Chapter IV - Government Attitude Toward Labor

Meantime, it is full as well to get off a lot of hot-air about "wage slavery," "autocracy of capital," the "aspirations of labor," the "right to organize," the "right to strike," the "right of free assembly," the "right of collective bargaining," etc., for the bene fit of the press and the pulpit; also to tip the wink to the politicians, that the Labor vote is theirs, or not, according as the police permit or prevent a little wholesome slugging of non-union men, who come around the plant after work. All this is such an old, old story, of such common knowledge, that there is no need to prove it here. The point in repeating it is, that just to buy Labor's vote, politicians have long accepted its programme (of unlimited combination to restrain trade, fix prices, and coerce all concerned) as man-to man fair, lawful, and within constitutional right; despite the fact that it is denounced as criminal by good conscience, common sense, and the Common Law. The aforesaid acceptance has been a progres sive process, as the trade-union programme itself has broadened. Fifty years ago but a few local unions, in isolated cities, held up one employer at a time; and traded only with the local authorities, for the labor vote at local elections, in exchange for blind, deaf, and dumb policemen along the picket line. (For if there is no picket line, or if the picket line cannot terrorize all comers, strikes fail nine times out of ten.

Organized Labor knows, by long experience, that there are plenty of men ready to take open jobs; if [ 88 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor no one is waiting around the corner to call "scab!" or beat them up.) Before very long union leaders found out that it was often necessary, in order to keep a long strike going, to pay the men on strike a· few dollars a week to keep them and their families going, too; but that, on the other hand, such use of union funds often left little to speak of for the leaders themselves. For it takes about all the men can pay in dues to cover normal leaders' salaries and general expenses, not to mention a lot of extras during strikes; and strikes are apt to "spread" to other plants in the same neighborhood, causing further drain on union funds. So, very naturally, the leaders made alliance, offensive and defensive, between groups of unions of the same crafts, but not in the same strike field. This also broadened the political power of the alliance, as its membership came to number votes in many cities and states. The evident advantage to labor was enormous.

Finally, came Gompers and his American Federa tion of Labor, covering all trades, all cities, all states, all industries, all politics; in short, the nation. It matured the present union conception of the "right to organize, to strike, and to bargain collec tively"; to wit, that Gompers and Co. may deliber ately work up conspiracy among a few hundred or thousand men, who hold strategic jobs-switchmen, or railway shop men, or coal miners, for instance to stop vital work all at once,everywhere, in order to "hold up" the community for cash; and yet break no moral or statute, even though "incidental" violence results. Let me do the politicians the justice to say that while they came generally to accept this monstrous pretension of Organized Labor they probably have [ 89 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation fallen into the habit of doing so merely to oblige the Labor Vote, without reflecting where it would land the country; until forcibly brought up against it, again and again. But now at last, in this year 1922, some few of them refuse, and many more do not dare any longer, to leave the nation at the mercy of wage-bandits.

Charles Reade's novel, "Put Yourself in His Place," written in the 50's, I suppose-in my boy hood, anyway-gave me my first glimpse of trades union ferocity. After that, from time to time as I grew up, the newspapers printed tale on tale from life, always to the same general effect. A strike was called, a picket line was formed, men seeking work came along; some poor fellow was beaten, crippled, killed-seldom one of the strikers; his wife and children were left destitute. Nobody ever saw it, no one was arrested; or, if arrests were made, no witnesses came forward to convict the guilty mur derer. The blame was often their own, so said the papers, just as it was the other day at Herrin put upon the dead man himself, for "provoking unknown strike sympathizers" to kill him. The unions al ways forbade their members to do violence-so they said; yet they never prevented it, though their pickets were at hand; and they never gave evidence to convict a "sympathizer." The murder was merely a "regrettable incident; such as seems unavoidable in industrial warfare."

In short, during my reading lifetime of say sixty years there has been very little enforcement of law, or keeping the peace during strikes ; unless the crime attains such magnitude as to menace everybody, and arouse popular outcry. Then, indeed, the author ities get busy-but not before. Such has been the story of-countless local strikes, and such the con[ 90 ,] Government Attitude Toward Labor temptible share of local government therein. By now some 80,000 of them must be on record, since 1880, at the Department of Labor. Latest and worst of these "regrettable incidents" -but only because more exactly reported-and precisely like all the rest· in every hideous feature, was the massacre of non-union miners at Herrin, Illinois, June 22, 1922, and the shameful refusal of the dastards. who hold local and state offices there either to protect or to avenge the victims of cold blooded murder and torture.

To show that the Herrin horror was not accidental or exceptional, but merely an aggravated case of vi olence and law-breaking regularly practiced by Unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, and that these things were, to say the least, well known to and winked at by the Government, I here quote at some length from one of a series of open letters to Congress of Ex-Governor J. M. Brown, of Georgia, dated September 22, 1921. "A PARTIAL LIST OF ASSAULTS UPON NON-UNIONWORK MEN AND WOMEN." Assaults upon only one non-union man at a time Instances. By one striker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 By two strikers. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 By three strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 27 By four strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 By five strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 By six strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 By seven to ten strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 By ten to fifteen strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 By fifteen to twenty strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 By twenty to fifty strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 By fifty to one hundred strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II By "strikers" (numbers not given), victim wounded 121 By "strikers" (numbers not given), victim killed 29 By "a mob, or crowd," of strikers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 [ 9 1 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation Instances By one striker's" picket" .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . z By two strikers' "pickets".. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 By three strikers' "pickets". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • 14 By four st~iker~' ,:' ~icket~:' ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 By five stnkers pIckets... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 By six to ten strikers' "pickets".. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 By ten to fifteen strikers' "pickets" . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 By fifteen to twenty-five strikers' "pickets" . ... . . . 7 By thirty ~trikers' "pickets" .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I By:: a .crow~, of" strikers' "p~ckets" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4By pIckets (numbers not gIven) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 486 Note that of the above total in only forty-seven instances were the as saults made upon one man by only one striker or strikers' picket.

But to the above total must yet be added the following: Homes invaded by strikers who' vilely insulted 'and in several instances brutally attacked the women dwelling therein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5S Union pickets were the miscreants who invaded five of these homes. Dwelling houses dynamited (four women, two girls wounded, one woman killed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Dwelling houses stoned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. IZ Dwelling houses shot into (four women shot) . .•. . • IZ Dwelling houses burned. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 Dwelling houses invaded, dynamited, shot into, stoned or burned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Could the combination of contemptible cowardice and brutal, heartless crime which mark the activities of the American Federation of Labor in the domain of this "government of law, not of men" (?) be more con clusively exposed than in the above table?

"J. E~ Atterburn testified, on November 10, 1906, that members of the iron molders' union insulted the employees of the foundry company (in Kansas City, Kas.) applied to them vulgar, obscene, and profane lan guage. such language being too vile and indecent to be placed in an affi davit. Affiant further avers that more than twelve times in three months he was met by mobs composed of members of the iron molders' union and sympathizers who forcibly stopped and surrounded him, pulled his coat, rubbed their hands over his face and used the most vile and insult ing language, daring him to just lift a hand or make a move to give the mob an excuse or an opportunity of assaulting him." (D. S. Circuit Court, Kas.) [92 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor "John M. Busby testified that, on October 10, 1906, on leaving work in the foundry (in Kansas City, Kans.), he was followed by a mob of strikers, members of the iron molders' union, surrounded and forcibly stopped, insulted and called scab and other vile, obscene, vulgar, and profane names. This crowd got on the car with him, crowded about and threatened to kill him, He was struck in the back of the neck and severely injured. On October 20, 1906, he was pursued from ·the foundry gate by a crowd of men, cursed, threatened, and struck with a brick and again severely injured. Affiant believes he would have been killed by this mob had not a policeman met him; that by reason of these assaults he was forced to give up his employment." (U. S. Circuit Court, Kans.) "Frank York testified that on September 19, 1904', he left the foundry (in Cincinnati) and, on his way to the street car, was followed by a large crowd of strikers. One Berger struck affiant with his fist. Another also struck affiant with something in his hand, hitting him over the left eye cutting a deep wound, causing a flow of blood. Others of the strikers jumped on affiant and tried to strike him. In crossing the street, an other person struck affiant on the jaw. A large crowd gathered around affiant, calling out: 'Scab! throw him into the river,' and using many epithets and threatening language; he was pulled off the car and com pelled to walk across the (Ohio river) bridge." (U. S. Circuit Court, S.

D. Ohio). "Joseph Six testified that, on August 6, 1907, on returning to his home from the foundry (in Detroit, Mich.), he was assaulted, pulled from a street car by twenty men of iron molders' union, struck heavy and vicious blows from all sides and pounded Uiltilhe became unconscious. One of his ribs was broken. On becoming conscious a stranger helped him to a police station and he was taken home. On August 10, 1907, on going to work, he encountered a crowd of fifty striking molders, who surrounded and assaulted him, many of them struck and kicked him He was hit in the nose, mouth, a·nd eyes. One of the strikers said to him: 'If you don't stay out of that shop we'll kill you.' He escaped and afterwards was taken to the foundry in an automobile.". (Circuit Court, Wayne Co., Mich.) Proof has been accumulating for years to the effect that various organizations composing the American Federation of Labor have had in their employ trained thugs, or sluggers, for enforcing their process of brutality. Recent triais in courts have brought this fact clearly before the public. The following press telegrams tell their own story: Chicago, April 28.-Details of an alleged system of slugging, through which, it is charged, officials of the Upholsterers' Union forced workers to obey their orders, were related to-day by Sam Fischer, self-styled slug ger, at the trial of fourteen members of the union for. acts of violence during the strike from August, 1919, to April, 1920.

[ 93 ] Too .Much Government-Too .Much Taxation Fischer declared he had been ordered to cripple men who refused to obey orders, so that they could not work. "I remember one non-union man, another fellow and myself were ordered to slug," he said. "We hit him on the head with a blackjack you could hear his skull pop half a block away. Then my companion kicked him until there was no chance he would be able to work. "Edwin E. Graves, international vice-president of the union, told me one day to get a certain man and to 'get him right.' We cracked him on the head. 1 was afraid we had killed him. 1 ran down town to Graves and told him I thought we had killed the man. " 'Don't worry about that,' said Graves, 'all you have to worry about is your money; here it is.' " From a telegram dated April 29 I quote: "We want to make this guy an object lesson. Fix him right," Fischer testified Graves told him regarding another victim.

"Get anybody who comes out of a shop," was the order Fischer said that Graves gave him just after the international vice-president came to Chicago to direct the strike. "Did you comply with the order?" he was asked. "You bet we did," he said. "vVe stood at the door and waited till we spotted our man. Then we followed him until we could get him in a good place." Otto Ludtke, secretary of the Chicago local No. 24 of the upholsterers' union, who turned State's witness, testified that his union paid sluggers $10 for each victim, and that six bombs to be paid for at $100 each HAD BEEN ARRANGED FOR BY OFFICERS OF THE UNION. Chicago, May 2o.-A confession was obtained to-day by Chief Fitz morris from Andrew Kerr, believed to be the leader of the gang of bomb ers in Chicago responsible for the vandalism in many of the recent labor troubles and race wars. Kerr is a member of Local 42 of the International Union of Steam and Operating Engineers, which recently waged a strike against the laundry owners of the city, who, stirred by a desire to clear up the reign of terror which has menaced Chicago, voluntarily confessed.

He named a dozen men who, he said, had been prominently identified either as the perpetrators or as the instigators of sluggings and bombings. Nine men, including Kerr, are under arrest and others are expected. "1 was really the payoff guy," said Kerr. "That is, I took the money from the union and gave it to the sluggers and bombers. They slug anybody or bomb anything they get money for." The rate· schedule of the "bombing trust," according to Kerr's con fession, was: Government Attitude Toward Labor Ordinary slugging (two men), each $25. Bombing, where two sticks of dynamite are used, $200. Where four sticks of dynamite are used, $250. Where six sticks of dynamite are used, $3°0. "We never carried any guns or anything when we went out on slugging jobs," said Kerr. "When we went bombing we carried guns and we were ready to fight and shoot to kill, because we knew what would happen if we were caught. ."

"There are always three in the car. The driver sits always at the wheel with the engine always running. They whittle the fuse in the car. They always light the fuses in the car. Then they place it and get away." Kerr said the following was a typical order to the bombers: "The orders from Peterson are: Mr. Parkie, the owner of Scrivner's laundry, is on the executive committee of the Laundry Workers Associa tion, and he is the one who is standing in the way of an agreement or doing business with the Laundrymen's Association, and consequently he is not going to get one stick or two sticks, he is going to get four sticks, and if four don't move him he will get six and one in the house where he lives on the back steps, and if it don't kill the wife and children it will make them get down on their knees to him and say 'Papa, we don't want to get killed.' " Chief Fitzmorris announced that Kerr's confession and the arrests cleared up all the mysteries of bombings in Chicago.

When asked to give an estimate on the number of bombing outrages and the amount of damage, the Chief replied: "Dpward of· a 100 and close to $2,000,000 worth of damage to property." These are records of the destruction or invasions of homes and infamous insults to and brutal assaults upon the respectable women and children therein. Some of these I have already given you, but their context with the duty of our Government to protect useful, law-abiding people against vicious elements of lawlessness justifies their reproduction, viz.: "John Ryan (Kansas City, Kans.) testified that on October 9, 1906, affiant, his wife and son were assaulted by members of the iron molders' union because he refused to quit work for the company. ms WIFE WAS KNOCKED DOWN, his son was struck in the side and affiant him self was struck on the head and all were severely injured." (D. S. Cir cuit Court, F. D., Kans.) "Mrs. Joe Polaski (St. Paul, Minn.) testified that on June 19, 1906, striking molders' pickets followed her husband home, jeering and swear ing at him, and on reaching her. called her vile and indecent names.

These pickets rernained around the house for some time." (Notary Public, Ramsey Co., Minn.) "Mrs. John Swanson (St. Paul, Minn.) testified that on June 17, 1906, [ 95 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation striking molders' union pickets called at her house and frightened herself and children by one of them carrying an open clasp knife trying several times to get into the house and remaining around the outside to catch her husband. Policemen were sent for and upon arrival the pickets left the vicinity." (Notary Public, Ramsey Co., Minn.) "Henry Flaherty, July, 20, 19°6, was walking with his brother Daniel when they were met by about twenty molders' union strikers who knocked the brothers down and pursued them to their home, and one J ames Henry, a striker, forced the door open partly and was ejected, and again returned and pounded the door, terrifying Henry's wife." (Circuit Court, Milwaukee, Wis.) "Birmingham, Ala., August 13, 1908.-House of a non-union coal miner at Margaret Mines was shot into. Two women in the house wounded, one wounded seriously." (Birmingham Age-Herald.) RBirmingham, Ala., August 19, 1908.- The dwelling house of Thos.

