Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-08-08
ORDER OR ANARCHY.

ues was swept to the highest point
and capital and labor dreamed tha
both were prosperous, when they wer,
but roveling in the intoxication of i'm
aginary wealth. At last the returning
ebb SGT in and there have been foul
years of grinding depreciation anc
steadily perishing hopes. Tens o
thousands Of those who belived them
selves to be capitalists have seen thei
fortunes shrink until bankruptcy en-
gulphed them. Other tens of thousand
have driited from opulence or comfort
to embarrassment, and yet other tcnl
of thousands have gradually passed
from constant and well-required labor
to inadequate wages or enforced idle
ness and want.
To-day We are face to face with tn,
dying throes Of simulated prosperity
1t has been comparatively gradual il
its decline, but SO sweeping arevulsior
in the tide Of apparent prosperity ai
that experienced in this country sine,
the panic of 1873, cannot complete III
work without severely testing all pow
ers OF civil and social organization
Capital has suffered in shrinkagc and
bankruptcy almost beyond computa
ton, but labor has fallen from plenty
to want, and it has muttered its revolt
against fate as hope died in despair
For two years it has perturbed com.
munities like the mining regions where
the exaotions were first and most SO,
verely felt, but 1t was the oft-repeated
story of failure, With bankrupt oper-
ators and idle mills and fircless forges
and silent factories and proftless
transportation lines, strikes were but
the made madness of desperation, and
there was no redress because no relief
was possible. Disquiet was the natur.
al offspring Of inadequate wages and
idleness, and unreasoning want made
sad unrest throughout the labor OF
the land.
AT last we have the elimination as
was inevitable, and it comes in the us
ual way, intensified by irremediable
distress, and it will end as have all
such eruptions Of turbulence, however
cunningly devised Or formidably sup
ported. The right TO strike is unques-
toned by our laws; but when strikes
degenerate into riot, they become the
playtbings of evil men, and labor is
degraded by the disregard of the laws
whose sanctity is the very basis of all
prosperity. And upon labor must the
keenest wounds be inflicted by the re-
volt of labor against the public peace.
1t is the most hopeless OF all human
ventures, and the most disastrous as
well. 1t can give no increase of wages,
for there are enough and to spare
waiting to-day to fill the places of all
who may surrender even lily paid po-
sitioLs. Itcanuot elevate labor, for law
Iessness is crime and crime and respect
are strangers. 1t can feed no hungry
households, for turmoil and destruc-
tion bring no bread as their fruits. 1t
can open no new channel OF industry,
for anarchy is the foe of thrift. 1t
cannot triumph beyond day or two
at most, for every lover of order and
Justice is summoned to the protection
Of life and property when the creators
Of wealth revel in spoliation. 1t may
make the military take refuge under
cover or retreat from an infunated
mass to-day, but all seasons are for law
and peace, while passion perishes by
It's own infrmities. In Pittsburgh
what was labor strike, started pro-
baby in honest purpose to do no law
ess act, is now bowling mob, mad
iened by the dead and wounded COM
rades it has plunged into agony and
death, and ITS path is lighted in the
darkness by the incendiary torch and
iesolation marks its MONDAY achieve
nents. What it may cost in life and
treasure to overwhelm it, has ceased
10 be question. 1t must be subdued
i can be subdued; it will be subdued
and when peace shall come again by
its crimsoned path, labor will have
only shame and sorrow for its rebel
lion against itself
The issue presented to the public
and which appeals alike to every con-
dition and class, is not the issue of
Justly or lily paid labor. There are
times and ways for considering and
such disputes. Labor may
be right or wrong in its appeal for in
creased compensation and in its refusal
to accept proffered terms, but no differ
ences between employer and employed
can excuse, much less justify, "a breach of
the peace; and when violence grows
into wanton destruction of property,
the interruption OF travel and trade,
the obstruction of tho mails, and the
deadly conflict there can be but one issue
and one result The issue is that ofI
anarchy or order, and the result the
certain discontinue Of all who bow to
the demon OF violence. 1t is but
question Of hours or of days at the
most, for disorder can have no toler-
ancc among q law-abiding people.
The possible wrong to the labor of
Pittsburgh and Of Philadelphia and to
American industry generally, by the
anarchy that now has temporary tri-
imph in the most trusted and conserv-
.tive of the leading States, is incalcu-
able. lfit teaches anything, it is that
in Pennsylvania is without
'afety, and that even great highways
which are the arteries of commercial
md industrial life, cannot be protected
BY the laws or the authority of tho
power of public opinion, and that capi-
tai is at the world, II II has meaning al