The Seattle Star Newspaper, February 5, 1919, Page 3

4 THE SEATTLE STAR—WEDNESDAY, FEB, 5, 1919. PAGE 3 (So many requests have come today f or copies of the full-page editorial printed by The Star yesterday, that we are today reprinting it below.), STOP BEFORE TS TOO LA’ This is plain talk to the common-sense union men of Seattle. : _ You are being rushed pell-mell into a general strike. You are being urgeé to use a dangerous weapon---the general strike, which you have never used: -before---which, in fact, has never been used anywhere in the United States. It isn’t too late to avert the tragic results that are sure to come from its us You men know better than any one else that public sentiment in Seattle that is, the sentiment of the ninety per cent of the people who are not ‘directly involved in the wage dispute of the shipworkers---is against a general “strike. You know that the general public doesn’t think the situation demands the use of that drastic, disaster-breeding move. You know, too, that you cannot clab public sentiment into line, and you know, too. that no strike has ever been won without the moral support of the public. | The people know that there is a decent solution of the issue at stake. And the issue -at stake is merely a better wage to the average unskilled worker in the shipyards. T@ a large extent public opinion is with these unskilled workers now, but public opinion” will turn against them if their wage issue brings chaos and disaster upon the whole community unnecessarily. Seattle today is awake to the fact that she is on the brink of a disaster, and Seattle is getting fighting mad. The people are beginning to visualize the horrors that a general tie-up will bring. They see the suffering that is bound to come and they don’t propose to be silent sufferers. ‘_ Today Seattle resents this whole miserable mess. Seattle resents the insolent attitude of the shipyard owners; q Seattle resents the verbosity of Director Gener al Piez, whose explanation does not explain, and just as emphatian 4 ‘ally resents the high-handed “rule or ruin” tactics of the labor leaders who propose to lay the whole city | prostrate in a vain attempt to show their power. Let us not mince words. A general strike cannot win unless | one of two things happens. Either the ship owners and Piez must yield or else the workers must be able to control the situation by force. The latter method no doubt would be welcomed by the agitators and the babblerg 7 of Bolshevikism. But the latter method is bound to be squelched without much ado, and you decent union men _ of Seattle will be the sufferers then. A revolt--and some of your leaders are talking of a revolution--to — be successful must have a country-wide application. There isn’t a chance to spread it east of the mountains. There isn’t a chance to spread it south of Tacoma and today fifty per cent of the unions of Tacoma have | § turned down the proposition for a general strike. i Confined to Seattle or even confined to the whole Pacific coast, the use of force by Bolsheviks would be, | and should be, quickly dealt with by the army of the United States. These false Bolshevik leaders haven’t a chance on earth to win anything for you in this country, because this country is America--not Russia. a ae ~~