Duggan, non-union miner and contractor, living in Pratt City, was dynamited and practically destroyed. Duggan's two daughters were thrown across their sleeping room and injured." (Birmingham Age Herald.) "Struthers, Ohio, September 18, 1909.- The residence of C. I. Gibson, steel mill manager, was dynamited last night and badly damaged, the family being severely shocked." "New Kensington, Pa., October 20, 1919.-T. B. Pollard, a non-union steel worker, was shot at and wounded in the leg while on his way to work on October 20. On the night of November 2, Pollard's residence was dynamited, his family being thrown from their beds and much damage being done to property." "Mrs. Anniela Banicki deposes on oath that she and her husband have six minor children; that her husband has been employed by the Illinois Steel Company (Chicago) for,about thirty-one years; that on September 27, 1919, three men wearing union badges knocked on her door; that when she answered the call one of them pointed a revolver in her face and told her that if she did not get her husband away from the South Works of the Illinois Steel Company they would kill him and her.

"She also deposes that on two other dates men wearing union badges had called at her house and made like threats against her husband and her if he did not quit work, and says that by reason of said threats and action of pointing the pistol at her face she was in constant fear of her life and the lives of her husband and children, and suffered extreme mental anguish therefrom." (Notary Public, Chicago, Ill.) "Birmingham, Ala., October 14, 1920.- The house occupied by Holly Jones, working coal miner, and his family, was riddled with bullets (some 40 shots) about 7:30 o'clock last night, Jones was wounded in the foot, his wife wounded in the leg." (Birmingham Age-Herald.) "Birmingham, Ala., December 14, 1920.- The house of Ullman Law ler, coal miner, Lewisburg Mines, was blown up by dynamite, 9:15 p. m." last night. Lawler's wife was killed by the explosion and Lawler himself injured. Lawler was a union miner who had returned to work, having quit the union." (Reported in both the Birmingham dailies.) [ 96 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor Lack· of space debars me from reporting but one of the cases of invasions of homes by strikers in Macon, but in it we see the soul of labor unionism, viz. : "Macon, Ga., September II, I9I9.-Rioting was resumed in the mill district here to-night, where two thousand textile workers have been on strike for nearlythree weeks.

"The police guard at the mills was reduced to-day ON.A PROMISE OF THE STRIKERS that women would not be allowed to do picket duty, and THAT THERE WOULD BE NO DISORDER. "Nevertheless, the non-union workers were followed from the mills and ATTACKED AT THEIR. HOMES, it is asserted. "According to reports, a body of strikers followed Mrs. Alice Wheeler from the mill where she works to her home on Hazel Street and FORCI· BLY ENTERED THE RESIDENCE. "There were two other women present, in addition to M·rs. Wheeler and her daughter Lizzie, who is about 19 years of age. "When the strikers entered they were ordered to leave by Mrs. Wheeler, but instead THEY BEGAN BEATING HER. THE DAUGH TER CAME TO THE AID OF HER MOTHER,AND WAS ALSO BEAT EN BY THE STRIKERS." (Associated Press telegram.) "Desperate Cases Found "The investigation conducted by Lieutenant Hamilton proceeded with difficulty on account of the fear sttuck in the hearts of Cramps' employ ees by the strikers and sympathizers. However, the cases of eleven families were investigated. Their condition was so poignant that Lieu tenant Hamilton at once filed their complaints withoflicials of Cramps'.

"Each of the eleven complaints gave specific instances of the boy cotting dealers refusing to sell to them. "In several instances the Cramps' employees were at first supplied by neighbo'rs who bought ice, milk, and other sustenance for their friends. When that became known the dealers' agents refused to supply those persons, although they were not in the employ of the Cramps' shipyards. "One of the most striking cases is that of Elmer Bateman, a Cramps' worker, who lives at 3069 Memphis Street. The Batemans have two children, one six years old and the other eighteen months. .The older child has been suffering from scarlet fever five weeks. At the time his illness was discovered his temperature was 105.2 degrees. "There was not a piece of ice in the house. The attending physician had to go out to buy some, as the members of the family had been refused repeatedly by dealers in the vicinity.

"As the head of the household is at work all day and Mrs. Bateman is nursing her sick child, an aunt, a woman of fifty, has to do the buying for the household. This she does stealthily, going great distances from her niece's home. For fear of personal attack by strikers, she is literally compelled to smuggle the food into the house. What ice she takes in is concealed in wrapping paper." [97 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation "Boycott Because of Kind Action "Because the aunt supplies her niece with the necessities of life her husband's paint store at Clearfield Street and Trenton Avenue is boy cotted. "Patrick Jordan, a Cramps' foreman, with his wife and four children, lives at 3139Aramingo Avenue. The oldest child is six years, the young est nineteen months. A five-year-old boy is on a diet of milk and eggs. "For the last two weeks there has been no ice in the house, and very little for a month before that. A minimum of two quarts of milk a day is required by the family. Now they can get only an occasional quart, and that by stealth. The five-year-old child refuses to drink condensed milk.

Day by day his parents have watched him grow thinner and weaker. "Mrs. Jordan has not been out on the street in two weeks. THROUGH THE 'UNDERGROUND TELEGRAPH' SHE HEARD THAT SHE WOULD BE HORSEWHIPPED IF SHE VENTURED FORTH AGAIN. ANOTHER THREAT SHE RECEIVEDWASTHAT HER SIX-YEAR-OLD SON WOULD MEET SIMILAR TREATMENT IF HE TRIED TO BUY PROVISIONS FOR THE FAMILY. "For five weeks there has been no ice in the house of Thomas Mc Govern, of 3019 Aramingo Avenue. He is a Cramps' foreman. The McGoverns have two children, Miriam and Anna, aged respectively ten and twelve years. Neither is strong. They are on a diet under a physician's order. But there is neither milk nor eggs for them. "Child Pleas Refused "Miriam, according to her parents, was 'turned down' so often by store keepers when she attempted. to do the family marketing that she had a nervous attack, which was complicated by fever. Her parents, fearing for her life, sent her to her aunt's, where she remained ill two weeks.

"'We have to sneak out like thieves to buy the necessities of life,' said Mrs. McGovern. 'If I or my children go out we are jeered and sub jected to danger. As I did not want to start trouble I waited three days beforegoingto see my sister, who was very ill. " 'We have been chased from one shop to another. The nearest place where I can buy ice is seven blocks away. My husband is away all day at work. He leaves here and returns under a guard of policemen. I and my children are not strong enough to carry ice seven blocks, even if we were unmolested. It is the same with milk and eggs. Even if we could get milk we could not keep it because we have no ice. " 'And now the meat dealers are refusing to sell to us. Some of the dealers want to sell us the things we need but they are afraid to do so. They say the neighbors are watching. Last week the laundry wagon driver told me that he could not call for any more laundry at my home because strikers had told him if he did they would tear his wagon to pieces.' "

"Mother ru, Children Suffer "Next to the McGoverns lives John McDermott, at 3017 Aramingo Avenue. Of his five children the oldest is fourteen years, the youngest a little more than two years. Their mother is ill from worrying over the undernourishment of her children on account of the boycott. [98 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor "Lieutenant Hamilton explained yesterday that the Policemen of his district were unable to accompany the· Cramps' workers to the stores because they knew that violence to the property would result in their absence. More than fiftyhomes ofworkers, HE SAID, WERE GUARD ED 'TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY' TO PREVENT DAMAGE BEING DONE." In quoting so freely from Governor Brown, I would say that I have not verified the facts he states, though I have no reason whatever to doubt his care ful accuracy. Government Attitude Toward Great Strikes. The story of the greater strikes, with one notable excep tion, as handled by governments of great cities, states, or the entire country, under political terror ism, is still worse.

The first that I remember was, naturally, a coal strike, the "Mollie McGuire's" affair, back in the 70' s, in Pennsylvania; in which Allan Pinkerton's famous private police had to be employed to protect mine property. His testimony at the trial of one of the murder cases involved ,in the strike has become classic. "Organized Labor," he said, "is Organ ized Violence." That, I think, was the beginning of the miserable and dangerous necessity of employing private police, and armed ,guards, such as the Baldwin-Felts forces are just now in West Virginia. It has grown more and more imperative; as politics has kept the hand of public authority more and more off from the lawless shoulder of Organized Labor. The furnishing of "strikebreakers" -tough devils· who are not afraid to use guns on union-sluggers-also has become a regular and profitable industry. A third trade, developed to meet Union Propaganda, is that of labor-spying; and a fourth, that might be called [ 99 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation labor-jollying, has developed of late years. There are now several large firms, with branches in many' cities, that respectively will furnish on short notice experts to create good morale among workers, spies to watch union organizers, strikebreakers to keep the wheels turning, and armed guards to protect the strikebreakers and the plant. None of these services were ever needed or even dreamed of when I first worked for wages; or would be dreamed of to-day, if local, 'state, and national government had done and would do its plain, simple duty of compelling strikers to obey the law and protect non-union men in their right to work. All four of them are loudly and bitterly denounced by Organized Labor; and, too, by many clergymen and pink socialists.

If these two last-named groups reasoned in the or dinary way it would be answer enough merely to ob serve to them that no "selfish, grasping employer" ever voluntarily contracts for any such totally un productive and costly service except under stress of dire need of that protection which the Government owes but usually fails to give. To return to my review of great strikes, next came the Railway Strike of 1877. I remember it very well (though rather vaguely) because its conse quences precipitated a large failure in the steel trade and brought me to Chicago in the midst of it. When I left the Iron District of Lake Superior, all telegraph communications were cut and it was supposed I could not reach Chicago. I did, however, and found the city an armed camp, its citizens enrolled in volunteer companies, armed with shotguns and revolvers, and stationed for the protection of the strategic railway points, waterworks, tunnels under the river, etc. Meantime derailing, wrecking, and burning of trains was going on, and violence was [ 100] Government Attitude Toward Labor inflicted 0n those who stuck to their work. My only memory worth citing here is of the wide break down of local authority in Chicago; and its inability to protect life and property. The cause of the strike was the contraction of the currency and the deflation of wages, following the panic of 1873; which was part of the disastrous aftermath of the Civil War, much like the present deflation.

During the years that followed grew great the organization known as the Knights of Labor, which still exists, and is credited by the World Almanac with a membership of 2oo,ooo-but has been far overshadowed in the public eye by the American Federation of Labor and the I.W.W. Eugene V. Debs came to the surface as its head, and its opera tions resulted in the labor troubles of 1894, during the bad times caused by the Silver Panic of 1893. Precisely the same attempt as at present was made by the labor organizations, both in 1877 and 1894, to retain the inflation of wages which accompanied the inflation of all commodities and costs of living; notwithstanding the fact that the entire community was suffering from deflation and the coming of hard times. Accusations were bandied about, though not so freely as in this day of full-paged and heavy headlined columns in the daily papers for the utter ances of labor demagogues. "Capital" was ac cused of deliberately causing deflation, and of the intention to crush labor; in phraseology somewhat different, but in demagogy quite the same as the romancing of the labor leaders just now. The re sult was, of course, in due time, that wages came down then, despite the strikes, as they will certainly come down now, to the level fixed by th e law of supply and demand.

The labor leaders lost prestige for a while and the [ 101 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation unions lost membership; but the union business is a profitable one for the leaders, and they bobbed up again serenely, as they will bob up in years to come, so long as union men can be induced to pay dues. In 1894 during the Pullman, or Debs, Railway Strike, occurred the one creditable episode of strike handling by Government that I now recalL Grover Cleveland (peace to his ashes), who believed that "public office is a public trust," promptly ordered United States troops to Chicago, to see to it that the strikers-who were wrecking trains and burning cars without let or hindrance from the Governor of Illi nois or the Mayor of Chicago-should not stop the United States mails. That broke the back of the strike; and all Illinois-I lived there then-except its Governor sang one paean of praise to a real President; who rests secure, for that and many other deeds of courage and integrity, forever in the hearts of the American people.

It is worth noting, that the mere keeping of the peace, in that one decisive crisis, freed the nation forever of the menace of Debs and the Knights of Labor; just as the President, and back of him the Congress, could and ought to, by enforcing law and order, liberate us to-day from the tyranny of Gompers and the A. F. L. In 1902 came the anthracite strike. After it had run for many weeks, and had enshrouded all the Eastern cities in the filthy pall of soft-coal smoke so familiar west of the Alleghenies, President Roosevelt, who believed in doing things, served notice on the United Mine Workers that unless they and the an thracite mine owners would accept and abide by the decision of an arbitrator-commission appointed by himself, the Government would seize and operate the mines under military protection. This was a [ 102 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor knockout blow to the strike, and the miners came back to work-for as I have said before, the chance of winning a strike, when violence is tabooed, is hardly one in ten. The Commission was a notable one, headed by Judge Gray, and its award had the merit of conspicuously proclaiming the right of every man to work or not to work; to be striker or strikebreaker; to wear the union collar, or none at all, as he chooses; without coercion from any man or group of men, large or small.

The President's action "settled" the strike, but it also settled a mischievous precedent, in "recogni tion," or quasi-recognition, of a combination to "hold up" an entire and vital industry, as legitimate; rightfully entitled to sit in, as party to an arbitration officially arranged by Government, between sub stantially all anthracite coal operators as a collectiv ity and all anthracite coal miners as another collec tivity. It is true that the Commission carefully safeguarded the right of the non-union man to hire and be hired; but the effect of the Roosevelt Arbitra tion Commission was, nevertheless, to force every anthracite mine (I think none of them were running non-union) to· tie its labor troubles into those of every other; and to prevent, or at least discourage and impede, that direct dealing with workers them selves-not through "representatives of their own choosing," which the Commission itself so vigor ously defended. Furthermore, Roosevelt's action assumed the dangerous duty, or the equally danger ous optional right, of Government to step in between employer and employee, in order to compel conti nuity of relations between theIn, in the interest of the public; disregarding the wishes of either or both, and superseding by forced arbitration the slower but better adjustment sure to come-that is, under [ 1°3 ] Too' Much Government-Too Much Taxation orderly conditions-with lapse of time and free operation of the law of supply and demand.

I have elsewhere shown the consistent policy of Organized Labor, to monopolize work, coerce em ployers, use its voting power to control Government, and finally to use Government, so controlled, for its own ends;· certainly President Roosevelt's settle ment of the Anthracite Strike (though applauded and credited at the time with starting coal supply), was one of the first important successes scored by Gompers's "don't work-just vote" policy. Not long after came Gompers's lobbying through Congress of the 8-hour day law-first for all government employees, and afterward on all work done for Government by private contract, the effect of which last was to force the 8-hour day upon all manufac turers, any part-no matter how small-of whose sales might go to the United States. The natural consequence was, that few manufacturers could bid on government work; and those who did charged high prices. But, as the slang goes, "Gompers should worry-nit."

The net result of Mr. Gompers's forty years' work is that there now exists in this country a Labor Trust or combination that for power and actual mischief done casts all other Trusts entirely in the shade. This is largely due to connivance of our Government, founded on the Roosevelt precedent. Another result of Mr. Gompers's work is that it is now possible to develop and complete the. half formed popular conviction that Labor Trusts, as well as other trusts, cannot be tolerated; that busi ness cannot be run by Organized Labor, or by Government, singly or in combination; but must be free to respond to world and local conditions of sup ply and demand; that any other course means but one [ 1°4] Government Attitude Toward Labor and the same disaster, of political trickery and cor ruption, plus loss of constitutional liberty and economic prosperity. However, let us return to our story. The years 1903 and 1904 were prolific of strikes mainly against manufacturers-until ended by the considerable commercial depression of 1904; which began, as such depressions always do, a period of corresponding depression in the strike industry.

