The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-24
The Strikc-The Fircbrands and More
Sensible Workmen.


The incendiary language of some of the
speakers at the Cooper Institute Workingmens
meeting on Friday produced a great deal of
uneasiness in the minds Of conservative people
and well-wishers of the workmen. This was
an indignation meeting to protest against the
action Of the police in protecting the manufac-
tories and workshops and the men in them
who are not on strike from interference by the
strikers. Now, these indignant workingmen,
or rather the firebrands who make speeches to
them should know that it is the duty of the
police to protect property and the individual
freedom and rights of the people. No man has
o right under any pretext, to invade the work
shops or manufacturing establishments of his
fellow citizens, for these are private property
as much as dwelling houses are. If Mr.. Smith
or Mr.. Brown refuses to let the strikers or any
other persons enter upon his premises he has
right to do SO, and it is the duty of the police
to protect him in that right. His factory is as
much entitled to protection as his bedchamber.
And SO with regard to the right Of individual
action. If workmen choose to accept employ
ment on the masters terms, that is an
act of individual freedom which the laws guar
antee, and which no man or body of men has a
right to interfere with. The laws and personal
freedom must be protected. Tyranny, when
exercised by bodies Of men, is not less odious
and destructive to liberty and the well-being Of
society than when practised by individual
despots. There is no safety but in the law
and in maintaining the rights both of property
and personal freedom. The decision of Judge
Bosworth, therefore, in the case Of Kavanagh
against Captain Caffrey was just. The Judge
decided that workmen had no right to enter
peoples shops to intimidate the men there
employed, or take them from their work. and
that in case of such an occurrence the police
were justifable in forcibly expelling the in
truders and placing them under arrest.
Some of the men at the Cooper Institute
meeting who pretended to speak for the work.
ing classes are not, we are happy to say, the
true representatives of these classes. They
were not Americans. They have not yet
learned the spirit of our institutions and what
freedom means. They vented their foreign
and socialstc ideas, which are out of place
here. Mr. Blssart's illusions to British bay
onets, standing armies, and of the United States
being country of thieves, murderers and
policemen were as out of place and outrageous
as they were ridiculous Our respectable
American workmen should repudiate them and
their untrue and slanderous language They
are really the worst enemies of the laborers,
and injure the cause they pretend to spouse
Happily our sensible and conservative working
men are taking action against these frebrands.
At meeting Of the iron and metal workers
at the Germania Assembly Rooms on Satur-
day the incendiary speeches referred to were
universally condemned. Mr.. Roache, the act
ing president of the league, said such violent
remarks would not be tolerated. He added
that mo matter which side should win in
this peaceful contest between two great forces
(the aborers and capitalists), the vanquished
must be prepared to submit gracefully. AS for
the iron and metal workers-men among
whom he was proud to be ranked as an honest
and humble toiler, aiding to build up the
electrical aud steam vehicles Of modern civiliz-