The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-11-23


Last August, in the midst of the great
strike and the riotous labor demonstrations
that took place in the North and West, the
papers there and the community generally
denounced the strikers and rioters, and
threatened them with severe punishment
under the law. AS soon, therefore, as the
military had put down the strike, large
number of men, leaders In these movements
were arrested and prosecuted in all those
cities where disturbances had taken place.
There seemed to be no lack OF offenses on
which to try these men; property had been
burned, lives lost and the mails interfered
with; here were murder, arson, theft and a
half dozen other crimes on which to pros
ecute them.
In New York, Rochester, Buffalo, Pittsburg,
Scranton, Harrisburg, st. Louis, Baltimore
and San Francisco these cases were prose-
cuted to the end by the authorities with great
energy and vigor, but with signal lack of sue
cess OF over thousand strikers and rioters
tried only three have as yet been found
guilty-these in Pittsburg and Baltimore |;
and these convictions are Of worthless drunk
en- wretches who were In no sense leaders in
the movements of August, and the offenses of
which they have been found guilty, light ones,
punishable with only a short imprisonment
In the county Jail. The prosecutions by the
law officers. therefore, of the rioters may be
taken as signal failures; they have had the
effect only OF keeping alive bitter feelings and
animosities, of making the workingmen surly
and dangerous, and have tended to revive the
strike with all its dangers and disasters.
On the other hand, strange to relate, the
peace and order party, those who devoted
themselves to putting down the disturbances
and particularly the militia, have not Jared
at ell we'll, and have been in trouble almost
ever since these occurrences. Their troubles
began with the indictment of the city authori-
ties and commanders of the militia at Scran-
ton for murder; this was followed by the in
dictment of Gen. Pearson and others at Pitts
burg; the Maryland regiment that attacked
the rioters on Baltimore street was dis
handed by the Governor for this act, and the
entire militia force Of Philadelphia has be-
come demoralized and has been in part dis
organized for the part it took in the Pitts
burg riots.
And lastly comes the Grand Jury at Pitts
burg last week with review of the riot,
speaking In very mild terms of the rioters,
but denouncing the militia and the officials,
from Governor down. The Governor was
away from duty; the call for the troops was
made, not by any public official, but by the
railroad company itself; the act OF the
militia in firing on the people was MUIR
der. and the military operations were
plumbers from first to last. So violent is
the Grand Jury that they actually charge
the militia with arson, holding them
morally responsible for it and declar-
ING that when they retired into the round
house they practically invited it. And in sum-
ming up they say: "The riots resulted from
the movements of militia controlled by rail-
road officials and eliminated in frightful
massacre. The troops on Saturday acted as
a invading hostile force They were mob
BENT on killing !"
1 The riots therefore have resulted thus far
L, more damage to the militia and authorities
sbsr n the leaders in the riot. The threats
Isby the Northern papers during the trou-
f1sa 81 leral punishment for the rioters and
~fyikers appears to have been altogether vain
end ineffective