The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-07-31
who is R,asponsihlaa


prevailed and staggering blow has been
given to Trades Union for making this
strike at time when the land was crowded
with unemployed and hungry workmen;
at time when the railroads had been
driven to desperation by heavy losses
last year, by great the fall Of stocks, by
proved impossibility of borrowing money
abroad, and by failure to devise any salts
factory mode of preventing war of rates
for the future; and at time when busl-
ness in all branches was comparatively
stagnant, and the attention of the public,
of the state and federal governments was
almost wholly unoccupied. 1t was made
at such points that plug uglies" of Bal
timore, the wild boatmen of Maryland, the
miners Of Pennsylvania-half crazed by
the recent hanging of 'Molly Maguire"
murderers-the roughs of Philadelphia,
the unemployed workmen of Pittsburg.
the crazy communists of Chicago, and the
most reckless and desperate men of other
northern cities, might readily be induced
to join and control it.
The Unions broad line between these
men and those who organize strike and
stop trains is very crooked and illegal
line when applied to the present strike.
Suppose law should be passed compell-
ing these strikers to work for low wages,
would they not demand, and Justly too. in
their bill of rights:-that every man has
right to determine for himself whether he
will or will not work for any wages that
may be offered him.
That no man has right to determine
for another man whether that other shall
or shall not work for any wages that may
be offered.
That no man has any right to prevent
another man from doing any work, not
noxious to society and not dangerous to
other individuals, which he may think best
to do.
That every man has right to his own
freedom. Every man has a right to act or
not to act in accordance with the dictates of
his own Judgment and his own conscience.
That no man has right to interfere
with the freedom of another, by debating
either how he shall feel, what he shall
think and say, or what he shall do.
And yet, the apostle of higher law
would make dispute about wages, an ex-
cuse for violation of law and the abroga-
ton of every one of these principles.
Sympathy is beautiful word; it touches
the deepest springs of humanity. The
poet has said. Still let it ever be thy
pride, To linger by the laborer's side,
With words of sympathy or song, To
cheer the dreary march along, and
it is pleasant to see in these troubled times
that the apostle Of higher law" follows
| the bard's advise. The tramp and thieves
sympathized so warmly with the down.
trodden brakemen that they dropped their
proper business and devoted Saturday
night and Sunday to the duty of killing
miitiameD, pillaging freight-cars, and
burning FIVE or six millions worth.ot prop
erty. Trades Unionists all over the coun-
try have sympathized with the railway
strikers to such degree that they cannot
refrain from mobbing all railroad men who
are not strikers. The hard-handed SON. OF
toll in Baltimore lis moved by gush OF
feeling 10 set fire to an oil-train. The
sympathetic laboring-man on the line OF
the Erie throws passenger cars off the
track by the dexterous removal of rail.
And yet the apostle of higher law has
such beautiful sympathy for those who
stoned men for rushing forward to claim
the vacant places which would give them
} bread Surely there ought to have been
some sympathy for the hungry who would
\ work if they had chance. But no; it il
!. all for the violent, who will neither work
themselves nor let others work in Their
stead. These men are making war upon
, their own brethren. 1t is not the railway
: officers whom they. are shooting and throw
, ing Efrom the engines: it is workingmer
like themselves. They are all engaged il
: a conspiracy to prevent their fellow labor
: ers from earning an honest living; and il
every proposal Of accommodation which
, they make to the companies they place i
as a cardinal condition that not a man Of
the hungry multitude Of two million shall
have work. But sympathy is such beau.
tiful thing What has the strike done fol
which there should be sympathy. 1t has
made food and coal more costly for the
millions of workers, it has intensified the
stagnation of business, it has added to the
number of failures, and thus has made il
certain that work will fail for thousands
who might otherwise have found continued
employment. To the strikers it has
brought loss of labor, waste of money, 9
CALLING sense of defeat, and share in tbs
common loss of business and property.
How can an apostle of higher law glory
IN such misfortune. Oh, great apostle
Could not the infinite wisdom and the
great learning required to bring forth the
beautiful idea Of higher law" have en-.
ablcd you to point ont to honest laborers
the cause Of financial depression, the stag
nation of business and the hard times
Surely you did not fear these things would
be traced home to John Sherman, secre.
tary of the treasury; and, little more
remotely, to the many suicidal acts of 8
republican administration, to the many
official defaulters, to the fostering of rail