Bismarck tri-weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1875-1881, 1877-07-27

seems to have permeated the entire la
boring masses of the country for many
weary months. The very air seems full
of it, and almost before we can realize
the fact of labor strike being inaugura-
ted in any one locality, the whole
country IS ablaze with excitement, and
the meetings of the seething populace
of discomfort and demands for justice at
the hands of employers, is heard from
one end of the land to the other, and
unanimity with which the cry has been
taken up everywhere by the laboring
people, and the manifest sympathy it has
received at the hands of other classes Of
citizens may well alarm those who con-
troll our great corporations and all who
are engaged in aggregating wealth from
the productions of the horny hands of
toll, for it is fact which may as well be
looked square in the face that this
universal uprising has received the
hearty sympathy Of the best people in
the land, as far as their protests and de-
mands were concerned, and only regret
ing that they allowed themselves, through
excitement, to permit the destruction Of
property and other lawless acts, which,
of course, must receive the hearty con-
demnation of all good citizens.
The laws of the land must be enforced;
yet we realize that the laWless demon
STATIONS at Pittsburgh and elsewhere are
the legitimate results Of nonied interests
continually turning a deaf ear to the
just pleadings Of employees. An empty
stomach, or the prospect Of one, is not a
pleasant feeling to contemplate nor a
conciliatory argument in a contest, .es-
pecially to those who have wives and
little ones dependant on their labors for
the satisfying of these natural demands.
We have ever believed, and still be-
lieve, that the interests Of capital and
labor, in the long run are identical, and
the result of the present abundantly
proves it. Will the amount saved by
the Baltimore & Ohio road from the just
amount of wages withheld from their
employees, be tythe, even, towards re-
placing their shops and rolling stock?
We think not, and the possibility of such
losses from such sources, should be taken
into the account by, employers before
goading their employees to desperation
with prospect Of suffering for them
selves and families.
The laborer is worthy of his hire, and
no man or corporation has any right to
the services of any human being at a
less rate of compensation than upon
which he can live in compare
tive comfort. Most assuredly not
when the said employers are making
money from the results of the employees
labor. Economy in everything is COM
mendable, but the great corporations Of
the land commenced at the wrong end Of
the string to economic. In the first,place
they should : do away with all figure
heads drawing large salaries, and at
tachees enjoying profitable positions as
sinecures, leaving none in positions other
than those Of practical benefit; and if
then necessary to further economize,
make an equitable reduction in. salaries
from the highest to the lowest, and not
levy the whole burden upon the employ
ees alone. There is no justice in paying a
president of q railroad twenty-five thousand
dollars a year, and that promptly, and at
the same time forces faithful employee
to labor for four hundred:and fifty, and
be, perhaps, several months behind in
payment,sat that. While this state Of
affairs edstswe must expect to be semi
occasionally startled by labor strikes and
deeds of violence and blood-shed.
1t is question of the utmost import
ance to SO regulateso,ar. railroad system,