The New York herald., 1870-01-11
The western Union Telegraph strike.

The great telegraph monopoly has receiv cd
severe blow in the strike Of the operators.
It is in vain for the monopoly in its own inte-
ress to suppress the news in regard to the extent
of the movement; for the grains that sft
through its fingers are enough to show that the
strike is not only almost as extensive as the
wires Of the company, but that it is bitter and
persistent. Those operators who returned to
work in several Southern cities have gone to
the ranks ofthe strikers again on finding that the
information on which they resumed work had
been made up by the monopoly itself. From
all parts of the country the Telegraphers'
League is receiving encouraging reports. The
other great trade unions have given them
hearty support, both in sympathy and money.
We publish elsewhere in our columns this
morning card from the telegraphers to the
public, which sets forth their case fairly and
squarely. M +, A.s
The managers Of the Western Union Com
pany have only themselves to blame. They
have always been dictatorial and overbearing.
The first cause Of the strike is not merely the
discharge of a few operators in San Francisco
The managers Of the company claim so, but
they know better. 1t is the elimination Of a
long series of tyrannies and expressions
practised towards their employees. They have
been grinding their faces too hard They have
striven to drive the Associated Press as they
please, and they have partly succeeded.
They have coerced small country newspapers
by threatening to deprive them, through the
Associated Press, of their news They have
tried to coerce numbers of influential papers
In the interior by this means, and at one time
they even tried it on the HERALD. But they
failed. They have bought out or crushed out
numbers of rival lines, and are steadily aim
ing to get under their own control all the
wires and all the newspapers in the country.
But they have been too grasping and avari-
cious in view of a little gain, and too blind and
unobservant of future resdlls. They have
gone the length Of their tether. The strike of
the operators is their deathblow, backed as it
is by the trade unions, the Independent press,
the sympathy Of the people and the power Of
Congress. For Congress is bound to take the
matter in hand. The people, for whose benefit
Congress legislates, cannot have their business
affairs deranged, their credit impaired and
their commercial transactions stopped at the
whim of dictatorial monopoly any longer.
The government business itself is not safe.
Our diplomatic machinery is liable to injury.
The failure to transmit some important
despatch through the Atlantic or Cuba cable
might involve us in diplomatic muddle or
foreign war. AS long as the monopoly holds
this unlimited power and is so tyrannical and
boorish about using it the people and the
government are liable to fatal mshaps at any
moment. The postal telegraph system In the
hands Of government would be safe from strikes
of this kind, and not until the government
takes the wires under its own control can we
be wholly independent Of the huge monopoly
that now owns them or wholly secure from
the repetition Of the present muddle. Con-
gress has the remedy In it's own hands, and it
is to be hoped it will use 1t firmly. General
Washburn's bill covers the ground, and he