The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-12
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH
.. .I.. . . STRIKE. - fHr

From tho ~ T. Herald. 500. .s.u
The great telegraph monopoly has received
severe blow in the strike of the operators.
1t is in vain for the monopoly in its own in
terest to suppress the news in regard to the
extent of the movement; for the grains that
sift through its fingers are enough to show
that the strike is not only almost as extensive
as the wires of the company, but that 1T is
bitter and persistent. Those operators who
returned to work in several Southern cities
have gone to the ranks of the 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 ooun-
try the Telegraphers' League is receiving en-
couraging reports. The other great trade
unions have given them hearty support, both
in sympathy and money.
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 few operators in San Francisco.
The managers of the company claim so but
they know better. It is the culmination of q
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
aiming to get under their own control all the
wires and all the newspapers in tire country.
But they have been too grasping and avari-
cious in view of a little gain, and too blind
and unOhaarvant nf fuf11ra rAaulfG Vhau
have gone the length of their tether. The
strike of the operators is their deathblow,
backed as it is by the trade unions, the indie
pendent 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 dicta
torial monopoly any longer. The Government
business itself is not safe. Our diplomat,
machinery is liable to injury. The failure t.
transmit some important despatch through
the Atlantic or Cuba cable might in
| volve us in a diplomatic muddle or
foreign war As long as the monopoly hold
this unlimited power, and is so tyrannical an,
boorish about using it, the people and tn
Government are liable to fatal mishaps at an,
msment. The postal telegraph system in tn
hands of Government would be safe from
strikes of this kind, and not until the Govern
ment takes the wire under its own contro
can we be wholly independent of the hug
monopoly that now owns them or wholly SO
cure from the repetition of the present mud
| die. Congress has the remedy in its OWE
hands, and it is to be hoped it will use i
firmly. General Washburns bill covers tn,
ground, and he shows that he understand
the mannuvres of the monopoly when hi
proposes to hear the testimony of the opera
tors themselves They can give him the in
formation he wants, and they are not in
terested in giving him the wrong kind Of in
formation. By all means let the bill b'
pushed. 1t is blow for the people agains
| monopoly. .f ra.