Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-08-10

Poor Defence OF Strikers ana hio's'
The faulty logic off,. K. Is" defence oil
the railroad strikers will carry with 1t Its
own answer to most intelligent readers.
Some of his doubtless unintentional) mis-
statements of facts may be less obvious to
those who do not have at hand the record OF
dates and events. To begin with, it is to be re-
membered that the late strikes on the railroads
have been strikes of the brakemen and fire
men. The work of these can hardly be call
ed " skilled labor" Almost any man can
learn to set brake or throw fuel into
fire box, in a few hours. Moreover, the
brakemen and fremen arc in large proper
ton young men, without families.
In the second place, the fact is that the
violence was everywhere begun by the strik-
ers. The actual firing, even, was first by the
mob. The strike began at Baltimore on the
10th of July when forty brakemen and ire
men left their trains. There were plenty OF
experienced men out OF employment, who
were glad to take their places; but the
strikers would not permit them so to do. BY
threats and often by actual violence they
drove them from the engines and cars, and
stopped the running Of the trains. They had
a right to say that they would not work for
wages which did not suit them. They had
no right to say that other men, needing
work and glad to get it at the price offered,
should not have work. They had no right
to blockade a railroad to the distress and
damage of thousands of persons who never
did them any injury. The next strike was
at Martinsburg, West Virginia, where the
strikers in like manner iorcibly and un-
lawfully and Srongfrlly prevented new
hands, who wanted work and were salts
fed to work at the wages offered, from
starting the cars Here the first collision
between the strikers and military took place.
A striker was the aggressor. lie had dis
placed a switch, in order to detain train.
A militia man attempted to replace the
switch and for so doing, in the strict and
peaceful discharge of his duty, was fired
upop twice and wounded by the striker.
Several of the soldiers then returned the fire
and wounded the striker. By the 18th OF
- ,-.oL -, ho,onse
-, L.. oa,ooa hr. b.oorse Tho
80 so,a;,, ON, uo,e
- r;,hon, ;nor.os;,o N. creu
srh-alo,.on Tber violently and Iawlessly
- zoo oo,s ooo Of which were filled
w;,h re-;sbsble ooods. The first collision be.
,resn tbe militia and mob in Baltimore took
nlace On the Goth. The mob we're the aggres.
sors Thew attacked the armory of the Sixth
regiment before the troops had marched out
Of II and before any show of force had been
made They threw militia man, on mis-
xav 10 the armory, over bridge into Jones
Falls Melted Others with brick bats, and de-
stroved the doors and windows Of the
armory and wounded some of the mer
with yollies of paving stones. Wher
the soldiers marched out they were
assailed with stones and revolver shot:
and only fired in self-defence, after persist.
ent attack from the mob. The scenes al
Pittsburg on the DIST and 22d, need not be
recounted. There, too, the militia were at
tackled with vollies of stones and with re-
yolyer shots, before they fired. So it wa:
everywhere. If at Indianapolis the striker:
RETAINED from actual and outrageous VIC
lepce. it was the exception and not the rule
Elsewhere they became incendiaries and
burned millions of property. They pillaged
freight cars. They tore up tracks. They
sn;ked Instructions upon the rails before
Messenger trains. at the imminent danger Of
DESTROYING the lives of innocent passengers
Tbsv oppressed their fellow working msr
and took the bread from their families BY
driving them from their work. They in
flicted untold injury not only Oh the railroad
interest. on which their own support de-