A LEGAL BACKING

The idea of making strikes illegal has been growing throughout the country during the present period of social unrest. Mr. Cummings in his railroad plan recommends its application to the railroad system, legislation now in progress in Massachusetts favors its enforcement in regard to the running of trolley lines; the injuction against the coal strike leaders is a significant sign of the Federal government's attitude.

That the nation cannot go on for a prolonged period in the present turmoil of strikes is clear. The whole public cannot be made to suffer continually for the interests of any one group; something must be done to remedy these evils. What must be done is the question on which all classes of society are pondering. Giving in to the strikers at every occasion will not solve it. Recent events show only too clearly that the more the strikers get, the more they want. Crushing the strikes once they start appears clearly impossible due to the high organization and strength of the modern labor unions. But an anti-strike law would not fill the bill. Its immediate result would be a general uprising; it takes away from the laboring man his only means of self-protection.

The trouble in the relations between capital and labor has always been the mutual distrust with which they have regarded each other. Employees always suspect that their employers is going to cut down their wages or increase their labors; employers are never sure that their men will not break their contracts; they do not even dare trust the words of the union leaders. The longshoremen's strike in New York is a good example of the failure of the men to abide by the decision of their representatives.

What capital and labor need is a legal backing to their agreements. Unions should be incorporated; breaches of contract on either side should be made punishable by law. Then capital would not be afraid of sudden walk-outs and labor would have no fear of injustice.