“The sections of the state which give the greatest concern have large masses of alien residents.  Thousands of them do not speak the language.  They are not familiar with our laws but it is safe to assume that the individual conscience tells every man that violence is both a moral and a legal wrong.

“Officers of companies whose manufacturing plants are closed by strike or other cause have expressed to me the intention to resume operations.  At the same time they have asked for ‘protection.’  Inquiry develops this fact—­that some employers believe it the duty of government to transport their employees into and out of the plants in question.  This is not a function of government.  Throughout the years, the policy has been not to make use of soldiers nor policemen to man street cars, for instance, nor in any way to make of them the instruments to bring a strike to an end.  If either state or local officers provided safe conveyance of workmen into or out of a manufacturing institution, then government would be making of itself the agent of one of the parties to the dispute.  If, however, the plant resumes, and disorder of any sort ensues as the result of employees going into or out of the factory, then that becomes an affair of governmental concern and the mayor of the municipality or the sheriff of the county, as location within or without the municipality largely determines, must suppress violence and arrest those who violate the law.  I shall exact this from all local officers.

“Picketing as we understand it is neither prohibited by law nor condemned by public sentiment, but it must go no further than moral persuasion.  Organized society cannot continue without government, and government will not live unless the laws are respected.  They not only express what experience has taught us, but they are the official mandate of the will of the majority, and after all, that is a fundamental principle in a republic.

“All officers must act with care.  It will be found that trouble can often be avoided by an open, frank and firm contact of public officers with both the representatives of the employers and employees.  No call that I have ever made upon either side of these controversies has ever gone unheeded.

“We are in the midst of unprecedented conditions, but if we devote ourselves to the single thought of making government the agency of justice and the instrument of bringing swift punishment to those who violate the laws of this commonwealth, we will pass through the storm safely.

“No man must be permitted to define the rules of his individual conduct.  The law is supreme.  I shall expect its enforcement by local officers.  When they have rendered their utmost effort and failed to meet conditions, then the state will act promptly.”

In every city in Ohio, save one, this warning was sufficient, but in Canton it became necessary for the Governor to remove the mayor.  His successor speedily re-established the peace.