Trades Unionism thrives only in good times, when prices and wages are going up, while it can claim credit for increase of union wage scales. Meanwhile, it is easy to get in new members. But when deflation comes, and wages go down, along with prices, as at present, and strikes only serve to exhaust the savings of the union members, they are apt to quit paying useless dues, and "Organization" has to wait for the next business boom. So it was in 1904, after the loss of the great Teamsters' Strike in Chicago. So it had been in 1894, after the Debs Strike was lost. Both strikes failed, because Government inter vened before long to prevent violence. In the Debs case, Grover Cleveland, with his rare political cour age, sent United States regular troops to Chicago, to stop wrecking and burning of railroad trains, and slugging of non-union men, for the constitutional pur pose of keeping up the United States mail service. In the Teamsters' Strike, the violence and terrorism on the public streets was so brutal ,that public wrath forced the City Hall to use the police power to stop it.

Dp to that time, the political pull of a labor-vote, claimed to be 100,000 strong in Chicago, had given the unions their own way at the City Hall and the State Capitol. But conspicuous tests of union ability to deliver the solid labor-vote were soon made, in 1904, I think, in union campaigns to defeat for re[ 1°5 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation election Judges Holdom and Chytraus, in Chicago, and Congressman Littlefield in Maine, all three of whom had antagonized "Labor." All were re elected; and for a few years the labor leaders had to lie low and bide their time. Meanwhile, the "Cause of Labor" was undoubt edly popular with the average voter. The wave of hostility to Wall Street and the "interests," which brought the Progressive Party into being, and seated Wilson in the presidency, operated powerfully to aid "Labor" in its attack on "Capital" by holding back the protection of Government. So astute a politician as Senator Hanna, for instance, had long ago recog nized that in Organized Labor party leaders were confronted with a great fact; "with a condition, not a theory" -as Cleveland said of something else.

Mr. Hanna once remarked to me, "All right; let 'em organize. Then, just capture the Organization!" That is the practical politician's point of view; but it costs money to capture such organizations, and they do not stay captured. Someone is bound to pay the bill, as business has paid it for years, in the first place; and then has passed it along to the public in costs of living, not at all willingly, but perforce. Here are a few of the more conspicuous strikes within recent years; whose records as to vio lence and government attitude thereon I do not stop to set down here. The reader may easily have been familiar with one or more of them himself. SOME RECENT CONSPICUOUS STRIKES, WITH NUMBER OF WORKMEN INVOLVED Calumet Copper Miners . Colorado Coal Strike . West Virginia Coal. . Eastern Ohio Coal . Westinghouse Electric . [ 106 ] 15,5 00 8,000 15,000 18,000 36,000 1913 191 3-14. 1914 19 14 1914 GovernmentAttitude Toward Labor Pac. Coast Longshoremen .

New York Shipbuilding . N. Y. Garment Workers . Penn. Bit. Coal Strike . N. Y. Harbor Strike , Cleveland Building Trades . Textile-Lowell & Nashua . Textile-Paterson, N. J. . N. Y. Marine Harbor Workers . Seattle & Tacoma Strike " Willys-Overland, Toledo . Lawrence Textile Strike . Chicago Building Trades . Cincinnati Machinists . Outlaw Rail Strike 18,000 20,000 59,000 75,000 15,000 3°,000 50 ,000 28,000 16,000 60,000 19,000 15,000 15,000 Spoo 1915 1917 1916-17 1917 1917 1918 1918 1919 1919 19 19 19 19 19 19 . 1920 1920 Another letter written .by Ex-governor Brown of Georgia, and sent to all members of Congress, upon street railway strikes, is sufficient evidence of the political relations of "Labor" to local govern ment; which alone makes such ghastly violence possible. ' I reproduce it without assuming responsibility for its facts, or comment on its strictures upon public men; but for its value in showing the feebleness of local government administered by elective officials.

AN APPEAL FOR JUST LAWS AND FOR THEIR IMPARTIAL ENFORCEMENT TO THE SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES SOME OF THE CRIMES OF THE AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION OF STREET AND ELECTRIC RAIL WAY EMPLOYEES OF AMERICA. 79 Strikes with Anarchic Atrocities brought about by this Association in at least 65 cities from Portland, Me., to Portland, Ore., and from Duluth, Minn., to New Orleans, La., inclusive, in 31 States and the District of Columbia. [ 1°7] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation (If you get tired of reading the following list of lawless happenings scattered through thirty states of our Union, just think how tired the law-abiding public must be of seeing its convenience disregarded, its business activities suspended, many of its members brutally assaulted and some of them murdered by the organized elements of anarchy whom the present President of the United States has made it his special personal business to lodge in the midst of peace-loving, law-obeying communities.

Are you going to enact laws to protect the responsible, industrious, peaceable people of tQis country, or are you going to join President Woodrow Wilson in making them the prey of proven agencies of aggressive anarchy? If you demand evidence of the charge that the Gompers headed brand of labor unionism is synonymous with mur der, you will find it here. The best that I can say for it is that undoubtedly the half has not been told.) ANNISTON, ALA.-Street car employees, members of the Amalga mated Association, went on strike in August, 1919. No property damage or deaths, but two non-union employees who operated cars during the strike, were assaulted and wounded. GADSDEN, ALA.~Amalgamated organized stre~t car employees September 19, 1919, and at once struck. For next five weeks the com pany operated the cars with strikebreakers, despite persistent annoyance. Strikers, et aI., took out rails on curves in rural section to cause wrecks, and hundreds of sticks of dynamite were dropped on tracks, but were dis covered before they were struck by wheels, with possible loss of lives.

Yet, there was property damage of about $1,000. One night, the last of October, eight of the loyal employees were at tacked by about 150 strikers and others. Revolvers, bricks, and bottles were used by the assailants. One of the eight was shot down and an other's brains were beaten out with bottles, but the remaining car men, with pistols, repulsed the strikers. This was the culmination of a series of attacks, the others, however, having no serious casualties, but resulting in intimidating the public from patronizing the cars. After the above-mentioned tragic affray the citizens in mass meeting forced the local authorities to give protection, which ended the strike. MONTGOMERY, ALA.-Street car employees struck August 15, 1917. Strike lasted some days. Strikers started a riot by attempting to remove the operating crew from a car. In the melee four men were shot, one seriously. On two or three other occasions there was general fighting [ 108 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor between the car crews and the strikers who attacked them, several of the loyal car men being badly bea.ten. The company won the strike.

In August, 1918, the Amalgamated brought on another strike, but negotiations secured a settlement. which prevented violence, inconve nience to the public being the only condemnable feature of this strike. OAKLAND, CAL.-Qn October 1,1919, the Amalgamated's members went out on strike, in violation of their contract with their employers and in violation of provisions in their own by-laws. The men returned to work on October lion the company's terms. During the period of the strike there was serious rioting daily on the streets of the city and many people were injured more or less severely. So far as recorded nearly forty persons were wounded, and in an accident indirectly traceable to the strike six persons were killed. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.-A letter from a prominent. c;tizen of San Francisco says, regarding the depredations committed by members of the Amalgamated: "During the last strike here, several persons were killed and a lot of property destroyed."

He also says: "A state official has in his possession copies of letters passing between Thos. J. Mooney and W. D. Mahon, president of the Amalgamated Association, and also between Mooney and Mother Jones, in which Mooney admits that he had destroyed $400,000 worth of prop erty of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and that he was going to use tactics in the street railroad strike that he dared not mention in the letters, and stated that they knew what tactics he used." It was also proven in his trial that Mooney dynamited the towers of the Sierra Light and Power Company, which supply power to the street railroads in/San Francisco.' This was the same anarchist and murderer, Thos. ]. Mooney, in whose behalf President Woodrow Wilson used persistent and determined efforts, beginning in January, 1918, and lasting till the end of November that year,. to induce Governor Stephens, of California, to commute the death sentence for wholesale murder of - which Mooney had been convicted ..

A press telegram dated November 29, 1918, said: "President Wilson was manifestly the determining factor in saving Mooney." MYSTIC, NEW LONDON, NORWICH, CONN.-On July IS, 1919, the Amalgamated's members struck on about nine hours' notice, and for ten days not a wheel turned, and the public was thus robbed of the use of this utility. The company then began operating with non-union men. For the next two months there were outrages by the strikers. Three [ 1°9 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation non-union men were beaten up at the end of the lines in Norwich. A worker in the power house in Mystic was assaulted and mercilessly beaten by a gang of strikers. Several cars were derailed and the usual boycott and intimidation methods were used. The merchants in Nor wich were threatened if they rode on the cars, AND THEm. WIVES WERE CALLED UP ON THE TELEPHONE and given to understand that trouble would come to their husbands if they continued to ride.

In New London, from time to time, cars were derailed by plugged switches or a piece of iron on the track, and in the town of Killingly one of the company's houses was burned. All through this period of disturbance there was always one and some times two of the Vice-Presidents, or Special Agents of the Amalgamated Association on the scenes directing the strike, etc. WASHINGTON, D. C.-In March, 1917, the Amalgamated's mem bers went on a strike which lasted a month or more, and was replete with deeds of violence. There was considerable damage to cars and other property; a number of assaults were made on loyal crews, and passengers were hurt by stones and other flying missiles; obstructions were placed upon the tracks at various times and places to derail or impede the move ment of cars, and in one case a car was boarded by about fifteen men, the crew taken off at the point of a gun and the car turned loose with the current on. But for the fact that it turned over, at high speed, on a curve, it would likely have had a collision,with disastrous results, with a car loaded with passengers.

AUGUSTA, GA.-Qn September 23, 1912, the Amalgamated's mem bers in Augusta went on a strike which lasted till October 19. During this strike, two loyal employees were murdered one night at the end of their run in the outskirts of the city. Besides these, it is stated that several non-union men were killed and several non-union men disap peared in riots and have never been heard of since. Also, from fifteen to eighteen men, mostly loyal employees, were either shot or brutally beaten, and many more people, some of them passengers, were injured by flying missiles. On call of the mayor, the night of September 23rd, the Governor ordered out the local military to protect the city from rioting strikers. Three citizens were killed by the military while trying to ride through the cordon around the car bam despite the command to halt. One of these was a strike sympathizer who fired at the captain and was then instantly shot dead by the sentries.

During the period of lawlessness attending this strike, even women and children were attacked and one woman was shot. ATLANTA, GA.-During the major part of October and November, 1916, Atlanta was in a state of turmoil, caused by a strike forced by the Amalgamated Association which had just organized the street car em ployees. During almost every w~ek cars loaded with passengers were dynamited, generally after nightfall, and some of the loyal car men were [ 110 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor shot at on the outskirts of the city-attempted murder. The following telegram portrays a characteristic "incident" of the strike: "Atlanta, Ga., November II, 1916.-A state of anarchy exists in the City of Atlanta. Not less than three times· in the past month one of the judges of the Fulton Superior Court has felt called upon to make reference from the bench to the acts of lawlessness and brand them as ana~chy.

"Last night, on North Boulevard, just off Ponce de Leon, the best sec tionof the City of Atlanta, two young women-than whom there are none who rank better in the State-were maimed, a young man's foot shattered, a street car loaded to almost capacity with people returning to their homes was wrecked. "The city to-day discusses it as a 'horror.' "A stick of dynamite fastened to the track. was exploded by the right front wheel of the car. That wheel and that side of the front truck were demolished, the car was wrecked, every glass broken. The flooring over the demolished truck was driven upward and shattered in splinters. On the front seat, directly over the spot were seated the two daughters of an Atlanta minister, Misses Rosa and Eva Belsham, of 749 North Boulevard. The feet of both the young ladies were badly lacerated and the splintered flooring, driven by the force of the explosion, horribly tore through one of the young ladies' legs. In a near-by seat was George L.

Porter, a young man.. His injuries were such that he was rushed to the Grady Hospital where efforts are now being made to cure his wounded feet." It is of interest to add that one of the young ladies above mentioned was stated to have lost a foot, and the young man, near the end of 1918, was reported to be walk ing on crutches, probably maimed for life, both as the result of the above-described criminally caused explosion. The State's courts, in Fulton County, aided by public opinion, took vigorous charge of the situation created by the lawless deeds, of which the above was but one, and practically expelled the anarchic Amalgamated Associa tion from Atlanta. But from the courts and from public opinion in Georgia, the Amalgamated Association of street car employees manifestly "appealed to Ccesar," and Ccesar was respon sive, as we note from the following: "It was formerly the policy and practice of this company not to retain a man in its employ who was a member of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America. This company believedthat this policywas essentialin orderto preventstrikes. Ac cordingly it did dismiss from its employment men who joined local No.

732• . [ I I I ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation "But in response to the urgent request of the President of the United States, the company has recently . . . changed this policy and con sented that any of its employees who may desire may join the Amalga mated Association of local 732," etc.-Preston S. Arkwright, President of the Georgia Railway and Power Company, in a published statement, July 19, 1918. Concerning the above enforced change in the company's policy Mr. J. J. Spalding, the company's attorney, said in a public speech: "No other power on earth could have made us do it as long as there was any breath left in our body." COLUMBUS, GA.-The above-named agency of anarchy having thus been restored to Atlanta by President Woodrow Wilson, who could not possibly have been ignorant of its criminal practices, and having signal ized its return by violating the law of Georgia by suspending the opera tion of the cars by a strike, next organized the street car employees in Columbus, and promptly put them on strike. This was during August, 1918.

A well-known citizen of Columbus informs me that rocks and other missiles were at various times thrown at cars in Columbus. This was also done in Phoenix City, across the river, whereby passengers were hurt. The strikers frequently also pelted the interior of the cars, through the open windows, with eggs, smearing the dresses of ladies and making the seats unusable, and by these means and by threats in timidated many people from riding for about two weeks. SAVANNAH, GA.- Th~se anarchic proteges of President Wilson next organized the street car employees in Savannah and caused three strikes during the winter of 1918-1919. In the first of these strikes cars were stoned, a lady passenger's face was crushed in and children badly hurt. Therefore, we see this Amalgamated Association and its members standing forth as the shedders of the blood of the people of Georgia in the cities of Augusta, Atlanta, Co~ lumbus, and Savannah.

BLOOMINGTON, ILL.-(Telegram, condensed.) The Amalga mated forced a strike July 6, 1917. GovemorLowden promptly ordered out six companies of the Dlinois National Guard in response to a call from the authorities here, where the striking street railway employees had resorted to mob violence. Following an address by Mother Jones to a mass meeting of strikers, a mob formed and attacked the motormen and conductors of the street cars that were still in operation. Several of the employees at work were badly beaten, and one of the mob was shot and will probably die. [ 112 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor CmCAGO, ILL.- The officials of the leading street and elevated rail way lines in Chicago without exception have ignored all requests for information concerning their experience with the Amalgamated Associa tion. This would indicate that they are so terrorized by that agency of anarchy that they do not dare to tempt its wrath by even telling of their dealings with it.

