The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-09-03

from its resources Every important In
dustry in the country has been compelled
to practice the closest and most rigld
econo omies in order to escape marketing
its products at loss. The cotton and
woo.en mills of New England, the iurn-
aces and mines OF Pennsylvania, ONO,
Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, have the
same story to tell. The capital which
Communist orators so eloquently de-
nounce has yielded such scant returns as
the men who pretend TO dictate
the scale of adequate wages for LABOR
would regard with disdaln. In
every manufacturing State in the coun-
try it is perfectly well known that many
establishments have been kept in opera
ton simply that the men might be en-
ployed. This has been dene often with
out one lota Of profit to the owners Dur
ing the last winter the large rolling mills
in Pennsylvania must have been closed,
and thousands of lsboring men reduced to
idleness and possible want, had not the
rallroads-which during the recent mad
ness that swept over the country were
selected for mob violence and oppro-
brium-come to their relief by anticl-
pating their wants and by giving orders
for rails months in advance OF their ac-
tual requirements. Political economists
may object that it was not an act OF char
ity in which great corporations
had any right to indulge, but IT Is
certain that without this thou
sands of laboring men in the State OF
Pennsylvania alone would have suffered
severely. Not only this, but IN order to
aid the industries which are now so much
depressed, and to enable manufacturers
to continue business and thus keep their
men steadily employed, the railways OF
the country have reduced their local
freight charges to the lowest point ever
known, and have moved the heavy mate
rials used in making iron, steel, glass and
other products at rates barely above the
actual cost OF transportation and yet, by
a curiously inverted process OF reasoning.
the course thus pursued by the railways
has been most bitterly denounced by the
self constituted nouth-pieces Of the very
classes which have alone profted by II.
TOO MANY HANDS EMPLOYED.
1t is safe to assert that so far as the
special class Of railway employees fire.
men and freight brskemen is concerned,
there are, perhaps, but few railway COM
panies in the United States which are not
to-day employing force of train hands
larger than their actual business requires.
With the falling of of revenue from
traffic, the question was presented At
once TO railway managers whether the
force employed on the lines should be re-
duccd to that actually necessary Tor the
work TO be done, IN which case greater
compensation might have been paid TO
the men 50 retained while others equally
deserving must have been turned
adriit, or whether it would not be both
wiser and kinder to retain as many men
as possible in the service by so alLotting
the work a. TO permit ali TO earn sum,
smaller indeed than In the past, yet II
was hoped sufficient to support them
selves and their families during the
severe period of depression, to the near
close of which railway managers, IN
common with all the business men OF
the country, perhaps too confidently
looked forward. This course, rs have
SAID, may be condemned by the hard
rules of political economy. The ex-
pcrience OF the past few weeks seems TO
show that 1t has commended itself ss
little to those whom 1t WAS intended 70
relieve, and to whom alone If anybody,
!. has bepn beuehcIal
WHO DIp ACTS OF VIOLENCE?
It must not for moment, however, be
understood, that the greatest portion, or,
indeed, any considerable portion, Of the
outrages upon life and property which
have dlsgrsced our recent history we're
actually committed by railway employees
II is not true that the majprILy, or even
any large portion of these men have been
disloyal TO the trust reposed IN them.
Probably ninety per cent. OF the men on
the important lines OF the country
where strikes occurred were faithful TO
their duties, and either reinsinet al work
or stood ready to res slme 1t Ms soon as
they were relieved from the actual IN.
tlmidation to which they were subjected
Ly the rioters and their leaders. 1t WAS
the dissatisfied eiement-whICh eXss ID
that branch of industry ~ in sll othrrs-
which perpetrated or allowed the perpe-
tratiOn of most OF the overt GCta Ul v!O.
lence, such as stopping trains, forcing
men theretrom, uHCoupllRg cars, dIscon-
Meeting engines, and other lawless doings
of the kind. and which made itself
amerable also to the charge of directly
attacking the interests of the govern
ment and society at large ss well IS
the railway companies. As General
Hurlbui, OF Illinois, so forcibiy expresses
il, in q paper recently published, they
permitted themselves 10 be the nucleus
around which the idle, vicious and Grim
inal element could gather Reinforced
by these dark and disputsble allies they
destroyed property, stopped commerce,
deranged the mails, burned great pubic
buildings, broke up tracks and thus par
alyzed the natural circulation OF the
Common wealth 1t is 10 the menace 10
the general interests OF society involved in
the disturbances that the real gravity OF
the situation with which TINS country
Is now called to deal exists. The rail.
road system is to-day u supreme uecessi-
ty 10 maintain lie; furnish ready markes,
ind TO bring a5ou! the enormous inter-
change of products which makes the
country one. Stop 1t, and in ten days
many parts of the country would near
the starvation poirt, and within = month
there would b. no hamlet in the Vas. ter
ritory drained by these channels but
would teel to the core OF its business the
effects OF the sLoppage Of this regular and
usUai circulation.
The enormoas mechanical changes and
progress OF the past century have brought
about complete revolution. so gradual
that perhaps it mas been generally appre-
hendei, IN the very condition OF things
i'll the United States. The water lines,
which, st the date of the lramis5 of the
Constitution, were our important chan
nels OF internal commerce, have been Al
most superseded By the new iron hign.
WAYS Upon these is born traffic - es-
senuaily national, 60 cl,se.y interviewer
,y-.f fia MT ,rrsy al ,D- own