Editorial September 4, 1902 Issue

What Shall be the Remedy?

What Shall be the Remedy?

In referring to the great anthracite coal strike now in progress, The Outlook has emphasized a thought which is coming home to the great body of the people as never before, perhaps, in the history of our country. It says :-

"The time is fast coming when the public will not stand off and suffer while the two other parties in interest endeavor to settle their disputes. That public, the third party in all these strikes, is not a mere onlooker; it represents the determining force, the power that rules. It not only has its rights, but it has an authority which neither of the other parties can for a moment resist if it is exercised. The public means to be patient and the public has been patient; but it will not much longer permit these vast disturbances which affect its peace and interfere with its prosperity. ... It will impose a just and equitable method of settlement upon both the other parties, unless they accept such a method for themselves."

It is manifest that the well-being of hundreds of thousands should be held paramount to the not wholly unselfish interests of operators and workmen. The sense of justice is one of the foundation stones of our communal life and its authority must be enforced, but this will not end the conflict. The personal interest of the workman is at war with the personal interest of the operator, and now a third factor is added, the personal interest of the public. In working out the problem humanity will legitimately assert that the more important interest shall rule, but this means simply the coercion of two other interests. It does not end the war, for the sense of divided interest still remains, and so long as it remains its reassertion is assured. Error ceases its activity for ill, not when it is coerced, but when it is destroyed.

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