From a citizen of Chicago, however, who is not connected with those lines I have gatheredthe followinginformation: In Chicago the Street Railroad and. Elevated Railroad men who are members of the Amalgamated Association have had two strikes (dates not given). The strikes lasted only four or five days, and the companies simply shut down their plants and did not operate any cars, therefore there was no disorder. In each of these cases the men had contracts with the companies which they simply ignored. Their attitude was absolutely defiant to the public and to the constituted governing.authorities. He added that most of the workmen in Chicago belong to unions, and said that MANY OF THE UNIONS HAVE GUN MEN AND CROOKS ON THEIR STAFF WHO DO NOT HESITATE TO GO OUT AND BEAT tiP THE OPPOSITION, EVEN THOSE MEN IN THEIR OWN UNIONS WHO ARE MORE OR LESS CONSERVATIVE. He stated, however, that on one of the smaller lines which attempted to operate despite a strike by the Amalgamated's members, the latter "beat up" some of the loyal employees who remained at work.

The followingtelegram will lay bare to us the spirit which animates the Amalgamated's members in Chicago and measurably accounts for the timidity of the street and elevated railway officialsin giving information as to its lawlessness, viz.: "Chicago, July 29, I9I9.-Early last night heads of the union and officialsof the street railway companies reached an agreement. But at a mass meeting shortly before midnight the men repudiated the agree ment and voted to strike to-day. Finally L. D. Bland, member of the International Board of the Union, attempted to place the terms of the agreement before the meeting. Getting a brief silence,<hesaid: " 'Remember, men, we are not fighting the traction companies in this matter. We are fighting the Chicago public'" 'TO HELL WITH THE PUBLIC 1 THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED I' several shouted, and Bland threw up his hands and sat down." SPRINGFmLD,ILL.-In July, 1917, the Amalgamated organized about three fifths of the street car employees and brought on a strike which lasted fifteen months.

By this strike there was much property damage. Street cars· were stoned and derailed, many were dynamited. Loyal employees were assaulted, passengers were wounded. Five hundred soldiers of the Dlinois national guard had been called out to protect the street car property after a violent and destructive out burst by the strikers who burnt a car and shot into other cars carrying passengers. The troops, later, having been withdrawn, were recalled on September [ 113 ] Too Much Government-· Too Much Taxation 4th, after a night of turbulent disorder which left the streets littered with evidences of the havoc wrought by the riot-crazed mobs of striking street car employees and their labor-union associates. Street cars carrying passengers had been stoned or shot into, many had been dynamited, some were wrecked and piled up on the public square, others were set on fire and burnt. During this night the strikers had signalized the close of Labor Day (September 3rd) by completely demolishing the street car company's office building with dynamite.

From August 12 till well into September a number of car men who in sisted on holding their jobs and remaining with the company were shot or assaulted. The presence of more than 3,000troops was required to quell the vicious lawlessness of the strikers and their allies in other labor unions. One policeman was killed during the rioting; three motormen were in jured for life, one losing both his legs. Of both employees and the public who were wounded during the strike the number would probably approxi mate one hundred. ANDERSON, IND.-In 1908 street car employees struck. There was considerable property damage particularly to cars, high tension and trolley lines, and ONE MAN WAS KILLED. A number of persons were seriously injured by bricks, stones, and other missiles thrown, and the pub lic was greatly inconvenienced by lack of use of the cars. During this strike the State militia was called out and guarded the street car property several days. The Amalgamated was, later, forced off of this line by a United States court injunction.

FORT WAYNE, IND.-Amalgamated's members went on strike on September 27, 1915, remained so for nine months and came back on the company's terms. Violence was used in the way of derailment of cars by placing tie plates on the tracks, by throwing bricks through car windows, and general interference with traffic. Constant vigilance pre vented any serious injury to loyal employees or to passengers, but the union so intimidated the public that very few rode the cars. Now, upon what basis of law, propriety, or justice can one establish the right of this irresponsible gang to deprive the law-abiding, industrious members of the public in Fort Wayne of the peaceful and safe use of the street cars for nine months? LOGANSPORT, IND.-Amalgamated's members went on strike July 19, 1916. Two city cars and a line car were badly damaged by the strik ers. One loyal employee was assaulted, resulting in the fracture of a jaw and other serious injuries. From time to time cars were derailed and stoned, causing the greater percentage of the public to fear to use them.

[ 114 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor And yet, the Amalgamated Association not being incorporated, no damages could be collected from it for the willful wrongs it had done. TERRE HAUTE, IND.-In February, 1902, the Amalgamated's mem bers went on a strike which lasted till May. They resorted to violence, whichresulted in THE DEATHOF ONE PERSON and the wounding of a number of others and the destruction of a great deal of street car prop· erty, mostly rolling stock. In 1914, another strike, caused also by the Amalgamated, degenerated into a riot, which was the means of the willful destruction of very much street railway property-tolling stock and passenger station. There were some casualties, but no deaths reported. Following the above riot, the company secured from the United States court a permanent injunction, and its employment service has been open shop ever since. INDIANAPOLIS,IND.-The Amalgamated organized the street car employees in the fall of 1913, and put them on strike October 30, that year. This strike lasted eight days, completely tying up the traffic in the city, and resulted in THE KILLINGOF ONEMANand the wounding of a number of others. The organization of the Amalgamated Association, while not recognized, was:continued on the property under arbitration agreement until 1916, during which period two or three attempts were made to call a strike, which was prevented by injunction in the Federal Court. In 1916, the Amalgamated's members were called off the cars on a strike, but were promptly replaced by other employees, and the Amalga mated is not now on the property.

In the 1913 strike there was vicious rioting, and much property dam age, particularly to cars which were broken up, and in one instance set on fire; many people were hurt, and the city was thrown into such turmoil that the entire National Guard of Indiana,-more than 2,000 men,-was called to the city to protect life and property. OTTUMWA, IA.-The Amalgamated got a foothold in this city in 1901, and in the fall of 1902 went on a strike which lasted four days. During this time the company attempted to operate the cars, but did so with great difficulty. A number of the cars were damaged, but no lives were lost nor was any person seriously injured. In December, 1918, the employees went on strike, which lasted about a week. , In October, 1919, they had a third strike, which lasted more than three weeks. During the last two strikes the company made no attempt to operate the cars, hence the main damage caused by the strikers was the incon venience suffered by the public.

WATERLOO,IA.-In the year 1905 the Amalgamated undertook the organization of the employees of the Waterloo, Cedar Rapids & Northern electric railway system. Only a small proportion of the men joined [ I I 5 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation the union, but these went on strike, and resorted to rioting in their en deavor to force the majority to als'o "organize" with them. There were some casualties among employees and others, but no one was killed, and there was considerable property damage as the result of the efforts of, the Amalgamated's members to coerce the majority of the employees as well as the company. But the majority remained loyal and worked whenever the street cars were operated. The Amalgamated's strike in New York City, in September, 1916, was practically a replica of this, its strike in Waterloo, la., in 19°5; though on a much larger scale. LOUISVILLE, KY.-In 1917 there were two strikes by the Amalga mated, concerning which no particulars have been received for this letter.

On August I, 1919, the Amalgamated's members went on strike in violation of their employment contract. Very much property was destroyed by the strikers or their allies, and about one hundred persons were wounded, about twenty-five of them seriously. Besides the almost daily stoning of cars during some weeks, two cars carrying passengers were dynamited, and dynamite was thrown against a car barn, the explosion wounding four persons and damaging the building. The strike lasted for several weeks, during which strikers would go from one barn to other barns and to other men who did not know them, and threaten to kill members of their families and burn their residences, and threaten to kill the motorman or conductor if he did not do picket duty. More than ninety of the strikers were either convicted or held to the Grand Jury for criminal deeds during the strike. NEW ORLEANS, LA.-The Amalgamated's members went on strike, November 29, 1902, and remained till about December 9. The com pany's operation of the cars resulted in stones and other missiles being hurled at them, which damaged a number of the cars and injured pas sengers.

PORTLAND, ME.-The Amalgamated's members went on strike, July 12, 1916. The strike lasted five days. On the first day the com pany attempted to operate cars by strikebreakers, but obstructions were placed on the tracks, stones were hurled at the cars, breaking windows, etc., and so intimidating the loyal men that attempts to maintain service for the public were abandoned, and the cars were pulled into the barns. During the remaining days of the strike there was no service. No pas sengers were hurt, thanks to precautions by the company. NORTHAMPTON, MASS.-One strike by the Amalgamated "several years ago." Obstructions were placed on the tracks and the cars were assailed with stones, bringing a stay to operation till the differences caus':' ing the strike were adjusted. No person was seriously hurt. DULUTH, MINN.-The Amalgamated put the men on a strike in May, 1899, which brought interruption to service and disorder for several [ 116 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor weeks. There was much property damage, and many passengers on the cars, and other persons, W6remore or less seriously injur~d.

In September, 1912, the Amalgamated's members brought on another strike. Again there was much property damage ahd quite a number of persons were wounded, some seriously. The company then forced the Amalgamated's members off of its properties, hence has had no further disorders or interruptions of service since 1912. ST. PAUL, MINN.--Qn October 9, 1917, the Amalgamated caused a strike on the street car lines. Rioting caused much trouble and prop erty damage, but no 'personwas seriously injured. United States troops restored order. Another strike by the Amalgamated began December 2, 1917. Violent rioting. Great property damage done, about a dozen cars being ahnost destroyed and many people wounded by broken glass and stones. .Po licemen shot one rioter and several policemen were sent to the hospital from injuries. ' GULFPORT,MISS.-Amalgamated's members struck in December~ 1918. Second strike by Amalgamated's members in February, 1920. The first night of the strike all lighting and power wires leading from the power housewere cut by the strikers. This left Pass Christian, Gulfport, Long Beach, Soria City, Mississippi City, Biloxi,Ocean Springs, and out lying points in darkness, all these points being supplied from the power house in Gulfport. This was an act of needless and wanton inconve nience and annoyance to the public.N 0 damage was done to the cars as the company kept them in the barns for protection, but the public again was the Amalgamated's victim.

KANSAS CITY, MO.-The Amalgamated Association was the an archic agency causing and conducting three strikes, with property de struction and bloodshed, in Kansas City within eighteen months, the first being August 8, 1917, the gecondin March, 1918, and the third start ing December II, 1918. The last two strikes were in direct violation of the Amalgamated's contracts. In the first strike, in August, 1917, four streetcars were burned in the streets. During the last strike more than 75 cars were dynamited, trolley wires were cut, two car barns wetedynamited, and there were various minor acts of violence. In the three strikes at least fifteen persons were badly injured. In one case a dynamite bomb was thrown against the window of a car barn, resulting in four clerks going to the hospital for some six months. Other people were wounded on cars which were dynamited, and there were the miscellaneous numbers of broken heads, etc.

The State militia was called out in March, 1918, and in December, 1918. There are now under indictment a number of local and national offi[ 117 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation cials of the Amalgamated Association by the Federal Grand Jury, for conspiracy, inciting of riots, etc. In addition, about a dozen others were convicted in the Federal Court for having dynamite in their possession, and served terms of from three to nine months. A gentleman in Kansas City who is well posted on the facts connected with the Amalgamated's coursein the foregoingthree strikes says: "I can see no good to be derived from recognizing an organization which has absolutely no respect for its contractual relations, and whose record on one property consists of three strikes in a period of eighteen months." SPRINGFIELD, MO.-The Amalgamated's members struck in the spring of 1916. This strike lasted but three days. No material damage was done, but the public was inconvenienced.

During October, 1916, the Amalgamated began another strike, which lasted until June, 1917. During this period there were numerous riots, a number of citizens were shot or otherwise injured, not less than fifteen of them seriously wounded, and many other criminal deeds traceable to the reign of lawlessness characterizing the strike damaged and annoyed the community. This strike was forced upon the street car company by radical leaders in both the Amalgamated and other labor unions BECAUSE OF THE DISCHARGE OF A CONDUCTOR WHO HAD BEEN CAUGHT APPROPRIATING STREET CAR FARES, the evidence being positive and conclusive. It has been estimated that the strike cost the company $200,000, and the loss to the public was placed at $2,000,000. The seven months' strike left the company virtually in bankruptcy and the city split wide open with factionalism and swarming with radicals. It is stated that the union employees are, to this day, constantly annoying the non-union employees who were loyal to the company during the period of the strike.

We may well ask here, as well as elsewhere in this letter: What hold has this Amalgamated Association on President Woodrow Wilson that he has made himself the patron and ally of this said association in its course of crime against the peaceable and law-abiding elements of our country's population? LINCOLN, NEB.-Strike by the Amalgamated's members in May, 1917. Many car windows were broken, flanges knocked off wheels by dynamite exploded under cars moving through the streets, besides other property destruction. A number of passengers were injured by stones, or by glass from windows crushed in by missiles. A trainman was at tacked by several strikers et aI., and in defense killed one of the assailants by a shot with a revolver. This trainman was tried and vindicated by the court. Some of the loyal trainmen were kidnapped by the strikers out at the ends of their runs and carried away and hurt.

OMAHA, NEB.-Qn December I, 1918, the Amalgamated's mem bers, with the authority of the Association's heads, struck against the [ 118 ] GovernmentAttitude Toward Labor conditions laid down by the National War Labor Board, and demanded a recognition of their union and a'complete "closed shop," and remained out eight days. During this time the company made no attempt to operate the cars, but the strikers assaulted and kidnapped loyal em ployees, throwing them into automobiles after assaults, and carrying them fifteen or twenty miles out in the country and turning them loose, with threats to tar and feather them if they returned. The strikers finally returned to work after inflicting on the business men of Omaha very large losses and entailing upon the entire community serious inconvenience and expensive transportation by automobiles. NEWARK, N. J.-The Amalgamated's members struck once in 1918 and once in 1919. They resorted to their process of violence and murder, resulting in not only property damage to cars, etc., but in the rioting they brought on, ONE PERSON WAS KILLED and four were wounded.

JAMESTOWN, N. Y.-In 1<)00 the Amalgamated organized the street car employees and struck on May 29. The strike lasted about six months, during which the company absolutely refused to recognize the union, which was forced out. Again, in 1913, representatives of the Amalgamated organized the street car employees and struck on May I. This strike lasted about two months, the company again refusing to recognize the union, which was again expelled. In both strikes, there was more or less rioting and breaking, of car windows, damaging of car barns and, in some instances, pulling down of interurban wires. In both strikes there were numbers of passengers struck by stones hurled through the windows, but no one was killed. NEWBURGH, N. Y.-The Amalgamated's members struck in 1906. As results of the strike there was some damage to the company's property and one person, a child,was wounded. BINGHAMTON, N. Y.-In 1907 the Amalgamated sent one of its leading organizers and Lrought on a strike and made a determined fight for more than a year. They placed dynamite on the track and blew off parts of about a half-dozen cars, placed near the car barn a dynamite cartridge which would have blown up an outgoing car and the entire barn had it not been detected and removed. One of the Amalgamated's men was sent to the penitentiary for a dynamite outrage. Injury to persons is not detailed in the report.

