice for their members. But H they are like the railroads; they must not be con- H ducted in a way to distress thousands of innocent B people. Hence in our judgment every state legis- Hl lature and the congress of the United States H should pass laws, 'that the enforcing of sympa- H, thetic strikes against railroads not at all con- H cerncd in the main strike, shall be deemed a mis- H demeanor punishable by fine and imprisonment Hi against the officers of all unions ordering such K sympathetic strike. The theory of law should be H, to enforce a principle as old as our government H that the greatest good must be meeted out to the H!( ' greatest number. H We hope that this threatened strike which has H been barely avoided, will prompt the various H ( states to pass laws which will make strikes im- H' possible and force the settlement of differences be- H'i tween employers and employes through arbitra- B tion. They have no strikes in Canada, none in H Australasia. There is no need of them in our H country. They would have been done away with H long ago except for the cowardice of politicians, H who think they depend for office upon the labor H vote, and the hypocritical mouthlngs of blather- H skites who, never having done an honest day's H work in their lives, affect a marvelous solicitude H for laboring men. H The result to be aimed at is exact justice. All H men who accomplish anything are laboring men. H Some do manual work; some link so much brain H with their manual labor as to be called skilled H laborers; some do little manual labor, but carry H the welfare of thousands in their minds all the H time and through that work are an unqualified H blessing to thousands. And these last sleep less m hours and their sleep is vastly more disturbed H than is that of the men who after a few hours of H manual labor, create for themselves an appetite Hv and insure for themselves an undisturbed sleep H when they seek their beds. |