The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1877-08-04
Our New York Letter.
The Great Labor StriIke-The
Commune Leaders i'm New
Xork-The Prospect.


EDITOR CHIEF:
The great strike which has plunged
the whole country into a condition of
anarchy, is the prevailing topic. The
stoppage of traffic on the railroads has
had a most disastrous effect on the
business of the city, and coming as it
does just as we began to see glin-
mers of daylight, is all the more de-
pressing. 1t is thousand pities that
the madmen could not let the roads
operate in peace till the enormous
crop that covers the entire West was
gotten to market, and the money for
it distributed in the hands of the
farmers. 1t is a thousand pities that
men haven't sense enough to know
| that force never did add cent to a
mans wages that labor is something
that regulates itself, and which physi-
cal force can neither alter or amend.
There was, all the week, a feverish
feeling of apprehension. There are
in the city fifty thousand honest men
out of employment, fifty thousand
more who wouldn't do stroke of
work to save their lives, so long as
any thing can be found to steal and
there are twenty thousand men at
work, who are infected with the ter
rible dogmas of communism, and who
are born agitators. The strikes in
Baltimore and Pittsburg set these
classes into ferment. The unem-
ployed wanted work, the Communists
wanted an opportunity to Z" strike for
the rights of man, and the ruffians
and tramps wanted disorder that they
might pillage with impunity. The ex-
element eliminated in a monster
meeting at Tompkins' Square, We'd
nesday night, under the direction of
Schwah, Thompson and Swinton, the
three leaders of the New York Com
munists.- When the meeting was
called the city was in state of alarm.
1t was feared that the fanatical lead
ers would inflame the multitude sure
to be there, and that the meeting
wonld eliminate in riot, which
would end no one could tell when or
where. The authorities acted prompt
ly and with discretion. The National
Guard was ordered under arms, aud
a very large number of special police
were sworn in. They gave the Com
munists permission to hold their
meeting. but gave them to under
stand that the place would be sur
rounded by police, that at the first
intimation of disorder the military
would be brought into requisition
and there would be no halfway work
about it. The leaders saw that the
authorities meant business, and they
instructed their followers to keep the
peace, which fortunately for them
selves they did. The meeting was a
fizzle, and with the fzzle ended the
hopes of the rougls of New York to
inaugurate q riot here.
The effect upon business has been
terrible. Immense masses of freights
lie in the depots, there is no regulari-
ty in mails, and the influx of stran-
gers into the city has nearly ceased.
Trade is almost as entirely, at a
stand still as it is i'll Pittsburg. But
it can't last. Men may stand and
swing clubs and yell, few days, but
they have to eat, and food was never
got by swinging clubs and yelling.
The Pennsylvania road is now open,
and the others will be in day or
two, when the regular flow of busi-
ness will begin again.
John Swinton, the ablest agitator
of the lot, has been connected with
the press of New York for quarter
of century. He is man of above
the average weight and height, with
a good -natured face, surmounted by
bald crown. He got his notions of
liberty, fraternity and equality in
Paris, and is as radical q Republican
as ever lived. He is an excellent wri-
ter and an indefatigible worker, and
is honest. He makes no money out of
it, nor is he in these movements be-
cause ofany hankering for notoriety>
He is a good speaker, and is a favor
ite with the Reds.
Justus H. Schwab, is a German of
perhans forty-6ye. who processes to