Life — November 3, 1921 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1g XS NOVEMBER 3, 1921 London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. HE various unions of railroad workmen are dissatisfied with the decision the United States Labor Board reducing wages and have given notice that they will all strike about the time this issue of LiFe expects to appear. There is no use of going here into the details of the railroadmen’s dissatisfaction. The ques- tion whether they should strike does not hinge on that. The Labor Board was the instrumentality devised by the gov- ernment to keep the railroads running. A strike against the Labor Board’s de- cision would be a‘strike against the Government of the United States and also against the people of the United States. There ought not to be any such strike. We doubt very much whether there will be such a strike, because everyone that can, including the Presi- dent and the administration, is work- ing hard to prevent it, and the rail- roadmen, if they go out, will have very limited popular ‘support. Perhaps there needs to be discussion of wages and of the whole railroad problem and perhaps this threat of a general strike that would raise hob all over the country is a good way to in- duce discussion, but such a strike would simply be a form of war, and all forms of war are unpopular with the world at this time. Whether it is the diffi- culties between Ireland and Great Britain, or of Germany about Silesia, or the anxieties of France about se- curity, or whatever row it is and what- ever it is about, general sentiment is strongly in favor of reaching settle- ment by other means than force. The railroad labor unions have made a ges- ture to reach the settlement that they want by a form of force. It will not work. It does not seem possible that “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY 598 Madison Avenue, New York they will succeed in their effort. Ham- stringing the country is no remedy for anything. Conference and negotiation is the better way out and there is the warrant of common sense for believing that that way out will be taken. HE Editor of a newspaper in linnesota, who was pleased with a recent editorial discourse in Lire, wrote to say so, and said: “One rea- son it struck me forcibly is that I find something working in the thought of many men everywhere. It has worked in me until I find myself writing such editorials as the enclosed and which, it seems to me, sets forth about the same thought you had in yours of October 13th. That I, who have given little thought to religion and, until recently, have been the poorest of church-goers, should be writing such matter is con- stantly amazing. Then I find you and others writing similar matter, and I wonder what is working in the thought of mankind. On the one hand, material reliances getting mankind deeper and deeper into trouble; on the other hand, men, unused to religious thinking, pon- dering on the possibility of spiritual power as a way out. I don’t mean you by that; I mean me.” Now, that is really interesting, not that our friend in Minnesota found ideas that he liked in Lire, but that he found the same ideas working in his own mind, and as he says, “working in the thought of many men everywhere.” That is the most hopeful thing about current times,—the thing that brings the best hope for a peaceful settlement of this threatened railroad strike, and of the other great questions and prob- lems at issue in the world. When good enough ideas get to running strong enough in enough minds something Vol. 78. No. 2035 Cc. comes of it. By such means, some- thing important may be induced to come out of the armament conference. When organizations, like the railroad unions, run up against a state of mind widely diffused against the means they choose to get their ends, it paralyzes them. They cannot do anything against such a state of mind if there is enough of it. On the cover of a recent copy of the New Republic is the title of an article, “The Unwisdom of Coercing Japan.” There might be a good article on the unwisdom of coercing anybody, or at least any nation, because permanent re- sults do not come out of compulsion You must coerce a gunman or anyone producing violent public disorder in order to make him listen to reason. It may be necessary to coerce the railroad unions if they make a great disturbance, but that is only the expedient of the moment. Real settlement cannot be reached by compulsion. The railroad- men cannot compel the country to do what they want and the country can- not compel the railroadmen to accept wages or conditions of work that they do not like. There is, however, somie- thing that can compel them and that is the facts of current life. They can- not get out of current business what it ‘annot yield. They cannot make the ‘ailroads pay what they cannot earn. Their real purpose is said to be to force the government to take over the rail- roads. That may come sometime, or it may not, but it will hardly come by compulsion of railroad unions, GOOD many people in this world are getting to take a large view of current affairs, making allowances for comicbooks.com