DYNAMITE OUTRAGES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1566, 9 October 1912, Page 7

DYNAMITE OUTRAGES.

* UNIONIST COMPLICITY. By Mcsraph-Preas Associatlon-CoDyrielit New York, October 7. An important development has taken place at the national investigation now being conducted at Indiamipolis into the cQiinecliou between organised labour-and tho recent series of dynamite outrages which havo occurred throughout the country. Edward Clark, business agent for the' International Bridge and Structural Iranworkers' Union, pleaded guilty to fiftylive counts charging him with conspiracy. Forty-five other trade unionists aro awaiting trial. RUTHLESS LABOUR METHODS. ,A PARTING OF THE WAYS. The confessions of tho M'Namara brothers last year in connection with tho wrecking of the "Los Angeles Times" Office by dynamite aro generally admitted j (according to tho London "Times" cor-1 respondent) .to have brought American organised Labour to tho parting of tho ways. For somo years past its methods ami its leaders have been falling: into disrepute, It has been accused of pursuing doubtful ends by questionable menus. Tho rutlilessness with which it has tried to forco unionism upon working man and employer alike has been stigmatised as un-American. Its use of the secondary boycott and sympathetic strike, the neutral attitude of its leaders to-wards-acts of violence, and their general propensity to oncourngo industrial strife havo caused vast losses of property and derangement of business, so that people aro unpleasantly aware that, in a country where the premises for Marx's generalisa-' tions undoubtedly exist. Capital and La-, bour havo been drifting gradually apart. Tho efforts of the Civic an organisation started with tho object of minimising tho danger of a growth of class hatred by preaching tho fundamental community of tho interests of employer and employed, energetic as they have been, have failed to prevent this drift. A prominent writer upon industrial Questions gavo it recently as his opinion that the desire for co-operation between Capital and Labour wa"s growing less, and said that he had received in recent years far fewer applications for details about profit-sharing and such projects than ho used to 21) years ago. For this tendency tho existence of organised Labour as such is 7iot, of course, held responsible., It is recognised, that in a community of vast capitalistic combinations, combinations of labour with the power to bargain collectively are essential; but if is also felt that Labour by unwisetactics is greatly enhancing the difficulties of a difficult situation. To this disquiet upon general principles must bo added the apprehension felt at the constant recurrence of outrages traceable, if not to organised Labour, at any rnto to quarrels between Capital and Labour for which organised Labour was responsible. Since 190G there have been 116' dynamite outrages connected with the dispute between the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers and their employers, a dispute of which the Los Angeles explosion was an outgrowth. It is not, of course, believed that the leaders of organised Labour were directly responsible for these crimes; but it is felt that by word and precept they havo done much to make such crimes possible.