The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-08-04
Who Pays =?

olidli nave taught lll6 IdlIIOduS a
good lesson. 1t is cheaper for them
to surrender than to fight" Is that
true?
Railroads are not making much
money in these days. Some of them
are running at loss. 1t is the dull
season, when the profits of the freight
tartfic are so small as to be hardly
worth estimating-certainly not
worth fighting for; and if the road
is sound the loss of business through
a strike at the end of July need not
involve it in very serious difficulties.
1t is only The actual destruction of
the railway material and private
property that need be taken into
considerations; and we should Ike to
known who pays for that? BY the
laws of every one of the States the
charge falls upon the city or country
in which the destruction occurred. In
Pittsburg the damage to the property
OF the companies is placed at five and
half million dollars, This is low
eStiHate, The contlagration involved
one hundred and twenty five locom-
Olives, large proportion of which
where the heaviest and most costly
machines made in America, worth
worth about $4,000 apiece. There
were 800 or LOCO cars, from the cheap
platform.car to the Pullman place on
wheels. There were three miles of
and repair shops, with their valuable
tools, and of sheds, platforms, yards
round houses, etc. There was cost.
ly depot building and lagre elegant
and Well-furnished hotel, which will
be gratefully remembered by all
travellers who know what meal
at Plttsburg used to be five years ago
and what it became after that estab-
lishment was opened. The loss by
the destruction of all this property
and by the damage to the permanent
way might easily reach, it seems to-
us, six or seven millions. Then there
Is the loss on the contents of the
frelget cars burned OF piIlaged by the
mob. OF this NO estimate can be-
made; but it must be enormous, and
whatever it is, the city of Pittsburg
has got to pay for it, as well as for
the mammoth grain elevator, and
for all the injury to private houses
and persons. 1t will be a pretty adj
dition to the burdens of a small city,
and it will be all the heavier because
in the depression of the railway in
dustry must follow these disorders,
Pittsburg, the creature and depend
ent of railways will be one Of the fore
most suffers. And, to complete the
punishment of the unfortunate city,
the Pennsylvania Railroad Com-
pany resolves that shops shall be re-
built somewhere else.
Fourteen years ago there was a
great riot in New York. 1t will long
be remember for scenes of burtality
but the destruction of property was
far less than at Pittsburg the other
day. Yet for that riot the taxpayers
of New York were held liable toy the
amount of nearly S2,000,000. Bonds
were issued to meet the charge. On
those bonds we have already paid
more than a million and a-half of
interest. This year we have to pay
the first instalment of the principal.
amounting to half a million. The
annual interest thus far has been
nearly $4,000. Every penny of
these large sums has come out of the
pockets of the laboring lnen of the
metropolis.
Every penny of the much larger
sums payable on account ofPittsburg
Baltimore, Reading, Hornellsville
and other scenes of the preseD dis
turbance, must likewise come out of
the pockets of working classes. 1t is
idle to imagine that in this age of
the world any burden can be laid up
on capital which labor will not be
finally forced to bear. The tax which
the rich man pays to the collector is
paid again by the poor man in tire
torn of house rent, tailOrs' bills,
butchers bills, and the price of bread.
All charges upon the community are
paid by the whole community. No
body can get rid of his share.
Nor is this all. The strikers have
a direct pecuniary interest in the
prosperity of the very railroads they
are trying to cripple. The business
of the who'll country is bound up
with the fortunes of the railroads,
and it is the condition of business
which governs the market prices of
labor. When the railroads are paral-
yzed, all our commercial operations
are stricken as if with death; our fac.
tories stand idle, our ships lie empty
at the warf, our warehouses are va
cant. And the strikers finally must
learn that it is the railroads that
feed them. They cannot stop the
cattle and grain car without raising
the price of beef and bread. New