New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-19
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.

TIE RAILROAD STRIKE.
However soon or in whatever way, the Bal
timore and Ohio Railroad strikers may be
brought to their senses-whether they carry
their point, which they are not likely TO 90,
or find the laws Of the land too strong TOT
them-there has already been criminal fohy
enough to furnish food for melancholy but IN
structiye reflection. The pay of iirst-class
firemen on this Road has been 81 10, and mas
been reduced to 81 So, per diem; that OF sec
nd-class iremen has been 81 80 per diem,
and has been reduced to 81 50. If this small
diminution had been wantOnly made-merely
from motives of greed and in spirit OF tyr
anny-the strikers might have just reason Tor
complaint. though none for barbarous and
criminal action; but all disinterested persons
understand that rational employers never
cnt down wages at the risk of losing skilled
labor, unless the general commercial sltua-
ton and the equity of the whole matter
Justify them in doing so. 1t is not the fault OF
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, II
industrial interests are in PROSTATE condition.
Other things being equal, the sensible en-
poyer likes to pay the highest rate of wages
consistent with prudence; and in the present
case it is evident that the Company has made
the reduction as small as possible. Moreover,
there was no invidOus distinction. The pay
of all the employed, of whatever grade, was
equally diminished. All accepted the change
quietly except the frcmen and the men who
run the freight trains. The places which
they left were promptly supplied, as in the
present condition of the labor market they
might easily be.
Then came the old and shameful spirit of
intimidation, which no good citizen, no sound
economist, no conscientious employer, and no
honest person, can regard without the deepest
Indignation and even adherence. If any man,
no matter how deeply he may sympathIze with
Labor, or however doubtful he may be of the
disintcrestedness of Capital, can say single
word in extenuatlon of the conduct of the riotous
train-hands at Martinsburg, he will be entitled
to take rank as an ethical discoverer, and will
do more than has heretofore been done
IN this world, since the payment Of regular
wages was invented, to throw light upon a
difficult question. Not only the strikers came
to the Company's yard at Martinsburg, but
they brought their friends and both the bellig
erents proper and their volunteer allies took
care to be well armed They cut the coupling
of the ears. They rendered it impossible for
the trains to move. They opened fire upon the
sodiery detailed there to preserve order
Gradually not less than eighty trains and
locomotives were stopped at that point,
under a threat of the strikers to shoot
any engineer who should attempt to take
his train out of town. In short as
the report says, the strikers have every
thing their own way'-and IA very bad way
il was.
At ether points scenes equally violent and
disgraceful occurred. At Baltimore, cars were
thrown from the track, causing great trouble
and damage At Wheeling, Grafton and Key
ser there was like lawlessness. At the point
last named, the strikers threatened to shoot
any one attempting TO move the train. The
madness may extend all along the lne-nO
one knows where it may stop. But when we
come to consider the matter calmly though
we may find much rea son for pity and regret, it
is easy to see that there is none for alarm. These
insane strikers have gone too fast and too far.
Substantially they have declared war, not
against the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com
pany-for that would be n comparatively
small affair-but against several sovereign
States with all their power. weight, might,
military and other material resources, jails.
gibbets and general authority. OF such con-
test there can be but one end. There is no
such thing as a stronger party-there is no
room for a comparison. Indeed, the Martins
burg campaign is against the United States of
America, for the Governor of West Virginia,
finding himself unable to subdue the outbreak,
has called on the President for troops, who
have doubtless arrived by this time at the
scene of action. In n little while these
strikers will be effectually overthrow.
Some of them will be dead some of them
for term of years in prison; some of
them starving with their unfortunate fami-
lies; all of them who survive marked as dam
gerous characters, not under any stress of cir
cumstances to be employed in any work in
volving fidelity and responsibility. Already in
several places they have foand the hand of the
law too heavy for them. 1t will grow heavier
and heavier. How often must this lesson be
repeatedly How long will it be before men
will learn how clumsy, irrational and ineffec
tual is the expedient of strikef