In 1913, the Amalgamated caused another strike. The company employed about two hundred new employees and broke this strike, the details of which were not given. BUFFALO, N. Y.-Amalgamated's members went on strike in April, 1913, and resorted to rioting so violent as to necessitate the sending of 3,000 of the State's troops to subdue the strikers and restore order. It was stated in the press that battles of strikers [ 119 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation and their sympathizers with the militia' and police resulted in the wounding of a number of men besides a woman and child. Militiamen were fired on from housetops and-other points of vantage. THIS STRIKE WAS HANDLED BY THE AMALGAMATED'S PRESI DENT, WILLIAM D. MAHON, assisted by Organizer William B. Fitzgerald, and was quoted by the Amalgamated's officials, during their strike in New York City during September, 1916, as a model to be followed by their members to win the latter strike.

There was another strike by the Amalgamated's members in Buffalo, beginning October 3 and lasting till October 23, 1918, as the company made no attempt to run the cars, the public was the chief sufferer through the paralysis of the power of this utility to serve it. SYRACUSE, N. Y.-In 1913 there was a strike by the Amalgamated's members, of which no specificdetails have been secured; but the fact that it was found necessary to send the military to control a situation which had been found too strong by the local authorities tells its own story. NEW YORK CITY.- The Amalgamated's members went on strike July 23, 1916, and returned to work about two weeks later. I have no details of this strike except the following press telegram: "New York, August S.-Fourteen arrests on charges of attempting to destroy railroad property were made to-day in connection with the strike, which was indirectly responsible for the deaths of two persons and injury to nearly fifty others. . . . A score of passengers and guards were hurt in rioting."

Another strike by the Amalgamated's members in this city began September 6, 1916, and lasted several weeks. This is referred to at length in the first half of this letter so far as pertained to the Interborough system. The following telegrams, however, give some results of the Amalgamated's attacks on the other lines: "New York, September 12.-after a night of intermittent rioting, motormen of the Sixth and Ninth Avenue elevated roads reported to the police that they had been fired upon by the strikers from roof tops. Third Avenue elevated trains were repeatedly bombarded with bricks and stones from buildings. One passenger, a woman, was struck on the head and seriously injured." "New York, October 4.-Four passengers on elevated trains were injured to~day when sympathizers with the striking railway men show ered the trains with brickbats and stones from roof tops." "New York, October 17.-Strikers and sympathizers to-day made several attacks on the surface cars in upper Madison Avenue. Bricks were thrown through windows and several passengers were injured and a conductor was assaulted."

The New York Evening Post of September 20 gave instances of as saults by mobs, etc., on four Third Avenue elevated trains, four Sixth Avenue elevated trains, and says that nine attacks on passing trains were made at I09th Street and Columbus Avenue, and that attacks were made at various points on surface cars. In many of these cases passengers were wounded, some,seriously. [ 120 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor I here, moreover,. add the following from the testimony in court as showing the desire of the loyal employees to be allowed to work: '~William Gardner has been a conductor twenty years. He had been assaulted at Broadway and Willoughby Avenue on the morning of the strike. He had been injured in the leg. Asked what the feeling among the employees of the company was, the witness said that many of the old men were willing to work if they could be protected, but that the general impression was that handling a car under present conditions was too hazardous."-N. Y. Times.

And the following is added to show the invasion of homes by the . Amalgamated: "Practically all the witnesses stated that STRIKERS HAD FOLLOW ED THEM TO THEIR HOMES, had frightened their wives by threaten ing to injure the workers, and had created such a panicky feeling in the homes that the women folks had coaxed the men not to attempt to work. "Mrs. Henry Bentz and Mrs. George Heineman testified that strikers visited them at their homes, and told them their husbands would be in jured if they did not stop working. The women were warned to keep their husbands at home. Mrs. Bentz added that those who had called upon her threatened to 'get her' if her husband continued to work. So she persuaded her husband to stop."-N. Y. Times. OLEAN, N. Y.-In June or July, 1919, an Amalgamated organizer came to Olean, and succeeded in organizing a large majority of the street car employees, and immediately made a demand for large increase in salary, less hours, better working conditions and recognition of the union, which the company rejected. A strike was called on August 12. The company brought in other men, housed them in the car barn and made an attempt to operate the cars, but received practically no protection from the city or county authorities.

Conditions grew worse until the afternoon and night of August 18, when at the car barns occurred one of the worst riots ever known in that section of the State.· The damage to property amounted to about $5,000, and, while no one was killed, about twenty men were wounded. Indictments followed, and several strikers and others are now serving terms in the penitentiary for their criminal acts in this riot. CHARLOTTE, N. C.-The following extract from a letter written by a prominent citizen of Charlotte covers this case: "So far as I know, none of the street car men in Charlotte were mem bers of this Amalgamated Association prior to sometime in August, 1919, when organizers visited Charlotte and Winston-Salem, N. C., and Green ville, S. C., and secured as members practically all the street car men in those cities. Prior to this time there had never been the slightest dif ficulty between the company and its employees; in fact, it is known that the employees had never asked for a raise in wages or a betterment of working conditions-,-all this having been anticipated by the company.

However, after this organization, demands were made upon the company that it recognize the Amalgamated Association and deal with it under a [121 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation contract. This the company refused to do, as it is known that this association at its pleasure makes its contracts worthless. "The result was a simultaneous strike on the company's properties in all three of the cities above named, and soon thereafter a strike of all the electrical workers, and a violent pulling of the switches at the substation, thus attempting to deprive the citizens of Charlotte of power not only for lighting and heating but for pumping the city water and flushing the sewers, in other words, the acts carrying out an attempt to strike a direct blow not only at the comfort of our citizens, but at their property and at their health and even their lives. "This strike lasted nearly a month, and finally culminated in rioting at the car barns in Charlotte, the intention of the rioters being to take from the barns the employees whom the company had quartered there for the purpose of operating the cars. As a result of this outrage, the policemen fired upon the rioters, five of whom were killed and twenty to thirty wounded.

"Afterwards, the Governor ordered the State militia here, and our streets were patrolled by soldiers for two or three days. "Soon thereafter the strike came to an end by the company's dealing with its men as an organization of their own, which it had been ready to do from the very first moment its lTlanagementwas approached in this be half." CINCINNATI OmO.-During the administration of the "reform" mayor, Henry T. Hunt, an Amalgamated organizer came to Cincinnati and organized about 200 of the approximately 2,500 street car employees, and proceededto call a strike by this bunch ofless than ten per cent. of the employees. Through what was considered the active influence of the mayor the remainder of the employeeswere brought into the union, and then, during May (year not given), ensued a real out and out strike, which lasted for some time. Riots followed,SEVERAL PEOPLE WERE KILLED, it is stated, and others wounded, and the reform administration made no apparent effort to stop these assaults upon the law and the lives of law-abiding people.

LIMA, OmO.-In August, 1917, street car employees struck. The strike continued for 35 days. Cars were operated on only eight occasions, and in each case rioting caused their return to the car barns. On August 9th, in a riot four men were shot, ONE MORTALLY. In this riot, two cars were badly damaged, and attempts were made to burn them. The Amalgamated's strikers succeeded in tying up the entire transportation facilities of the city, with its population of about 40,000. DAYTON,OHIO.- There was a strike by the Amalgamated's members in January, 1918, on one of the lines during which, while a non-union conductor was performing his duty to the company and the public, he was assaulted by striking members of the Amalgamated Association and seriously wounded, being incapacitated for work for several months. He, [ 122 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor however, recovered and is still with the company, a conductor, and still non-union.

There was another strike by the Amalgamated's members in June, 1918. One company operated cars with loyal employees a part of the day, but at length, under threats of assaults, put its cars in the barn, keeping them there till the strike was over. This strike affected the unionized men on other street railroads,. concerning which a correspondent says: "Some violence and destruction of property took place." TULSA, OKLA.-Strike by Amalgamated's members June 20 to July 23, 1919. During the strike there was some property damage by the strikers et aI., and a deputy sheriff and a strike sympathizer were both wounded by a rifle shot intended doubtless for one of them, while the two were scuffling. PORTLAND, ORE.-"Some fourteen years ago" (1905 or 1906?) there was a strike on street car lines which was called by other unions in the city of Portland. There was some violence in this strike, but no one was killed. The great majority of the street car employees loyally stood by the company. "The labor interests at that time, through the Amalga mated Association and other unions, tried to make all the trouble they could, but the strike was of short duration."

SCRANTON, PA.-The following extracts from an address "To the Public" by the Citizens Alliance of Scranton, dated December 16, 1901, refer to this same Amalgamated Association. "Men from a distance, without interest in our community, came here and stirred up discontent among our wage earners. A series of strikes was precipitated. With the strikes came disorder, riot, murderous as saults on persons and destruction of property, unlawful picketing, patrol ing, violent intimidation, and worst of all-the boycott. "As the climax came the present ill-advised street car strike, constrict ing the travel of our people, visiting great losses upon our tradesmen, evoking riots, dynamite outrages, and attempted murder in our streets and, by means of wholesale boycotting and terrorism, violating our fundamental rights and liberties as American citizens. "Well-authenticated instances might be cited where women have been stoned, insulted, called vile names, and have even been deprived of their employment, and honest workmen driven from our city, for no other rea son whatever than that they dared to ride back and forth between their homes and their work on the street cars.

"Dynamite, the favorite weapon of the anarchist, has been used to destroy property, intimidate the public, and endanger innocent lives." PHILADELPHIA, PA.-The Amalgamated Association called a strike, May 29, 1909, which lasted seven days, during which there was serious interruption to service and some disorder. February 19, 1910, it called another strike, which lasted till April 17, 1910. During these nine weeks the city suffered from a serious interfer .. [ 123 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation ence with her activities, by reason of this suspension of street railway service, with its accompaniments of riots, dynamiting of cars, and blood shed, the extent of which at this late day cannot be measured or even estimated. A gentleman residing in my own home town, Marietta, Ga., tells me that he was visiting in Philadelphia while this strike was "on," and was riding in a street car one day when a throng of strikers stopped the car, forced the pas sengers to get out, "were rough with the crew," and then set the car on fire and burnt it on one of the most promi nent streets in Philadelphia.

HAZLETON, PA.-The Amalgamated's members struck January I, 1916, to force the company to restore to service a man it had discharged because it had found him to be dishonest, and tied up the street car lines for more than three months. Operation was resumed April 8, with non-union men. The strike was declared off in the latter part of August. The street car employees are not organized now. During the strike, poles and portions of track were dynamited, also one bridge; cars were stoned, breaking windows, etc.; telephones located at various points along the line were smashed and wires cut. At least a half-dozen persons were shot and stabbed, besides those in jured by stones which were thrown. Many persons were threatened with violence for riding on the cars. The Pennsylvania State Constabulary were called in and did excellent work in restoring order. But for their presence the situation undoubt ..

edly would have been much worse. WILKES-BARRE, PA.-on October 14, 1915, in :flagrant defiance of a wage-award of a board of arbitration which they had helped to create, the Amalgamated's members on the Wilkes-Barre Railway quit work, and the memorable strike which interfered with the traffic facilities of twenty-seven cities and towns and brought hardships and suffering to fully 200,000 people of the Wyoming Valley during the ensuing fourteen months began. The owners of this system of 110 miles of railways knew that a sur" render to the faithless employees meant that ultimately their property must be operated for the benefit of the employees instead of for the con venience and use of the public and the benefit of the owners, hence "they determined to force the men to abide by their agreement at any cost. Arrangements were instantly made to run the cars as usual and to protect their new employees and the public as best they could."

From a statement about the strike I quote: "As soon as the men saw that the railway managers were determined to operate their lines, disgraceful rioting resulted. Several of the local employees were attacked by mobs of strike sympathizers, women passen gers in the cars were insulted, and delegations of strikers warned large [ 124] Government Attitude Toward Labor employers not to permit their employees to use the street cars. Cars everywhere were stoned and badly damaged, dynamite and high ex plosives being used to destroy the company's property. It was as much as a man's life was worth to run a car in Wilkes-Barre or its environs those days. The strikers finally returned to service under the terms of the wage scale specified by the arbitrators-the scale which they had rejected and against which they had struck and entered upon this career of crime. The company also reserved the right to refuse to re-employ any of the strikers who had damaged its property or had otherwise made themselves objec tionable.

Note that while the location of this strike is put as Wilkes-Barre, yet the statement shows that the Wilkes Barre railway and its controlled lines furnish "traffic facilities of twenty-seven cities and towns" and that their clientele numbered "fully 200,000 people of the Wyoming Valley," and that cars everywhere were stoned, etc. Hence it is probable that within fourteen months, the period of the strike, there was rioting or other serious disorder in fully twenty cities and towns besides Wilkes Barre. PITTSBURGH, PA.-Qn August 15,1919, the Amalgamated's mem bers went on strike on the chief street and electric railway line in Pitts burgh. During this strike two of the company's cars, while operating with passengers, were attacked on one of the main streets of the city. All the windows in these two cars were broken by stones and other missiles, the occupants showered with fragments of glass, and the motorman of one of the cars pulled from the car and badly beaten by the lawless as sailants.

Besides the above strike the Amalgamated's members had also gone on strike on the above railways June 27-28, 1919, May I and 2, 1916, and May 15-18, 1919. YARDLEY, PA.-Strike declared March 24, 1920, a publication May I, says, "Has been marked with violence." "The first two days two cars were run on the Bristol-Doylstown division, but the operators were stoned and service had to be abandoned." On April 24, strikers assaulted a new employee who, after being badly beaten, was rescued by an officer. Former service men were then sworn in as deputy sheriffs and later were reinforced by members of the Pennsylvania constabulary, who restored order. The strike was for higher wages, despite the fact that the com pany's earnings are less than the expenses. The strike has held up hundreds of commuters, "livingin Pennsylvania, whose business is in Trenton, N. J. [ 125 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation PROVIDENCE, R. I.-In 1902 an unsuccessful attempt was made by the Amalgamated Association to organize the employees of the local street railway. Rioting ensued and the State militia was called out to maintain order.

In the spring of 1913 the Amalgamated organized the street car men in Providence. In 1915 a two-day strike occurred on July 15th and 16th. In this strike an attempt was made to operate cars with the few em ployees not members of the union and· a few additional men who were hired. Some of the motormen and conductors were assaulted and some car windows were broken by stones. The attempt at operation was then given over after a few persons had been wounded. In 1919 the members of the organization were out on strike from July 19 to August 6. No attempt was made to operate passenger cars during the last strike. Thus it will be noted here and elsewhere in this list that, if not organ ized by the Amalgamated, street car men will get along together in full accord, but that those who come under the control of the Amalgamated at once seem willing if not, in fact, eager to kill those whom a week before they esteemed as brothers.

And it is well to note that the spirit of callous and brutal anarchy which animated the freshly initiated members of the Amalgamated in Provi dence, New York City, Buffalo, Springfield, Ill., St. Paul, and San Fran cisco, which have, each, a large percentage of foreign-born population, has its full counterpart in the freshly initiated members of this same as sociation in Charlotte, Spartanburg, Augusta, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Gadsden, and Springfield, Mo., in almost all of which the percentage of foreign born is negligible. This is one of the proofs that the very genius and motive power of the organization is anarchic and murderous, and hence that its activities should be ever under the eyes of the law, that the law's weapons should ever be at hand to defend the public against it. WESTERLY, R. I.-In July, 1919, the Amalgamated's members went on strike and continued so for the next two months. During this strike a part of the street car track was blown up at night, and in the same city a non-union conductor was pulled off of his car and badly beaten.

