The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-08-02
THE COMMUNE IN THE UNITED
STATES.
From the New York Tribune.


govern the United States. Whether
they will succeed we shall see. That
the disorderly strikers are Communists
enemies Of all rights Of property.
and of all law or government that
defends these rightS-does not need
demonstration. They begin by deny
ing the right Of capital to employ any
labor, unless it employs them
at their own terms. This involves
violation Of the right Of other men
who want to work at the wages pro-
posed. It involves warfare upon all
those interests in society which depend
upon promptness and regularity in ex-
change Of goods. It ends in wild
rapine: III the murder Of those. who
defend public order; in the sacking OF
cars, depots and stores III the destrUc-
tion by freof property worth many
millions. This is the Communist.
His work in Paris is known. 1t is the
blacklist page i'll the history Of the
nineteenth century. His work in the
United States we are beginning to
know. In France, the struggle left
only the form of q Republic. In tie
United States, seif-government must
quickly demonstrate its power to
trample out Communistic resistance to
law, or, as in France, those who have
property to lose, those who have the
desire to accumulate property for
children, those who have the intelli-
gence to know that security and order
| are best fer all classes and necessary
to the very existence Of civilized
society, will soon be found demanding
a Government strong enough to pro-
tect life and property. We are Ear
from doubling the disposition Of the
Federal Administration. re what ex-
| tent it has the power, crippled as it
has been by Democratic economy, and
hampered, as it necessarily is, by cen
stitutional limitations il the exercise
OF It's power, we have yet to learn
1t is doing what it can. But property
worth $2,000o00,000 lies to-day useless,
and, for present or sure future use,
practically worthless, until the au-
thority Of the law can be restored,
The Communi5tic strikers are anx-
ious to have it believed THAI they were
not responsible for the rapine and des-
truction Of property in Pittsburg. 1t
may be granted, without helping their
case in the least, that they did not
participate III or instigate the robbery
and burning which disgraced that
city. Accounts differ widely probably
the truth is that some Of the strikers
did, while others did not, countenance
OF aid the destruction Of railway prop
erty. But the responsibility lies
farther back. Every striker made
war upon all civilized society when he
countenanced the stopping Of trains.
He robbed the railway company,
which had right to employ cheaper
labor if it could, He robbed other
laborers, who had q right to sell their
services at the price offered if they
pleased. He violated the laws Of the
State, undertook an armed revolution,
and necessarily emboldened ali the
dangerous and desperate classes to
Join in the war against rights Of
property. He who fires a shot into o
crowd without authority is q murder
er, though lie may have had no malice
toward the person killed. He who
instigates a riot or revolutionary out
break is not less responsible for the
excuses and crime which will follow.
Public opinion slaughtered men and
burned buildings in Pittsburgh-that
infamous and cowardly public opinion
which encouraged with sympathy a
law-defying mob when it attempted to
dictate terms to company, and then
stood inactive as long as mob de-
stroyed property Of the company. tt
awoke too late to q realization that
civilized society cannot tolerate mobs;I
when other property was stolen or
destroyed, then, and not till then, sell
fish greed oyercane ipitiful cowardice,
and the citizens Of Pittsburgh began to /
for the restoration Of order.
Fortunately, the City Of Pittsburgh
will have to pay the cost of its tolera-
ton of riots. For every dollar lost by