Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1877-08-08
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.

minds in the days whom price and val
~ :; ;ji;SsSaff knne1e.-
1&ss & .ha115 f 'daing incn * +. tssSl
by thoughtful persons that when th'
day of shrinkage and settlement cam,
there would be resistance and trouble
Men who had been receiving highe
wdges than We're ever known as u rul,
in the world were hardly expected I,
acquiesce in reduction, even after ,
great and general tall in the price o
the necessarics of life had demonstrat
cd the reasonableness of the change
The present strike, which originated
with the brakemen of the Baltimor,
and Ohio Railroad, has extended t
connected roads west and north, anc
threatens TO become all but general
1t is being quietly reinforced by tn,
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
with the distinct purpose Of placing
all the principal railroads Of the coun
try at the mercy of the strikers, Th,
Baltimore ahd Ohio strike is different
affair from the strikes that usually oc
cur; it is no organized movement tc
demand higher wages, but to resist the
reduction Of present ones And how
resist Not by such proper protests
accompanied with reasoning and argu-
ments as each party to contract al
ways has a right 70 make, but by
theft ond violence, by the actual com
mission Of grave crimes
We assume that tho cause of this
ten per cent. reduction in wages was
duly made known by the railroad com.
pany to the men in its employ. They
therefore understood why the company
acted as it did and were ut liberty to
make their representations in reply.
Instead Of that they organize wide
spread conspiracy to destroy both the
property and the business of their en-
ployers, and do not scruplo to take hu-
man life in the attempt to execute
their scheme. While they naturally
have the sympathy of all persons in
being compelled to submit TO circum,
stances more or less straitened by this
reduction in their wages, they must see
before they are done with it that they
only rouse the whole community
against them when they defy the rules
which exist for TIE protection of life
and property. They then suffer them
selves TO become frenzied and, for the
time, outlaws. Men who trample on
law cannot call on IT TO protect them.
Untilthey lay violence aside, they can
not complain il violence is all that is
meted out TO them. Neither by thicv-
ing, by stopping trains, nor by murder
are differences about wages adjusted
between employers and employed.
Since the shrinkage in everything set
in, individuals have felt perfectly free
to reduce the pay of those who might
be employed by them, so as to cor
respond with their business and profits,
and nobody has for moment thought
of interfering with them. 1t was re.
garded as an affair between those who
had need Of service and those who had
it 20 sell, and each was supposed to do
the best he could, with which he alter
wards remained contented. A clerk
with reduced salary who should go
to stealing his employers goods or
shooting the person set to guard them
while being carried from the store TO
the boat or cars, would be dealt with
without the least regard to dissatisfac-
tion about his pay.
The difference Jetioeen tie case of a
single cler6 and a body Of brdkemen and
fremen is simply one Of numbers. The
principle inuolved is one and The same
in both cases. The mere fact of num-
bers cannot change that. So tar as
the tradesunion is an organization that
Is resolved to defy that principle, by
employers to pay ratesd die
tated by the lattcr,-not to speak of
its forbidding members to accept other
than union prices, whatever their own
or their families necesslties,--it is at
open ,oar Nth tie rights Of society in re-
spect to all It's varied interests, and can be
dealt oih only as an enemy. If worst
comes to worst in the present trouble,
1t is not at all difficult to see how futile
will prove this attempt at resistance.
1t has been said that problem OF this
sort is most difficult one under our
suffrage system of universal labor it
should be the easiest. In country
where labor is the law, il is of supreme
that it should at all times
protect itself against violence, for labor
can neither win nor enjoy its triumphs
except in the steady assurance OF
peace and security. Hence the rising
against an insurrectionary revolt like
what is now threatened must be over
whelming, commanding submission to
the law and perfect respect for con.
tracts. We have made fatal mistake
for the future Of our common industry
if we have suffered the Old World
union systems to be engraftcd upon it
for the purpose Of its control. Nothing
can be more un.Americdn and un-repuJh- |
can than 10 forbid any person porking for
l0hat SATISFIES him and to compel his fam
liy TO suffer pant from the idleness en-.
forced by union tyrdnny.-Boston Post.
LOUISIANA INDICTMENTS.
Why should anybody in Washing
ton, or Massachusetts, or anywhere
else, get excited during this heated
term over the deliberations of a Grand
Jury away down in Louisiana ? What
business have we or anybody else to