Strikes Under Government Ownership
THE recent strike in Holland, which was suddenly terminated by action of the government, contains a lesson for republics which has not been lost on observing minds in the United States. What, inquires The Independent, would be the result of a strike of government employees in this country under the socialist program of government ownership and control of railways and other public utilities, should that program become a reality here? Its answer is that “nothing short of complete surrender of the government is conceivable when the strikers are themselves the power behind the government,” and therefore it is plain that there might be under such circumstances “a politically enforced demand for the lion’s share of the product of industry by that particular group or party of working men which happened to be a numerical majority.” The government might as well, so far as justice and freedom are concerned, surrender to a body of capitalists as to a body of strikers. The Independent concludes that “unless human beings are by some mysterious process to be transformed into horny-handed angels, the industrial world will continue to be controlled by those who have the power and the cleverness to control it, and who will not scruple overmuch to control it to their own advantage. As long as human nature is what it now is, and as long as men differ in any form of ability, including financial and political cleverness, there will be an under-dog, and he will live on what he can get.” Strange and unwelcome scenes will be enacted when the strikers get to be the power behind the government in this nation; and this will be so because there is no scheme or system that men can devise which will cure human nature of its disposition to misuse power.