THE MYSTERY OF THE STRIKE

After two weeks of the outlaw strike the suffering and bewildered public has yet to discover just what it is all about. Some would have us believe that the leaders of organized labor themselves are behind the scenes, secretly directing the strike for some dark purpose. Others assert that the disturbance is no more than the expression of justified discontent on the part of the men, and that the President is to blame, because of his delay in appointing the Railroad Board. Still others, borne out by the testimony of the Attorney-General, see the insidious working of the I. W. W. at the bottom of the trouble.

But mere theories, of any kind, are not very satisfying when hundreds of thousands are thrown out of work and millions are seriously inconvenienced. The public does know that the strike came without warning, that it does not call for any definite program, and that its success means the undoing of much of the progress that has been made in collective bargaining. Whatever the mystery of the strike may be, the public knows that it is not receiving fair treatment; and the outlaw strikers, standing against the tide of public sentiment, have lost more than half the battle.