New-York tribune., 1877-07-26

4
notorious, and ought to be known to you, Q)
that the men of the best business capacity can
be held or obtained by the railroads only by
payment of more money than the same ABILITY
and tact would earn elsewhere, and the rail-
roads would be glad to get better men Tor the
same work at lower wages, if they could; (2)
, that the contracts with freight lines, originally
deemed necessary to draw business TO certain
roads, cannot always be broken as soon as
they prove less beneficial to the roads THAI to
the freight companies and (3) that the sleep
ing-car contracts, originally most beneficial to
the companies, cannot now be broken by them
the hard timesf In any case, have you pros
pect of better situations with no WORK ana no
wages than with the wages offered
III. 1t is your right, you say, to have the
wages demanded and the comforts, ruiuI-
gences and pleasrrt which such wages will buy.
Undoubtedly it il, if you can get them in free
sale of your services to the hlgheat BIDDER.
Did railroad company ever arrest you ana
lock You III, because you wanted to change
yo1r occupation or place of work, and =" get
better wages elsewheref Nobody questions
Your right to do 40. But other men stand
ready to do your work at lower wages than
you drmaud. Have you any right to say t"ot
they shall not sell their work to those who
want it at terms satisfactory to both Ii trey
can live, you can live. If your work is worth
more than theirs, go sell ii where you please ;
nobody hinders.
w. The railroad companies, you think,
without great loss, until they can obtain equai'y
good accommodations through some Other ar
rangement. No one has more sharply CEN
surcd the general Impolicy OF many OF these
features of railroad management than IHE
TRIBUNE, but whatever wrong the railroads
NAV have committed in this respect, or in the
watering of their stock, o. in reckless manage
ment, their wrong will not in the least vindl-
cate your miideeds. They are clearly IN the
Iisht of it now in refusing to squander the
funds of the trust they are managing by pay
ing more than the market price for labor; ana
You are clearly in the wrong in insisting thai
you will not let other people work for them
when they wish to.
" Rest assured that the railway companies
are not the better able to pay good wares after
you have destroyed property worth millions,
and brought incalculable loss uTon the buSl-
meas which affords to railroads Their revenues.
Whatever a company feels able to pay to-day,
it will not feel able to pay as much II you
destroy depots, engines, cars, and other costly
and necessary parts of its equipment. You are
killing the goose that laid the golden eggs,
because il would not yield "a many "a you
wanted. Business is prostratcd everywhere,
and because OF this strike. Your performance
will lessen by many millions the sum paid to
railways for transportation. Can you not see
that it must lessen by many millions the sum
which railways can pay to you!
Communism is war upon society in asSer-
tioa OF your sup osed rights; and the result is
destruction OF the resources Of society, and
wasting of the means by which y0ur labor
may be- rewarded, and compulsory union OF
order-loying and sensible ctiZeas to put down
disorder, as a country village rallies to pat ont
n fire in the night. Men who work for wages
in the United States cannot afford to be Com
munists. They only rob themselves. Against
the Communstic spirit are baudcd al free in
stitutions and if you could 10y any possibility
force the establishment of u dcsvotism, the
deSpot would be chosen, not by You, bat Ivy
the men who can hire armies. and would be
tbeir tool and not yours.