The Portland daily press., 1877-07-24
Our, New York Letter.
The Great Sirike-The Contest between
Capital and Labor-Faiiiugs of Pulpit
and Press-RaiIway wreckers TN Wall
Sireet-Uniformed Clerks
New YORK, July 2t, 1S7,

the American people, by outbreaks which i'm
peril the peace of society and threaten serious
losses OF property and even of life. The causes
| which have precipitated the struggle are obvi-
Gus. In the process of getting down from an
artificial to an actual standard of values there
| must be decline in wages as well as in the
value of property. In most departments of
industry this fact has already been recognized
and acted upon to some extent. There have
been several previous strikes, and they have
all terminated in the discontinue of the
strikers. No other result was possible. There
is surplus of labor for the time being, and
that is reason enough why it should be cheap
ened. 1t is perfectly natural that the work.
men should feel restive under and resist as far
as they can do lawfully, decrease in their
compensation 1t is small enough at best
Nine-tenths of the people symDathize with
the employees and would like to have them
better paid. This is especially the case in
respect to railway hands, because their work is
hard and not unattended with danger Besides,
the corporations they serve have realized great
sums of money heretofore, and have not made
prudent or proper use of it. Instead of apply
ing it to the curtailment of their indebtedness,
roads as would enable them to give the public
lower rates of freight and fare, they have paid
| large salaries to the higher officers increased
the number of their shares, thereby entaling
| an enhanced outlay for dividends and have in
Cured great many liabilities that might have
been saved by good management. What was
| called the watering" process was practiced
with an audacity that ought to have elected at
| the time unspariDg popular reprobation. But
| in those days the whole country had gone mad
| Men could rob treasury, steal railroad, or
| puff corporation into double its original pro-
| portions at days notice without provoking
| word Of censure from press or pulpit. While
these things were going ON the editors were
| incoming over pretended "corraptions'' at the
national capital, about which half of them
| knew nothing whatever, and the other half
| that there wasn't syllable of truth in any of
their loose allegations; at the same time the
clergymen were declaming against original
| sin or groaning over the existence of
| total depravity, taking particular care not to
| say anything which could give umbrage
to any of the railway managers placidly re-
| posing in the best pews in the middle aisle.
| Ii they ever did for moment digress from
| purely abstract topics it was simply to pro-
nounce scathiDg rebuke upon the few preach.
| ers who profaned the Sabbath by discoursing
| on subjects political or secular. Looking back
to that period, it does seem incredible that
whole communities should have been so utterly
| demoralzed and insensible Perhaps it was
| more noticeable here than anywhere else in the
| country; it certainly couldn't have been less
| so. But for ten years the people of New York
city looked on while great crimes were being
| committed in open day, and scarcely made so
| much as a sign of even displeasure. Nay more,
| they saw their own property ilched from them
| year by year, and never SO much as whimpered
| about it. The money to pay for the county court
| house was raised by tax levies passed annually
| By the legislature. Consequently every dollar of
| that great transparent scheme of public robbery
| was stolen with the knowledge of all the tax
payers and citizens who had capacity enough
| to keep advised of current events. Occasion
| ally somebody would make frantic endeavor
to rouse the people from their lethargy by point
| ing out to them some fagrant example of bare
faced theft practiced by their local rulers. 1t
was impossible to make au impression on them
| that would last over night They had fallen
L
| ly paralyzed all their moral and mental facul-
| ties. This was true, not merely, nor indeed so
much of the humble and ignorant classes as Of
| the more thrifty and intelligent. To the very
verge of the catastrophe which eugulfed
| them, the ring thieves found hundreds of apol-
| ogsts and defenders among the foremost mer-
chants, bankers and lawyers of the metropolis
The infatustion of the people of Sodom and
Gomorrah does not seem to me to be compara-
| BILE to that of the New Yorker, during the de-
| cade whereof l am writing. At all events it
was much less as tonishing when one takes into
account the progress the world has made from
| its creation till now. And considering how the
Sodomites got served for their folly it must be
conceded that their modern imitators got off
cheaply with only the penalty of great debt
heavy taxes and general impoverishment
Those were inevitable consequences and
couldn't possibly have been averted Worse
might have have happened if the city had
| reaped as badly as it sowed.
Coming back to the railway strike from
which my remarks about New York and its
rings is not so much of depression as it at first
sight appears, since there is in this moral apa-
| thy of that epoch an explanation of the cir
| cumstances under which the great iron high
ways which bind the continent were made the
prey of greedy directors and scheming jugglery.
Through these devices they have been made to
represent vastly more capital than ever was IT,
vested in them. Many Of them in consequence
have ceased to pay dividends, and those that
still do so are strongly suspected of keeping up
appearances by borrowing instead of earning
tbo tho
ers. Everybody knows what havoc has been
made of several leading stocks. They were all
of the kind that have been inflated and bloated
| into fictitious values again and again. II they
| had been kept at their original COST which is
great deal more by the y,than they could be
constructed for now, and the surplus earnings
devoted partly to dividends and partly to thor.
oughness of equpment-where they rghtfuily
belonged there wouldn't have been collapse
in any one of them. As it is it has been found
necessary to raise eXtravagant amounts to
keep up the fictitious values set upon them
Aud that is one OF the reasons why resort has
been had to the desperate expedieut of re-
ducing the;wages of the men who run them.
In every lawful and peaceful method to thwart
this attempt the poor fellows are entitled to the
good wishes of their countrymen. But when
they resort TO violence, or undertake to pre-
vent the employers from hiring others or from
running trains, they become public enemies
and no quarter should be shown them. 1t is
evident this emeute is a premeditated one, that
it is extensive in its ramifcations and that it
will require decisive and vigorous measures to
suppress it, 1t is just as well perhaps that the
issue should be fought out on an extensive
scale if there must be fight. Tnat will bring
us so much nearer to the end. There can be
but one conclusion to such a warfare. As long
as the men conduct themselves circumspectly
they are the victims of Injustice and oppres-
sion. The moment they strike blow they are
rioters against whom every honest voice must be
raised and every manly arm lifted. They must
be dealt with summarily with shot, and shell
and bayonet. The public safety demands it
The coed name of the Republic compels it.
The strike began opportunely in respect to
its effects en- business. If 1t had been DELAYED