Laredo Weekly Times

From Friday's Daily.

A PROTEST STRIKE.

Word comes from Los Angeles that a general strike has been ordered by the Industrial Workers of the World which will tie up for five days the harbor of that city, the strike being in protest against the conviction and sentence of twenty-seven members of the organization tried on charges of criminal syndicalism.

In other words, the shipping interests and the people of Los Angeles are to be penalized because a court in that city has dared to convict and sentence criminals for illegal acts!

It is time something were done to break up this organization which has not only caused much damage throughout the West and Northwest, but has cost the people much money in trials and investigations.

In some of the cases elsewhere the I.W.W. have not attempted to deny the charges against them; they merely declare that they were right in committing the acts of which they were accused and they announce their defiance of the laws made by a "capitalistic government" which it is their announced purpose to overthrow!

They seem to think that membership in or affiliation with the Third International makes them superior to the laws and immune from punishments that are inflicted upon others who do not toast to the same membership or affiliation.

Like their big chief, Haywood, they teach that submission to the laws is a criminal weakness and opposition to all authority is commendable. Their one idea is that obnoxious governments are to be overthrown by force and labor unions that do not agree with them in principle are to be ruined by "boring from within."

The longshoremen and dock wallopers may be strong enough to defy the government of California, but surely they do not propose to defy the government of the United States.

And an unwarranted strike which is merely called to "protest" against the action of a court may lead to interference with interstate or international commerce and thus bring the case within the purview of the federal government.

It is declared that similar action will be taken by the loggers of the Northwest and that the strike may spread to the Atlantic coast. In the latter case, it is not likely that the people will tamely submit, for there are other unions and labor organizations that are not affiliated with the I.W.W. and they may find it necessary to give notice that such a strike is opposed to organized labor's interests.

The unions of the Pacific coast are usually in trouble. When not engaged in strikes against their employers they manage to stir up a fuss with some of the other unions, and in the old days they put in as much time in strikes and walk-outs as they did in working.

Now that many of them are affiliated with the I.W.W., they are in a position to cause even more trouble than in the old days when the rest of organized labor insisted upon their carrying out their wage contracts and refraining from strikes without cause.

Some of the union workers in the West are forced to carry a red card showing membership in the I.W.W. as well as the card of their own union; otherwise they would find it difficult to get over the road, for many of the railway men of the West have found it pays to recognize the red card in the possession of a traveler via the box car route rather than to get into trouble by refusing recognition.

At any rate, the courts out there still function and have not yet been intimidated into turning loose any "Wobbly" who is accused of a crime for fear of the consequences. And the best place for one of the mischief-making organization is where he can perform service for the state under a proper guard.

It will be interesting to note the outcome of the strike, for the people are getting tired of the impudent domination of people who receive their orders from Moscow.