The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-07-23
The Baltimore and Ohio, and other
Rail Road Strikes.

Rail Road Strikes.
A very broad distinction should be made
between the sympathy which is felt in
behalf of the injured and oppressed, and
sympathy with acts Of lawlessness, intim-
idation, and violence.
1t is creditable to the human heart that
a general sympathy is felt for all such as
allege they are living at starvation rates.
Hunger, sickness, poverty and distress
always appeal powerfully to the better
feelings of humanity and induce a will
lingness to aid and assist. So strong
is this feeling in the human breast that
even if the distressful condition is in a
great measure the result of the sufferers
own acts, still the willingness to render
assistance is not repressed; much more so
is this the case when the sufferers are the
victims Of injustice and needless tyranny.
But a sentiment of this character is
entirely differentfrom encouraging, aiding,
and abeting acts of lawless resistance to
constituted authority, or sympathizing with
mob violence.
Lett be granted that where the present
strikes exist, the wages Of employees have
been reduced to an Internationally low
rate, the manner in which they are seeking
to remedy the evil must certainly in the
outcome prove disastrous, -doubly so to
Observation-Disclosures it is wrong in prin-
ciple and futile in practice,
Let us 60 further and say, that it is not
right or iusti6able for Rail Road Compa-
MES, or any other incorporated form Of
capital, to reduce the wages Of employees
to an unreasonably low rate in order that
the savings made in the reduction of wages
may 20 to swell dividends on stocks
'watered" and swelled to several times the
amount of the original stock; and yet we
fail to see what possible effect strike has
in restraining this species of speculation,
or preventing the company from employing
labor at its market price. Any compulsory
interference with the business of the
Company by employees, any retaliatory
measures of a coercive kind to compel
compliance with their demands by destruc-
ton of property aud interruption of carry
ing trade, and consequently the infiction
Of pecuniary loss upon the company, are
in no way calculated to effect the object
sought, but if any thing only increase
resistance to the employees demands aud
make the employer more unyielding.
Toll 70 IL ha
strikes produce for themselves a positive
injury in the loss Of sympathy which 9th.
erwise would be on the weaker side, and
by compelling law-abdiug citizens to come
forward and join in protecting the rights
of property; when, if these rights were
not so endangered, their sympathies and
their efforts might be entirely another way.
AS we have often said before, the labor
ing classes having the right of ballot
should look closer to the terms of the laws
enacted as well as to the character Of the
men who administer them. The leg;sla
ton Of the country for many years ha'
been too largely-we had almost said ex
clusively-in the interests of capital anC
against labor. No amount of reasoning Of
demonstration could bring the masses to SCI
the overshadowing danger, until the
wake up to fud themselves at the mercy o
moneyed corporations When told of tn
coming storm the party" has always beel
held forth as the ark of safety, aud unde
the belief of the rank and file that tn
party was in danger the capitalists hav
succeeded in fostering and carrying GU
their special ends aud financial schemes.
Labor has the numbers-if acting j
concert and for its own interests, it Nigh
control the policy of the government.
is through the ballot box and not throug
strikes that it can effect any substantial an
lasting good.
We give below extracts from variou
leading papers, and of different politics
sentiments, which show how unqualified
they are all agreed upon the one point of tn
impolicy and useessness Of strikes, eithe
as an available or as rightf1l remed
against the acts aud proceedings of in
corporated capital.
(ho. Republican,
The strike OF the employees of the Balti
more aud Ohio railroad and Of other line
20 which the movement has extended j
certainly entitled to the distinction o
being designated as the greatest ''confiic
between capital and labor so-caled, eve
witnessed in this country. The contro
yersy is daily becoming more aggravated
a second clash Of arms between the mill
tary and the strikers have occurred aut
other collisions being imminent. Tn
sanguiuary affair at Baltimore is great
TO be regretted, but under the circum
stances was unavoidable. The TELEGRAPH
furnishes interesting accounts of tn
trouble between the roads and the en-
ployes and detailed accounts of the ez
citing incidents connected Herewith.
The press and the public are united i
the view taken of tho railroad strike
with one voice they denounce it as an &C
of violence that can be met only in on
way-torce. The strikers are, themselves
the most piuless of despOts; they set q
defiance, not only the laws Of the land, bu
the unwritten principles Of Justice. Pre-
tending to be fighting for bread, the
snatch the bread out of the mouths {
those who seek to earn it by taking tn
positions which they have deserted; affec
ing to be struggling for the rights of labor
hey strike down the right of labor b
numbering those who attempt to work, i
defiance of their tyrannical orders. The
boast Of the humanity and uprightnes
pf their cause; and yet the ageBcie
with which they seek TO enforce that caus