Daily Kennebec journal., 1877-08-02
From the Philsdelphis Times
The Penalty of Lawlessness.

II would be much more grateful to the
Phtsburg people and would call forth
much more genial responses from the
Pittsburg press, If the Times would say
that the destruction of millions of proper
ty in that city by lawlessness, and the
consequent spread of anarchy throughout
the land, was the work OF a maddened
mob but it is not the truth, and it cannot
be said without injustice To every commu-
nifty where order is priced and peace
maintained.
The destruction OF some millions OF
property, the terrible disorder that has
blotted the history of that people, and
the dangerous unrest that yet prevails
among all classes in Pittsburg, are charge
able to the more intelligent class who have
never dreamed that they were piling up
such day of wrath upon themselves.
The mob was the creation of the vicious
public sentiment of Pittsburg that has
been practically teaching the doctrine that
corporations have no rights which any cit
izen is bound to respect. aud when the
railroad men struck for wages greatly in
excess OF what the people OF Pittsburg
pay to their laborers. and precipitated the
strike at once into the lawless detention
of trains on the great highway of the
State, there seemed TO be but one express
sion from the community, and that was OF
positive sympathy with ANARCHY. OF all
the Pittsburs journals, but one-the Even
ing Telegraph-had the respect for law
and the courage to tell the truth, and no
voice was heard from the citizens that did
not cheer the mob in the work of desoa-
ton. or course, it was not intended by
the Pittsburg press and people that there
| should be scores of killed and wounded,
that several millions of property should
be gutted; but they gave every possible
expression OF encouragement to the mob
while 1t was rushing headlong to gather
its logical harvest of desolation and death
and they recoiled only when flame and
spoliation threatened their own property.
The courts in the administration of the
laws will adjudge the rioters as the guilty
parties, but the enlightened public opin-
ion of the country and of the world will
hold the people who. by their intelligence
and position. mould lhe sentiment of the
community, as the responsible authors OF
the lawlessness that has made Pittsburg
memorable in the annals of social disor-
der. Our great Commonwealth with four
millions Of law-abiding people, can yield
no tolerance. much less approval, for the
blistering record just written by the sec
ond city of the State; and it will be many
years before capital will entertain Pitts
burg as among the fields W here it can ven
ture with the hope of protection and prof
it.
Such is the inexorable penalty for the
past, and whether Pittsburg shall ever re-
cover from the suicidal blow just inflicted
upon herself, depends upon her own peo-
pie. They must teach law and order. re-
gardless of prejudice, instead of sowing
the dragons teeth of the Commune, and
they must have fearless and law-loving
press if they would command the respect
and trust of their fellows. They have
sinned against law and light and reason,
and now they must pay and suffer. 1t is
needless to attempt to explain or discrim-
nate to others. The plain fact is clear above
all the clouds of dispute and doubt, that
public opinion inspired and justified the
mob; that the local military was fathless
to its duty in obedience to the higher law
enacted by the overwhelming sentiment
of the people, and that anarchy, desoa
tion and death came that men might reap
as they had sown. 1t is a hard lesson
it has cost Pittsburg and the country scores
of millions of dollars, and there can be
no ray Of hope visible In the midnight
darkness that overshades the smoky City,
until her people resolve as one man that
law and justice shall henceforth be en-
throned on the PROSTATE altar of lawless-
ness and shame.
"If we had our rightful President we
should not be distressed by the social tur-
moil," is remark which few papers be-
sides the Bangor Commercial would have
been silly enough to make Boston Her