Too Much Standing Pat
The policy of “standing pat” may be an admirable one at
times, but in the present industrial upheaval it is apparently being carried to
extremes.
The steel strike is a fair illustration.
Judge Gary in the beginning assumed a sphinxlike attitude,
refusing to meet the labor people for a conference, and has since been standing
pat.
The strike leaders are in a defiant mood and are also
standing pat.
The public is holding the bag and is wondering if a time
will ever come when it can let loose.
The strikers may be right in tying up the great steel
industry of the United States, or they may not—as you see it.
Judge Gary may be justified in his silent defiance, or he
may not—that, also, according to your views.
But one thing is certain. Between the two elements a great
international industry is at a standstill, and it will require a long time to
recover the ground that is being lost.
Judge Gary should come down from his lofty perch and talk
with his workmen. If he is too proud to meet them face to face, he might
delegate the task to one of his officials who is more democratic in his tastes
and in his views.
The steel trust is powerful, we concede. But an aroused
public opinion is even more powerful.
Throw out the radicals and bring the more conservative
brains of the two contending forces together and something tangible and
satisfactory will result.
Standing pat in this instance is becoming a public calamity,
and is breeding bolshevism and national peril.
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