SPARTANBURG, S. C.-The Amalgamated organized the street car employees in 19II and induced them to go on strike. Considerable riot ing resulted from the strike, during which several loyal men who at tempted to run cars were severely beaten. The situation becoming very acute, Governor Blease sent three companies of militia to take charge of it. The strikers thereupon surrendered and in about a year their or ganization disintegrated. In June, 1919, the Amalgamated again organized about seventy per cent. of the street car employees and on July 3, brought on a strike. The company attempted to run some cars with the non-union men who had remained loyal, and as a result there was rioting and much disorder~ l 126] Government Attitude Toward Labor Several of the loyal men were assaulted, one being beaten over the head with the controller handle so mercilessly that he was laid upfor weeks. Governor Cooper then ordered a militia company to take control of the situation. Its captain quickly established the supremacy of the law, and the strikers came back to work as individuals.

CHATTANOOGA, TENN.-After the street car company's refusal to reinstate men who had been discharged for rank insubordination and the objection of certain conductors to the introduction of a new fare register, the Amalgamated's members went on strike at 6 A. M. Septem ber 7, 1917. Cars were deserted wherever they happened to be at that hour and several of them were purposely wrecked. Much disorder fol lowed, continuing for a number of days. On September 17th there was an outbreak of great violence. Several strikebreakers were assaulted, beaten with door levers, etc., horribly lacerated with broken glass and seriously injured. CARS WERE FIRED INTO and stoned, and passengers hurt. ONE MAN WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED. After some days the men yielded to the company's demands and re turned to work after signing individual contracts. Shortly after the strike was called, two companies of United States infantry were sent into the city from Fort Oglethorpe to maintain order.

In ten days after they had returned, because the company refused to re-employ some of the radical members of the union the men struck again. This second strike was not called off until January, 1918. Dur ing this period there was the usual stoning, shooting into and dynamiting of cars, and several cars were seriously damaged in collisions. On Sunday, September 23, 1917, while a labor demonstration parade was passing down a leading street, two street cars were attacked by a mob. About twenty persons were shot, and one man who attempted to assault the motorman was shot by some one on the car and killed. NASHVILLE, TENN.-The Amalgamated effected its organization of street car employees, August 2, 1919, bringing on a strike which was characterized by notable violence which resulted in much damage to the company's cars, and hurting several persons. KNOXVILLE, TENN.-The Amalgamated organized the street car employees, and a member of its executive board took charge of and directed a strike during October, 1919. Rioting by the strikers soon ensued. A number of newly employed men were pulled from the cars and badly beaten. Dynamite was placed on the tracks in various sections of the city, and the explosions resulting therefrom injured many people.

Cases of rocking the cars, thereby breaking windows, etc., were numer ous. In one instance, where a main line passes under the Southern Rail way, two crossties were suspended at night from the railway trestle, where by the windows in the front end of a car were shattered, the vestibule of the car wrecked, and the motorman cut with the broken glass. There were many other cases of malicious damage. ( 1 2 7 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation Soon after the violence began the Governor sent four companies of the State's militia to preserve order, and, owing to threats that the coal miners, then about to strike, would come down and overpower the State's soldiery, 600 United States regulars, under General Lewis, were sent up to reinforce them. The troops remained on guard till quiet was restored. SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.- The Amalgamated's members brought on a strike in 1903. The strike was the source of destructive disorder, two street cars being blown up with dynamite, and one loyal motorman being shot and wounded, besides minor encounters, and acts of injury to loyal em ployees and annoyance to the public.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.-Amalgamated's members struck, May I, 1907. Disorder resulted, in which several persons were wounded or bruised. There was also property damage. RICHMOND, VA.-In April, 1903, the Amalgamated's members went on a strike which continued throughout the summer. There was very much disorder and rioting during that period, and it was necessary to call out State troops to maintain order in the city. The troops were stationed at the power houses and controlled the com pany's property, and were also assigned to ride on the cars. After the militia got the situation in hand service was restored and the strike gradually broken. Secret service reports showed that at the time the strike was in progress, some of the radical element of the employees were instigators of and leaders in the rioting. However, a large number of the employees did not take any part in these outbreaks, and conducted themselves in an orderly manner.

SEATTLE, WASH.-In July, 1917, the Amalgamated's members went on strike. The company attempted to operate the cars, but the strikers or their allies stoned them, breaking windows, endangering the safety of many passengers, and painfully wounding three by missiles and flying fragments of glass, and thus forcing a suspension of the service. Military protection was asked for but refused. In February, 1919, the Amalgamated caused a second strike, but this time a strong military guard was provided, and, owing to this protection, no violence was attempted. WHEELING, W. VA.-Two strikes by the Amalgamated's members, one seven or eight years ago, the other on May I, 1919. There was prop erty destruction but no recorded injury of persons in the first strike. There W;lS no damage done during the second. SUPERIOR, WIS.-In September, 1912, the Amalgamated's mem bers struck and interrupted the street car service for a number of days, during which there were times of disorder which resulted in damage to [ 128 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor property and the more or less seriously wounding of persons. No per son, however, was known to have been killed.

I have already called your attention to the fact that so uncontrollable by the local authorities were the brutal and bloody assaults of the Amalgamated Association upon law-abiding people in seventeen cities in thirteen States of our Union that it w~s necessary to call State troops or United States troops to these scenes of rampant crime to uphold the laws and protect person and property between the years 1902 and 1920 inclusive. These cities and States are identified in the foregoing list. , THE AMALGAMATEDEXPELS ALL MEMBERS WHO JOIN THE NATIONAL OR STATE MILITARY In view of the developments in the last few paragraphs above, there can be no better place. than this to copy Section 63 of the constitution and general laws of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, viz.: "Where a member of this Association enters military service, such as Army, Navy, State Militia or State Police or Con stabulary, such member shall take a withdrawal card from this organization, it being the duty of the local division to see that such member is granted a withdrawal card and terminates his membership in this organization, and if any member of this Association should meet with death or injury while temporarily serving in the. militia or other' Military or Police Organization, this Association shall not be liable for any funeral or disability benefit to said member or his beneficiaries."

Now note: Since I began writing this letter, I have been furnished with a copy of the February, 1920, number of The Motorman and Conductor, the official organ of the Amalgamated Association. On page 9 is a picture showing the "Federal Electric Railway Commission, created by President Wilson to investigate and recom mend a plan for rehabilitation of the street railway in ,;dustry." CONSPICUOUSLY SHOWN AS A MEM BER OF THIS COMMISSION IS W. D.MAHON. [ 129 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation Think of this! Here is a man who for years has headed an organization which has been the cause of the blowing up, burning, or otherwise wrecking of cars, houses, etc., belonging to street railway companies, and has by the process of violence enforced wage increases so extreme as have bankrupted some of these companies, and Presi dent Wilson has appointed HIM, THIS WRECKER, THIS TRAITOR (see strike in Buffalo, N. Y.) on a board to "recommend a plan for rehabilitation of the street rail way industry"-the industry Mahon had been a potent factor in wrecking.

Do you wonder, then, that I, as a member of the Democratic party, cherishing prideful devotion for that great party, a devotion inherited and of my free choice, repudiate all party allegiance to this patron and partner of anarchy, President Woodrow Wilson? Do you wonder that I hold that the lives and the protection from brutal assaults of the persons of the women and children of Georgia, California, and all our other States is worth more to me than can ever be THIS GOMPERS-WILSON MAHON TRIAD and the bloodstained fruits of their joint activities? And do you wonder that the hand of two thirds of the electorate, in the democratic primary in Georgia, on April 20th, wrote upon the wall as their message to President Wilson: "Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting"? (Signed) JOSEPH M. BROWN. Marietta, Ga., June 25, 1920. The outbreak of the World War in 1914 caused a tremendous upset in commerce and manufacturing in the United States. At first the effect was one of paralysis; in the latter part of 1914 and the early part of 1915. Then the demand for foodstuffs and munitions of war from the Allied countries suddenly stimulated fierce activity in the United States.

[ 13° ] Government Attitude Toward Labor Producers of war goods accepted huge orders and set large and larger forces of men at work. Wages mounted fast; and the time was opportune for the . great labor leaders to make a "killing" for them selves and their following. The railway brotherhoods started things in 1916, demanding the 8-hour day for railway labor throughout the United States together with an advance in wages; and threatened a general strike unless their demands were granted. We were not yet in the war; but the President was seeking re election, and badly wanted the labor vote; so did a majority of the Congressmen and not a few of the Senators. The President took the initiative, and went to Congress for the necessary legislation, an nouncing the "sanction of Society" for the 8-hour day. A hot debate arose; the attention of the coun try was fixed on Congress, member after member rose and said he was ashamed, but could not help himself, in voting for this compulsory legislation.

Others simply did as they were ordered by Gompers. The labor leaders sat in the gallery and, it is said, held their watches on the debate. The Adamson Law was passed, the President and Congress were reelected, and in 1917 the nation went into the World War. At the time, that law was bitterly denounced throughout the country as deliberate robbery of the people for the benefit of the Democratic Administra tion and party, though not a few Republicans shared in the disgrace. Undou btedly that legislation was a heavy factor in creating the profound distrust and repudiation of the Democratic party and its candi date, which followed in 1920. But in the meantime "Labor" was in the saddle and, as the newspapers put it, Gomperskept the back-door key to the White House. He himself testified the other day, as else[ 131 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation where quoted in this book, that the Federation of Labor had much to do with President Wilson's election and that he had paid for its aid in legislation.

But the stress of the World War and the necessity of the daily co-op eration of the labor of the country during these years of intensive production ought perhaps to be c.onsidered in extenuation of the Presi dent's course. It certainly was, in his judgment, good politics; and it may have been good business though I doubt the latter. I say that I doubt, be cause levels of wages would probably have risen just the same under the law of supply and demand, without any interjection of politics whatever; while the aftermath, the entanglement of politics with la bor, which still complicates all readjustment of our trade, would largely have been prevented. It was not prevented, however, and the handling of railway wages and rules of work by the U. S. Rail way Administration under Mr. McAdoo laid the last straw, or rather I-beam, whose crushing weight broke the back of the patient railway camel; and incidentally cost the Government $1,800,000,000 loss in 26 months of railway operation.

Now, no government can lose a billion or two in railways, and two or three billions in building and operating ships, and waste many hundreds of mil lions additional in operating telephones, telegraphs, cables, nitrates, etc., out of the public purse, all within two years, without forcing the taxpayers to sit up and take notice. The popular outcry became so great that the Government was compelled forthwith to drop railway, telephone, and telegraph operation; and has been trying ever since to get out of the ship ping business. The railways came back to their owners in 1920; but with the properties the latter had to take over the impossible railway-labor situa[ 132 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor tion created by the Government, with more strikes sure to come. Earlier came the Willys-overland strike at Toledo in 1919. This was a local affair, though typical. The Overland Company called on the Mayor for protection; but at first he did nothing. Subse quently, under pressure from business men, the Mayor enrolled one or two hundred returned soldiers in the police force; but they were forbidden to use arms, until after some time they were permitted to shoot to quell a very dangerous riot, and did so, killing. and wounding several. The U. S. Court then interfered by injunction proceedings, and hired about 200 special constables or guards, who efficiently kept order, and the strike naturally collapsed.

In the same year came the Boston Police Strike, involving the essential question of the division of authority over police officers between their city government and their trade union. Governor Cool idge and Commissioner Curtis acted promptly and vigorously; the striking police were dismissed, the Massachusetts militia were called to guard the city of Boston and did so admirably. The trouble ended with one day's rioting; and since then Boston has enjoyed a most efficient police force. Governor Coolidge went to Washington as Vice-President, upon the wave of approval of his courage that swept over the United States. Meantime, the great Steel Strike of 1919 was in progress. As a nation-wide affair, the Wilson Ad ministration at Washington took a hand in it; as a sort of post-war measure. It was engineered· by a man named Foster, who had a record as a Red Socialist and was supposed to have ambitions to dis place Mr. Gompers in control of the A. F. of L. At any rate, Gompers, perhaps not to break with Presi[ 133 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation dent Wilson, who deprecated the strike-perhaps to let Foster bear the onus of failure if the strike should not succeed, did not heartily further it at first.

Later on he gave full aid and countenance of the A. F. of L., which included everyone of the 24 international unions engaged in the Steel Strike. Presently, probably with Gompers's assent, the Presi dent appointed a tripartite Commission, representing employers, the strikers, and the public, to act as arbitrators or conciliators, and settle the difficulty somehow. Probably the President's idea was that, as with such commissions usually, a settlement would be arrived at by splitting the difference in some way. But the main question at issue was unsplittable, being "recognition of the union"; which Judge Gary, the head of the Steel Corporation, simply declined to give. The majority of the Steel Corporation's em ployees were not unionized, and Judge Gary declined to deal with representatives of a minority; in fact, he declined to deal with the unions at all. The Commission split on this proposition, as the majority would not, and indeed had no power, to force the Steel Corporation to deal with anybody or anything; though Judge Gary, as a matter of common courtesy, accepted the President's invitation to attend the conference. Thus the first Commission dissolved without accomplishing anything; and the President then· called a second, which met with the same fate.

Presently sporadic violence developed in the Pittsburgh district, and threatened at Gary, Indiana. The President, who had intimated in calling the con ferences, that breach of law would not be permitted, ordered General Leonard Wood to use United States forces to keep the peace at both points; which he did with a quiet and good-natured efficiency that greatly enlarged popular support for the presidential nomina[ 134 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor tion which came freely to him the following year. After this assertion of the government intention to keep the peace, the Steel Strike rocked along for about four months, gradually dying a natural death. Foster's great drive to "organize" the steel industry came to nothing, and the big corporation remained free and untrammeled in its labor relations, as it had been for many years. The net outcome of government interference in the Steel Strike was a distinct fiasco. The attempt was inherently vicious, because it constituted a formal recognition of the legality of national labor combination in restraint of trade; and was a direct effort to compel the Steel Corporation against its will to similar recognition. In the opinion of the writer, Judge Gary did a national service of no small magni tude when he declined, in the face of a very divided public opinion, to surrender the Corporation's con stitutionalliberty of action in the premises.

Then came the 1919 troubles in the Seattle neigh borhood. I do not stop to look up and set down here the details of that far-off affair. The interesting outcome of it, which made Mayor Ole Hanson of Seattle over night a man of national reputation and popularity, was his answer to some command of the riotous strikers (perhaps to handbills, warning citi zens off the streets after 8 P. M., put out by the Unions), "The seat of city government is at the City Hall"; which he followed up by enforcement of law and order. TheU nited States was called on for troops, which came at once. The A. F. L., as a mortal terror, promptly faded out of the dreams of the Pacific Coast; and the I. W. W. is fading. In Seattle, in San Francisco, and in Los Angeles, the leaders of industry, finance, and the professions, have created a public opinion that has forced the authori,;. [ 135 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation ties during 1920 and 1921 to put an end to union violence. In consequence, those cities are breaking out far sooner than our Eastern towns can hope to do from the shadow of business depression.

