New-York tribune., 1877-07-26
WHO PA YSf

| WHO P3fSf
"Maybe we shall not succeed in getting the
"wages we ASK say some of the strikers
"but at any rate we shall have taught the
railroads good lesson. 1t is cheaper for
"them to surrender than to fight" Is that
! true9
. Railroads are not making much money IN
these DAYS. Some of them are1unning at a
loss. 1t is the dull season, when the profits OF
/ the freight traffic are so small as to be hardly
worth estimating, certainly not worth lighting
| for and if a Road is sound the loss of busi-
ness through strike at the end of July need
not involve it in very serious difficulties. '5
! ia only the actual destruction of the
railway materiel and private property that
! need be taken into consideration; and we should
ike to know who pays for thatf BY the laws
OF every one of the States the charge fails
upon the CITY or County in which the destruc-
tion occurred. II Pittsburg the damage to the
property of the Companies il placed AT five and
a balf million dollars. This Is low estimate.
The cOni!agratiOn involved one hundred and
twenty-five locomotives, largo proportion OF
which were the heaviest and moSt costly ma
chimes made in America, worth about S2O,OOO
apiece There were 500 or 1000 cars, from
the cheap platferm-car to the Pullman palace
on wheels There were three miles Of machine
and repair shops, with their valuable tools
and OF sheds, platforms, yards rouDd-houses
etc, etc There was costly depot building,
and large, elegant and weil-fuInished hotel
which will be gratefully remembered by all tray
eIlers VINO know what meal ut PlttsburS used
TO be five years ago, and whaG it became after
that establishment was opened. The loss by
the destruction OF all this property and by the
damage to the permanent way might easily
reach, it seems to us, SIX or seven millions
Then there is the loss on the contents of the
freight cars burned or pillaSed by the mob. Or
this no estimate can be made; but it must be
enormous, and whatever it is, the City oi Pitts
burg has got to pay for H. as well as for the
mammoth grain elevator and ior all The IN
Jury to private houses and persons. 1t will be
pretty addition 10 the burdens of "a small
CITY, and it will be all the heavier be-
cause, in the depression Of the railway industry
which must follow these disorders, Pittsburg, tho
creature and dependent of railways, Will be
one OF the forein0s. sufferers And, to complete
the punishment Of the unfortunate City, the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company resolves that
It's shops shall he rebuilt somewhere else.
Fourteen years ago there was a great riot in
New-York. 1t vii long be remembered for
scenes Of brutality, but the destruction OF
property was far less than at PittSburg tho
other day. Yet for that not the taxpayers OF
New York were held liable TO the amount Of
nearly 81 ,000, 900. Bonds were issued to meet
tho charge On those bonds we have already
paid more than million and half Of
Z hnxra 10 No
first instalment of the principal, amounting
to half a million. The annual interest thus iar
has been nearly $4,000. Every pOnny OF
these large sums has come out Of the peck
cts of tho laboring men OF tho Metropolis
Every penny of the much larger suiss pay
able on account Of Plttsburg, Baltimore, Read
ing HoTnclsvillo, and other scenes of the
present disturbance, must likewise come ont of
the pockets of the working classes. 1t is idle
to imagine that in this age of the world any
burden can be laid upon Capital which Labor
will rot be finally forced to bear. The tax
which the rich man pays to the collector is
paid again by the poor man in the form OF
| house-rent, tailors' bills, butchers bills, and
the price OF bread. All charges upon the com
munity are paid by tho whole community.
| Nobody can get rid of his share.
Nor is this ALL The strikers havo direct
pecuniary interest i'll tho prosperity of the
very railroads they arc trying tc cripple. The
business of tho whole country j. bound up
with the fortunes of the railroad, and it is
! tho condition of business wAioh governs the
market price of labor When tho railroads
are paralyzed, all our comiaeTcial opera
tions are stricken as if with death; our
factories stand lille, our ships lie empty at the
wharf, our warehouses are vacant. And the
strikers finally must learn that it is the rail-
roads that feed them. They cannot stop the
cattle and grain cars without raising the
| price of beef and bread.