The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-07-28

In the State of West Virginia, at least, the
local authorities have proven themselves I'M
able to cope 1t, while in Pennsylvania and
Maryland the strength Of the State govern
ments is being put to the severest test.
In view Of this great crisis, 1t becomes all
good men to reflect, in their character OF citt-
zens, how much they may have contributed
to the bringing about Of this state OF affairs,
and what they can do to avert tho calamities
1t threatens to society. 1t Is idle to assume
that its effects will be confined to any locality:
the workingmen throughout the length and
breadth of the land will all feel deep SYM
pathy with the strikers in what they will re-
gard as war Of defense against the agrees
sions and entertainments Of capital, and q
legitimate effort to secure the advancement of
miserably insufficient wages to rates upon
which they can live in some degree of COM
fort Their ideas Of comfort may be based on an
extravaganza scale, and may be the outgrowth
of an age Of profiigacy and waste; 1T Is also
barely possible that In the majority of cases,
and especially of those of the most violent of
these hard-handed martyrs of toll, the senti-
mental tableau Of the pale wife and hungry
children may be entirely eliminated, and in
their place substituted d too confiding rum
seller and q bloated courtesan. Indeed, 1t
may fairly be assumed that the men who
went into these violent demonstrations last
and most reluctantly were those who do In
reality go home to pale faces and hungry bel
lies. But it is for these ideas, and these
shameful facts, that society in the aggregate
is responsible, and how to correct them Is
now the food of sweet and bitter fancy upon
which we must ruminate.
1t matters not how heartily the laboring
men of other avocations may have sympa-
thized with the railroad employees when they
first struck, as citizens they are now bound to
lay aside all such feelings. No one questions
the right of employees to quit work, either as.
individuals or by a concerted movement
when they become dissatisfied with their
wages. But the right Of capitalists and en-
ployers to regulate the compensation they
shall pay for labor should be equally re-
spected, and the moment it Is attempted to
restrict this right by resort to mob violence
the whole question Is changed, and what was
a contest between labor and capital becomes
a conflict between law and anarchy. When
these strikes against railroad corporations be-
claim to sympathy and became outlawed,
meriting and provoking the stern rebuke OF
all good citizens. The man who is incapable
of approaching this fact is unworthy OF the
responsibility of citizenship. Workingmen
are not less interested than others IN that So
cial order and supremacy Of law which is ne
cessary to the well-being of society 1t Is to
these that we all owe alike the prosperity we
may meet with, employment and the ability
to provide for our families and educate our
children. Even the tramps and vagabonds,
the pariahs of society, who go most readily
into these demonstrations Of lawless violence
under the belief that they can do
nothing to make their situations worse,
In the end discover that there are yet depths
Of misery they had not sounded.
The man who is capable ofreadily appreciat-
ing these facts will discover profounder sig
nifi canoe in these demonstrations than can be
drawn from any mere arrangement OF the ar
tificial relations of labor and capital, and he
will look beyond the apparent and immediate
complaint of insufficient wages for the under
living causes of this widespread and radical
convulsion of society. He will discover that
1t is attributable, in the main, to universal
popular and national decentralization; to
shirt of INSTRUMENTATION, a feverish dissatis-
faction that permeates the whole social
fabric and affects all orders of men. He
willsnote the existence among the people
of great immortality, general indifference
to obligations, tendency to riotous living
and profigacy and the supremacy of that phi
losophy which teaches that sufficient for the
day is the evil thereof. He will sigh for the
rarity Of discipline, restraint and temper
ance, and find ALI homely virtues rare as
roses in December. The various trade unions
may find much in all this trouble
for which they are responsible. They
have undoubtedly done much by their lack OF
confidence in employers and their disposition
to dictate to them, and by their propensity to
wild and senseless inyective and denunciation
Of the heartlessness of capital to foster this
popular spirit Of INSTRUMENTATION, which tends
to hamper the natural and rightful tendency
of trade to regulate itself, by appeals to VIC
lence and unwise combinations. What we
must consider, then, as OF Infinitely more
inheritance than the temporary military sup
nression of violence, is how can this great and
universal immortality be corrected and reform
ed. How can the people be brought back tc
proper ideas of honesty and frugality and the
practice Of the good old virtues OF temper
ance industry and economy. But this reform
must be thorough to be effective; it must
begin in the highest places and reach down tc
the lowest How can these workingmen be
blamed for seeking to accomplish by violence
what should be left to peaceful solution
through the natural operation of the laws Of
trade, when the example is set them by those
highest in authority? When State govern
ments are overthrown at the point OF the
bayonet, and the presidency itself is regarded
as the legitimate reward of the most dishon-
est conspiracy, and where fraud fails in the
accomplishment of a political object force is
freely resorted to, such uprisings as this are
by no means phenomenal.
There can be no excuse or palliation fol
these crimes, while there is much that may