During all these years of growing violence and coercion, of constant demand by Gompers and his following for more and more pay against less and less work; accompanied by lowering of all law and order standards, and raising of all commodity prices, the people began to see and appraise more intelligently the true inwardness of "the aspirations of Labor" and their relation to practical politics. The passage of the Adamson Law, and the whole course of the Wilson Administration toward Organized Labor during the World War, gave immense impetus to this reversal of popular judgment; which this year for the first time in my personal observation permits the business interests of the whole country to stand openly up for restoration of free labor markets and the maintenance by public authority of the freedom and peace of the public streets and railways. Quite distinct from the political and constitutional blunder of government meddling in wage-adjust ments is the economic blunder which goes along with it as a sort of. running mate. Hardly any two rail ways, hardly any two coal mines, certainly no two regional groups of railways or coal mines, operate under the same natural conditions, serve the same territories, are conditioned by the same costs of ma terial and of living, or compete sharply in all the same markets. There is no earthly reason why they should be tied together in any general settlement of standardized wages and rules of labor; but, on the contrary, there is every reason against it. As to these peculiarly national elements in modern life, even more than as to purely local elements like iso[ 136 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor lated factories, it is worse than stupid, it is positively criminal, to tangle them all together in one vast snarl of labor trouble. In tlie long run the labor relations of each railway, each coal mine, each unit in any industry, must finally be settled according to its own local conditions; local abundance or shortage of labor, local living costs, local competition of other employers; for the very simple reason that the employees themselves are free agents and will gravitate inevitably from one job to another, follow ing the strongest pull upon their pockets and their preferences.

Furthermore, the mere task of arriving at a settle ment at all permanent in character, acceptable to all parties, in the presence of so vast· and various an array of contradictions, as invariably blocks all na tional negotiations, is entirely beyond human power. In support of this statement, it is only. necessary to recall the mass of conflicting testimony which is just now bewildering the Railway Labor Board in its efforts to do justice. The lahor leaders constantly demand, to befog the issue, a "fair living and saving wage"; involving, of course, the underlying question of the cost· of living.. But what is the cost of living? One of the experts, the much-advertised Jett Lauck, brought forward as an "economist" by the Railway Brotherhoods, fixes the minimum cost of living of the average family at $2,534 per annum; whereas the gross earnings of the whole population of the United States as shown by the Statistical Abstract for 1920, . printed by the Department of Commerce, averaged but $1,44° per wage-worker! In other words, Mr.

Lauck says that the least sum on which each family could live is some $1,100 greater than the actual sum on which some 50 million workers and their families actually did live very comfortably in 1920; [ 137 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation and in addition banked large savings-deposits out of! As a matter of common sense, the cost of living should be left out of the discussion entirely_ That cost, for about 9 families out of 10, whether of labor ers or capitalists, comes to just the amount they have to spend; and with not a few, a little more than they have to spend. If their income rises, their expenses rise to eat it up; and but about one tenth of the population save anything at all. That is not so much the fault of the income as of those who spend it. Two men work at the same hench, and their families live side by side in the same street; they draw the same wages, yet one is always ahead of the game, and the other behind. The Almighty made the men and their families that way, thrifty or wasteful, and that is all there is to it. The employer can do noth ing on the face of the earth to alter these innate characteristics; and the men themselves are the last people in the world that wish him to butt in. When it comes to the Government's butting in and trying to regulate what all workers shall receive, what they shall spend, orwhat their savings shall be, Govern ment only undertakes a task which is certain to result in utter failure. History is now a good many thousands of years old, and it records these general conclusions almost on every page.

Let me make clear the essential and progressive vice of the dealings of successive national administra tions with what Gompers calls "the labor move ment." The consistently followed plan of the latter is to organize each craft nationally, the Carpenters' Union covering the whole country and all establish ments which employ carpenters, whether one or one thousand; the Blacksmiths, the Coal Miners, Rail way Men, etc., in like manner. -There can be but [ 138 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor one purpose, namely: that each craft shall be in posi... tion to hold up all the rest of the nation for its own peculiar benefit; in other words, to take a special class advantage of all other classes. The Gompers theory is, of course, that the profit so gained comes out of a singleimaginary class,namely, the rich. One can examine history in vain, however, to find that such has ever been the actual result. The rich are rich not by accident, but because they have brains enough to trade with the entire community, and to pass along to the community the entire cost of what they have to sell, together with their profit thereon.

In consequence, any class-advantage gained by the carpenters, for instance, is passed along and spread out. over the whole of us; and the whole of us are at last beginning to find it out. The American Federation of Labor is simply the integration to a higher power of the craft-organiza tion plan. Whereas the latter constitutes a sort of oligarchy of a mere craft, the former constitutes a larger oligarchy of a group of all crafts; but it is and always must be necessary to its success to limit it to a very small fraction of the population. In two words, the entire game is the national combination of a very limited number of craftsmen, to perpetrate a national hold-up. Of course it became perfectly evident at the out set, as I have said above, whenever limited local craft organizations attempted limited and local coercion which Jike all coercion necessarily.involved greater' or less violence-that local authority must be per suaded or prevented from interfering to keep the peace and block coercion. This was done, of course, by means of the labor vote. Accordingly, when the American Federation of Labor was organized to cover the entire country, its logical move was upon [ 139] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation Washington, where it established a great headquar ters and maintained the most conspicuous and brazen lobby that ever has wrought upon American legisla tion. Mr. Gompers openly has shaken the labor vote at the head of every Presidential, Senatorial, and Congressional candidate for years; and the worst of it is that every last one of them has bowed before its menace. Congress and the Executive (perhaps in some sincere confusion of thought as to the Constitutional rights of laborers to organize, to strike, and to demand collective bargaining-though the Supreme Court of the United States had clearly informed them on the subject time and time again; or perhaps from sheer terror of the labor vote, with its personal and party consequences) have accepted these huge national combinations in restraint of trade as great, legitimate, accomplished facts. They have, so far, done nothing but lie meekly down, whenever Gompers cracked the whip, as far as asserting the criminality of his attempt at super-government is concerned. From Roosevelt down to Harding no president-and so far, with the exception of Gover nor Allen, and Governor Miller, no governor-has dared or chosen to stand squarely up and denounce this huge class organization of labor for class ad vantage, as distinctly criminal and contrary to law.

The courts have done so repeatedly, however; where fore Gompers, recognizing the growth of a formidable mass of legal precedent, destructive of his centralized autocracy, went. to Congress a few years ago and ingeniously secured during the passage of the Clay ton Act an amendment to it excepting laborers (and farmers, too) from the penalties against combina tions in restraint of trade, provided by the Common Law and the Sherman Law. In settling the An thracite Strike, Roosevelt was the first to .deal with [ 140 1 Government Attitude Toward Labor the Miners' Union, not as a criminal combination in restraint of trade, but as a legitimate collectivity; very much as he would have dealt with a political party, or any other lawful association of citizens. His course has been followed repeatedly by state and city executives; notably during street railway strikes, which were numerous and particularly ag gravated by violence during the next few years.

The union game was always the same; first, to hold up an essential public service with riot and terrorism on the public streets; next, when the authorities were forced more or less half-heartedly to interfere, to accept from the Mayor or Governor some sort of mediation, or arbitration, of the dispute, as merely a commercial matter; with much to be said on both sides, and careful consideration to be paid to the constitutional rights only of the rioters. The neces sary and calculated .result was always a splitting of the difference by the mediators; so that it was simply necessary for the labor combine originally to demand enough m.ore than they meant to take, in order to secure the latter by way of compromise. This always left the way open to do the same thing again, by and by, after the first compromise had been digested, so to speak, by all concerned. Precisely such has been the mistaken course of all succeeding national administrations in dealing with the "labor movement." Roosevelt began it with the Anthracite Strike. Taft, fortunately for him, was not brought up against a national labor emergency_ Wilson, though he Inay have been merely a sincere idealist, certainly gave a perfect imitation of a practical politician, out to buy the labor vote with the taxpayers' money. He swal lowed Mr. Gompers and the Federation of Labor whole; and conspicuously, dealt with them through[ 141 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation out the war, despite 6,000 strikes meantime, as patriotic Americans, entirely within the law and constitutional right! As I have narrated above, his administration deliberately loaded the country with wages, rules, and conditions of labor which are absolutely unjust and uneconomical; which this great nation is to-day tied down by and struggles against-much like Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians. It is certainly time for common sense to cut away the whole tangle and let our industry once more rise and move freely about on its own good, solid legs.

While referring to the Anthracite Strike, it is worth while to note Roosevelt's own revelation, years after, of what he intended to do, if arbitration failed, namely: seize· the anthracite mines and operate them, by United States military force, under his own direct and personal dictatorship, with, or without, the consent of owners or miners. Roosevelt believed in doing things, and did not worry much about Constitutions and rights. He was confident that Congress and the country would sustain him in this "Man-on-Horse back" procedure, merely for the sake of a little an thracite coal; but in my guess he would have had a rude awakening-by deafening outcry, demanding that he simply keep the peace,and let owners run mines. But I am no politician, as he certainly was. Maybe he knew the people better than I. They are apt to love men who do things, until consequences evilly come home to roost. Then they curse them.

Moreover, and to a politician perhaps the most conclusive argument, let me note that governmental meddling is always risky, because Organized Labor itself fights with all its might against anything in the way of compulsory arbitration, or centralized govern mental control of wage questions; especially when [ 142 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor there is any attempt to "put teeth in it." As I write, July 24, 1922, the news dispatches from Cleve land say that the Big Four Railway Brotherhoods are determined to go ahead with their campaign to legislate the Railway Labor Board out of existence. This is entirely consistent and true to form; for if the reader cares to look back over the records of the various arbitrations, some successful and some not, which have been undertaken by Government, he will find that Mr. Gompers and his associates always oppose everything in the way of arbitral rulings which in the least limits their personal arbitrary power. As he said on March 20, 1920 (with ref erence to the recommendations of President Wilson's Second Industrial Conference, devising machinery for national settlement of industrial disputes): "Tried and tested machinery for conciliation and arbitration of questions between employers and employees exists wherever employees are organized. This machinery functions perfectly wherever employers forsake the spirit of dominance and the attitude of autocracy. No machinery devised or supervised by the government could achieve results superior." [Emphasis mine.] In Gompers's opinion, the A. F. L. is the be-all and end-all,of labor control; nothing else is needed-or would be needed, if all the rest of us agreed with him.

Only we don't! Let us try to forget the President and Congress and Politics; to forget Gompers, the A. F. L., the Railway Brotherhoods, and the "aspirations of Labor." Let us not be confused by the sophism that "labor is not a miere commodity of commerce," or by super-elastic evidence of the cost of living. Fortunately, indeed, •there is one eternal, omni present, ever-vigilant, and absolutely just arbitrator, which alone can, and which always does, fix wages of [ 143 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation labor with entire justice. I refer to the old, fami liar Law of Supply and Demand. A few years ago, when wages were rising fast, Mr. Gompers considered that law an exploded capitalistic theory easily set aside by the power of Organized Labor. If he was ever so stupid as to believe his own words, which I doubt, then he has probably changed his mind by this time. The Law of Supply and Demand has been very much in evidence these last two years of depression; and what it says goes. Its verdict, as between Labor and Capital, is expressed in what are called "going wages."

The one thing for the working man, or his Con gressman (or his clergyman, if he has one) to worry about, is whether he is getting as much out of his job as some other job around the corner, or within one carfare, is offering for work that he can do. In other words, is he getting "going wages"? All other worries, such as cost of living, a share in the employer's profits, the ultimate disposition of what Karl Marx calls "surplus values created by Labor," are purely academic, and a waste of time. "Going wages" means the cash needed to buy a substan tially uniform and equal share, man for man, of the total production and importation of the necessaries , of life in the commercial region-usually the coun try or state-where ·he lives and works. This does not mean the luxuries of life, of which there are never enough to go around; and which belong to, and under the inexorable justice of the law of trade expressed by the phrase "value for value" are rightly reserved for, the few who do more than or dinary service to mankind (viz., who employ more, produce more, sell more) for themselves or t~eir families. It does mean such staples of food, cloth ing, fuel, shelter, etc., as the work done by the [ 144] Government Attitude Toward Labor average man, his contribution to the common store, commands in exchange. It is not far in practice from an equal share of all staple commodities, rising or falling with the total output thereof-which last never far exceeds the customary consumption of the total population.

For instance, the wheat crop of 1920 was all gone by autumn of 1921; there was just about enough wheat sown in that year, bar disastrous crop failures, to tide the world over to the coming into market of the 1921 crop. So it is with cotton and woolen cloths; just enough production is undertaken to stock up the drygoods counters from season to season. If the farmer's' 1920 wheat does not sell, but stays unsold in his barn, he sows very little or no acreage .to wheat for 1921. Just so, the millman will not pile up more cloth if his last season's output is still in the warehouse unsold. Substantially the entire produc tion of all the perishable necessaries of life, food, fuel, clothing, and all sorts of public service, recreations and amusement, is sold. and consumed every year; but who uses it? Rockefeller does not eat an extra barrel of flour, or wear two suits of clothes at once, because he is as rich as Crresus. He does not use up or hide away the bulk of the wheat crop, or the cotton goods, or the meat supply, or even the oil his own company pumps. Neither does any other rich man; or' all of them put together. We, the people, the great mass of average men and women, use up everything our .country produces each year, except houses, railroads, factories, etc., and in pretty nearly equal share. What we call "going wages" is the daily or weekly sum necessary to pay for that share; and it is all that the average among us are entitled to.

Whether it runs high or low in dollars and cents, it actually buys all there is to sell, every year, just [ 145 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation the same. Everything is used, nothing is left; there is no more to go around. In short, it is physi cally impossible for average men to get more than "going wages." They cannot get more out of the world than they themselves put in. It is probable that what Marx calls Labor actually produces, and uses, with the help of what he calls Capital, here in America, from three to ten times as much as it produces without capital, in non-capitalis tic countries, like darkest Africa, or even China; and is that much better off here. Marx says, "Well; what of it?" Labor produces it all just the same, doesn't it; and is entitled to the whole of it, isn't it; whether three or ten times what it could produce unaided?" Unfortunately for Marx and for Labor, Capital does not see it that way; and will not deal with Labor on any such "You take it all" basis.

Furthermore, there is another apparently unescap able law of trade, the "law of diminishing re turns," which gives to Capital, as its operations grow great, smaller and smaller share in profit. Capital actually gets, in this our day and country, only per haps the last 5 per cent. of gross turnover; and richly earns it. Labor gets the first 95 per cent. and (thanks to Gompers & Co.) does its very least to deserve that huge share! Now, then, in the name of common sense, let us forget Marxian sophistry, and give to the working man some simple, familiar criterion by which each can judge for himself what job to take and when to quit; for he himself is the only one who knows what offers, and what suits his own particular case best. Don't fuddle him with expert investigations of cost of living and his employer's profits; whose results are certain to be months behind the daily fluctua tions of both-stale long before ready. Don't tie [ 146 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor him with thousands of. his own craft, ruled by some labor czar, into or out of a job, working or idle; as suits the czar, or even the majority. Just let him shop around freely, and balance one definite job at so much per week against the next, and take the best; and by and by, if he hears of something better somewhere else, and has saved his railroad fare, let him move on and·up higher, with nothing to stop him. To hunt for the best "going wages" is common sense for him, and ten thousand times more is it common sense to let him do so; for the Presi dent, for Congress, for the governors and legisla tures, for the mayors and aldermen; for the politi cians. If, we, the people, can but get this simple idea clearly fixed in our honest heads, we will mighty soon fix it in our law and government, too, despite our politicians.

