A situation has developed in the city of Charlotte pregnant with danger to the lives and property of our citizens. Without respect to the causes that produced the situation, violence is no remedy for its solution, and it is my duty and fixed purpose to maintain peace and order without regard to cost or consequence.

The Mayor of the City of Charlotte¹ has advised me that the situation may grow so that it cannot be controlled by the local authorities, and I have ordered certain companies of the Reserve Militia to be ready to proceed to Charlotte and maintain law and order. More troops will be promptly sent if the necessities of the situation demand it. I call on all good citizens of Charlotte and Mecklenburg county and in the state at large to co-operate with the authorities and to refrain from any acts of violence or intimidation. I give solemn warning to all that the law must be upheld. I have given strict instructions to the military authorities to keep the peace, to protect life and property, and these instructions will be diligently carried out. If any man or set of men shall presume to defy the law and resort to violence their blood will be on their own heads. Without regard to the justice or the wisdom of any action of the mill owners or the mill operatives, I propose to enforce the law. Neither side to the controversy will be permitted to assert its contentions by a resort to violence.

Having said this much I would be false to my sense of duty if I did not say more. The facts leading up to the present dangerous situation are undisputed. A considerable number of mill operatives join a labor union. Thereupon the owners notify these operatives that they must withdraw from the union or they will not be permitted to work in the mills. The operatives refused to withdraw from the union and were discharged.

This position on the part of the mill owners is unwise, unjust and cannot be maintained. Labor has just as much right to organize as capital. This right---the right to collective bargaining on the part of labor, is recognized by every civilized government in the world. This right is guaranteed to labor everywhere by the world treaty of peace that has just been framed in Paris.

When the mill owners discharged the operatives because they joined a union, they resorted to force and not to reason to sustain their position. A lock-out is war---industrial war waged by organized capital against labor. A walk-out is war waged by organized labor against capital. Neither a lock-out nor a walk-out bears any relation to the sources of wisdom and of justice. In the case of a walk-out or a lock-out each side is trying to starve the other side into submission to its will.

The right of labor to organize cannot be challenged, but I am persuaded that the kind of organizations that both capital and labor now maintain can never bring about that confidence and good will between employer and employee that is essential to the success and happiness of both. Labor and capital are in separate camps viewing each other with suspicion and distrust. Such an attitude spells failure. The only hope for better conditions, for enduring peace is for labor and capital to stand together in a spirit of mutual helpfulness. There must be co-operation, and not competition between the men who furnish the capital and the executive ability on the one hand and the men who furnish the labor on the other.

I earnestly urge the owners and operatives in Charlotte and in the adjoining sections to get together, for eventually the happiness of all must depend upon the prosperity of the enterprise in which all are engaged. I am absolutely certain that a wise and just plan of co-operation can be devised. In the formation of this plan there should be the fullest and freest participation by the representatives of labor and the representatives of capital. Pending the working out in good faith of such a plan of co-operation, I urge that all the mills be re-opened and that all the laborers return to their work.

When the mills reopen any and every American citizen has a right to work in the mills whether he belongs to a labor union or not. No mill owner has any right to say a man shall not work because he belongs to a labor union. No labor union has a right to say that a man shall not work because he does not belong to a labor union. That is a question for each man to decide for himself, and the State of North Carolina will not tolerate any interference in either case. I give solemn warning that the full power of the State will be exerted to protect any man who wants to work, and any one who shall dare to interfere with a willing worker will do so at his own peril.