THE ISSUE

"Much of what they (Syndicalists) say amounts to this: that a minority, consisting of skilled workers in vital industries, can by a strike, make the economic life of the whole country impossible, and can in this way force their will upon the nation," SJ writes Bertrand Russell of the Syndicalists. In other words the rule of the majority as a principle of government is denied.

In yesterday's papers, W. G. Lee, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen was quoted as saying:

"We are going on the greatest railroad strike ever called, a strike that nothing in the world can avert now, because it is a fight for life or death of the labor organizations. . . . We are not entering into the struggle with closed eyes."

If the statement is true, if the Brotherhood's eyes are not closed, they must realize that they are committing themselves to the Syndieslist view of government quoted above. This is undoubtedly a fight for life and death for the unions; but it is equally a fight for life and death for the principle of majority rule. For if the strike is successful, if the unions are allowed to use the power to enforce their will upon the community, majority rule will not nor cannot long be upheld.

The possibility of a strike such as this one is terrible to contemplate. But it is a possibility towards which we have been inevitably approaching in the last few years. No compromise can avert it, however long it may postpone it. Sooner or later we must face the test.

The principle of majority rule is not beyond criticism. But to the greater part of the people it seems, at least, the only acceptable form of government. Now we are facing the first serious test of the principle; the suffering which will be involved will not be inconsiderable; but it seems best that we settle the question now.

But as we face it we must continually bear this in mind; no matter how just in themselves the claims of the union may be, those claims are opposed to the interests of the people as long as the Constitution of the United States is unaltered. The President is at the head of a government which constitutionally, and by the consent of the people, as founded on this principle of majority rule. It is his responsibility to see that that principle sholl not be violated; to see that a group within the state shall not force its will upon the people.

Unless the people have suddenly come to the belief that our system of government is undesirable it will support the President. With an awakened public there is no danger tha the avowed doctrine of Syndicalists and the doctrine by which the action of the Brotherhoods is justified shall prevail. But if the issue is not realized, the vital nature of the situation grasped, we may awake tomorrow to find government by the people, for the people and of the people a matter of history.