All that is really necessary to carry out this sim ple idea, is for Government to prevent violence. "Organized Labor Is Organized Violence," as Allen Pinkerton said; a fact that cannot be too thoroughly understood by ourselves. Our governments, na tional, state, and local, are already perfectly well aware of it; because there is never a case of arson, murder, or sabotage that does not come directly to the notice of the police; and few of them that are not noticed in the papers. To verify the frequency of both organized violence itself and official knowledge of it, I quote above letters of Ex-Governor Brown of Georgia sent to every member of Congress in 1921. The country owes Governor Brown a debt of grati tude for hanging this frightful record so conspicu ously on the outer wall that he who runs may read; but what does the county owe to that Congress which has so complacently ignored it all? What to the city governments that have permitted the in[ 147 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation . famy of the 44 street railway strikes reported by Governor Brown; the last of which, I think, held the city of Albany in terror for weeks, directly at the door of the State House? What to the government of Illinois for the Herrin horror?

Let me repeat again and again that the founda tion of existing trades unionism is violence; and its huge superstructure is national combination in re straint of trade. Why, for instance, should the street-railway employees of all the cities in the United States be tied together in one great centralized Union? What competition is there between the street rail ways of one city and of another? What could be more purely local than street-railway employment? Why should that of one city be made dependent upon or related to that of another? Why should the labor troubles of one spread like cholera or yellow fever to another? What sense is there in the con.catenation? The answer from the union stand point is very simple; first, it increases the political and financial power of the union leaders; and, second, it combines the funds of unions in many cities to carry through a strike in one. It is especially true of street railway service that it is hard for a strike to succeed if the management is left free to fill the places of the strikers with men competent to do the work, from the same or other cities. That is, however, no reason whatever why the mayor and city council, or the governor and the legislature, should not enforce the Common Law forbidding combination planned to the great injury of the community. There is every reason why the legislatures should go yet farther and compel the incorporation of unions; making their treasuries financially responsible, their officers criminally re[ 148 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor sponsible, for damage and personal injury to em...

ployers and non-union men, occurring during strikes. For they can readily' prevent both. There is every reason why legislative bodies should entirely forbid picketing; which has nothing to do with the right of union men to quit work, but has all to do with the wrong of preventing non-union men from taking the work so quitted. Perhaps I have gone too far in saying above: "There is no reason whatever." For the politician there is always the terrifying reason of the labor vote. Naturally, the vote of all the rest of us, which is ten times as large, if cast for law and order, however, should scare the politician ten times as badly as the labor vote now does. One good whole some scare administered to him is all· we need to write "Finis" to the frightful record compiled by Governor Brown. Coal and Railway Strikes of .1922. As I write (September 27, 1922), the Coal and Railway Strikes are gradually fading out by reason of regional settle ments, which have commenced in both industries and are rapidly covering the whole field. President Harding's Administration has made what is gener ally admitted to be an inconclusive mess of the whole situation. In both strikes, his government sub stantially recognized as lawful the national conspir acy of railway and coal workers to hold up the Amer ican people, for higher wages and better conditions for themselves, than were obtainable under free oper ation of the law of supply and demand, and were actually being accepted by workers, union or non union, in other industries.

In the RAILWAY STRIKE, the Administration sought to interpose the Railway Labor Board as umpire representing the people, perhaps, to split the [ 149] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation differences between the railways and their employees. But both sides refused to accept decisions of the Railway Labor Board and to split differences; while the Board itself was not empowered by law to enforce its own conclusions. The strike rocked along for months; and meantime the public very rapidly became educated to the fact that the Govern ment was practically standing in with the railway shop workers in their attempt to dictate terms to the whole people. It became very evident that public opinion was turning against national strikes and strike machinery; and by and by the Pennsylvania Railroad and others were able to educate their own employees, whether union or non-union, to the point of perceiving that it was to their own interest to cut loose from the national programme of the strike leaders and settle regionally and directly with the managements of their roads. But for the attempted intervention of the President and the Railway Labor Board this process of regional settlement would probably have gone much faster and farther than it has done. However, it made such progress and so seriously threatened the leadership and the whole policy of the American Federation of Labor that the Big Four Railway Brotherhoods offered their services as mediators. About the same time the .head of a large association of investors in American Railway securities, Mr. Warfield of Baltimore, did the same thing. This intermediation gave Mr.

Jewell and the railway labor leaders an opportun ity to back down without the appearance of out and-out defeat; which they took, by consenting to the regional settlements through direct negotiation of the railways with unions of their own employees. By now a great many such settlements have taken place, in which, apparently, the crucial question of [ 150 J Government Attitude Toward Labor "seniority," upon which the unions made their final fight, seems to have been settled against them. On the other hand, reduction in wages made or de manded by the railways seem to have been rescinded or postponed ; while the Railway Labor Board's award, or scale, against which the Shopmen struck, finally prevails. The shortage of common labor growing out of the return· to Europe of many thousands of foreign la borers during the war, and the restriction upon foreign immigration now in effect, have checked the deflation of 1921 and caused a rise in wages not only in railway, but in other industries within the last two months. Levels from 80 to 85 per cent. higher than wages of 1915 seem to have been reached. The United States Steel Corporation began advances in wages and was rapidly followed by the great textile mills and other employers. The railways were obliged to follow suit or lose their men altogether; and they sometimes also found they could easily take back all the strikers, except those guilty of violence, without displacing any of the new employees whose seniority rights they were bound to protect. Con sequently the Railway Strike is practically over.

This result (though but one more demonstration of the irresistible working of the law of supply and demand, whether against or in favor of the employer) is likely to be misinterpreted by the public and by politicians; and will, to that extent, delay the forma tion of sound public opinion as to the unmitigated evil of trades-union coercion. It becomes more important, therefore, that writers and students of labor economics should continue to enlarge upon that theme, until it becomes familiar common knowledge. From the pOInt of view of the masters of the [ 15 1 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation American Federation of Labor, if they dared openly to tell the truth, the great Railway Strike of 1922 has been a disaster I First of all, the public has been educated to accept Governor Coolidge's dictum, that "there is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." Next, the Ad ministration has been educated as to the blunder of trying to butt into an impossible situation; the Railway Labor Board has proved of little use.

Finally the railway-union men themselves have been educated to see, for instance, that employees of the Pennsylvania should be free to make their own settlements, and go back to work when they get good and ready, without being forced to wait on those of the New York Central, or any other road. This last-that is the decentralization of labor control, the freeing one railroad from another, of one region from another-strikes at the very foundation of the whole vast political and industrial structure of the American Federation of Labor. It must come down, it ought to come down, and it will come down! Rather late in the day, the Harding Administra tion, in the person of Attorney General Daugherty, sued out before the-District Court at Chicago an injunction, very broadly forbidding conspiracy by the unions and their leaders to prevent the operation of the railways and the transmission of the United States mails. The terms of this injunction were very sweeping, and some of the proceedings brought under it-such as the restraint of editorial comment in the press adverse to the spirit of the injunction have aroused opposition among editors, and even other genuine lovers of liberty and free speech.

Very similar opposition was aroused during the war by proceedings against pacifists and conscientious objectors. It might indeed have been wiser to [ 152 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor trust to the American people not to be carried away by Gompers's strike talk; and to leave it to nullify itself in the judgment of the average man. Never theless, it has had the merit of raising the broad question and bringing the issue squarely before the people, whether or not the country is-to tolerate conspiracy to hold up whole industries; the entire transportation, coal and food supply of the United States. There seems to me but one answer to that question: the sooner it is submitted to a popular vote, and the sooner a showdown is had, the quicker and more decided will be the American an swer, "No!" Mr. Gompers has recently fixed Octo ber first in 1922 as "Impeachment Day," upon which union men all over the country shall demand the impeachment of the Attorney General and of a, Chicago Judge, for malfeasance in office. I will take the risk of setting down here, long before the result can be known, the prediction that the Ameri can people will never order Congress to impeach an Attorney General for going to the U. S. Court to protect themselves against such conspiracy; nor will it condemn a Judge for granting such protection, even if in so doing he may slightly stretch its scope beyond bare necessity. Freedom of speech is not freedom of conspiracy, no matter how artfully the speaker may skirt the danger line of the unlawful!

COAL STRIKES. Very similar to the outcome of the Railway Strike was that of t,he Coal Strikes. There was no Anthracite or Bituminous Labor Board created by Congress, and put forward by the Ad ministration as arbiter of wages and conditions in the coal industry. The Government interfered only to the extent of inviting the coal operators and the union leaders to get together, and settle or split their differences for the benefit of the community. There .~ [ 153 1 Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation was more or less intimation that the Government might find itself obliged to seize the coal mines, and operate them under military protection; but I doubt that President Harding ever seriously meant to do so. Such utterances as he gave out pointed rather toward protection of life and property by the military of the United States, if called upon by the state authorities. There was very evident public opinion against a repetition of the union miners' march against the non-union mines in West Virginia that had resulted in bloodshed in 1921. West Virginia mines were able to keep running and became the key to the strike situation. Their operation throughout the summer postponed the pinch of fuel shortage until September. Meantime, the union miners in other bituminous coal fields were out on strike; and, of course, the strike funds of the United Mine Work ers had been largely depleted, and the miners them selves had largely spent their savings. Perhaps most important factor of all, the "Herrin Horror"

took place in June, and gave a tremendous impulse to the growth of popular hostility to union methods. Not long after came the abandonment of the railway trains in Arizona, which, though it had nothing to do with the coal strike, yet fanned the flame of popular indignation. The Federation of Labor and the United Mine Workers showed clearly, by the public utterances of their leaders, that they felt and feared the wrath of the people. Nevertheless, throughout it all, the Harding Administration made no move toward recognition of national conspiracy to cut off coal supply as the crime it actually is; and as far as Administration influence went, it seemed to be re stricted to urging the coal operators as good citizens not to raise the price of coal, no matter what the demand for it might be; but rather to reorganize the [ 154 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor coal trade, presumably by, putting a lot of surplus mines out of business, or perhaps by running short time, so as to keep thousands of surplus miners em ployed without reducing wages. Of course this was to be accomplished by charging the public more for coal; the curse of which the Administration proposed to take off by establishing maximum prices and dis countenancing somehow that rather elastic offense known as "profiteering."

Here, again, thanks to the shortage of labor above noted and the fact that it will be necessary for all American industries for some time to come to pay higher wages; and at the same time thanks to the development in the bituminous coal trade of a cen tral faction, the bituminous miners of Illinois, that wishes to make its own regional settlement with the regional operators, instead of being tied to the tail of a national strike, like a tin can tied to the tail of a dog; Mr. Lewis, President of the United Mine W'ork ers, has been enabled to save his face, and slip out without total defeat, by consenting to regional settle ments, which are rapidly taking place. Under them, last year's wage scales are continued until April I, 1923. This puts off the evil day; and 'will give the country a coal supply at rather higher cost, though there will be some shortage in the anthracite output for the coming winter. There is, however, nothing permanent about this settlement; and the only gain, so far, is in the education of the people in the Calvin Coolidge gospel of no strikes against the' public welfare; also in the tendency to regional (as against national) settlement of coal wage questions.

In connection with the bituminous-coal strike once more comes up the question of what Organized Labor calls "government by injunction." An in junction had been granted over a year ago in Indiana [ 155 ] Too Much Government-Too Much Taxation by the U. S. District Court, restraining the coal oper ators from making payments to the miners' unions under the so-called "check-off" agreement imposed upon the operators by union contracts. The U. s. District Court at Huntington, W. Va., has just now done the same thing (September 18, 1922). A con siderable portion of the funds derived from these "check-off" payments had been used by the United Mine Workers for the purpose of unionizing the non union fields of West Virginia; and the attorneys for the non-union mines sought to restrain the payment of check-offs on the ground of unlawful conspiracy. Let me explain for those who do not understand, that the "check-off" is perhaps the most ingenious of all union contrivances for perpetuating union domination. It is invariably asked for in United Mine Workers' agreements with operators; and is often asked of large manufacturers, though not so often granted. Under it the employer is obliged to check off every week the union dues of every union member and take them out of his pay-check, handing over the total so deducted from many miners' pay in one lump to the union treasurer. In this way the union dues constitute a first lien upon the wages of all union men, and must be paid whether they work or are idle, no matter what their family neces sities are, or ,vhat else they owe. The aggregate so checked off is enormous, and in the case of the United Mine Workers was stated, on behalf of the operators, to average $3.00 permonth per man. The operators were thus compelled to finance the fight against themselves; to cut a stick to welt their own backs with. Of course insistence upon the "check-off' is a shrewd and most vital business move on the part of those who have the spending of the money, namely, the union leaders. It saves them all of the [15 6 ] Government Attitude Toward Labor trouble of collecting hundreds of small sums every week, and guarantees their personal incomes.

Naturally, when the check-off payments were enjoined, union counsel raised a great to-do about interference by the courts with the obligations of contracts; and denounced the argument relied upon by the court that unlawful purpose is. sufficient to nullify a vicious obligation of any contract. Such use of the injunction to forestall particular unlaw ful acts was bitterly resented by the United Mine Workers. Organized Labor always fiercely re.sents injunctions intended to restrain the commission of crime. Organized Labor's position is simply that this is a free country . It demands freedom to commit crime, and proposes then to stand trial by jury, after the mischief has been done! This position would be more tenable if Organized Labor were in corporated, and were financially responsible at civil law for damages as well as personally responsible at criminal law for injury committed by its members.

But it carefully avoids incorporation and financial responsibility; and trusts to the sympathies of the average jury to escape criminal responsibility. For both reasons the remedy of injunction forbidding irreparable damage is entirely reasonable and right. The United Mine Workers nevertheless announce cooperation with Mr. Gompers at the polls, for the election of congressmen and legislators, who will stand for crippling the power of the courts both in granting injunctions and in declaring laws unconsti tutional. Here again it is up to the American people to put Organized Labor in its rightful place. Fortunately the Harding Administration has left the country in no doubt as to its own attitude on this particular question. However good-natured and lenient the [ 157 ] Too Much Government-· Too Much Taxation President may have shown himself to be as to the "right to organize and the right to strike," he does not flinch for a moment in his assertion of the rights and powers of our courts.

Both of these great strikes of 1922 have then been inconclusive, thanks largely to the labor shortage and the paramount law of supply and demand. It is, therefore, up to the American people to see to it that whether there be a labor shortage or not there shall never again be national labor conspiracy for holding up the people; either permitted by law, or winked at, to say the least, by Government.