The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-07-30
HrcHER. LAW.

the world with its millions of property in
ashes, hundreds of lives lost, business de-
ranged and attended with untold loss, and
mob violence established as a precedent
for remedying grievances, instead of the
more wholesome method of the ballot box.
And all thisis justified by the higher law =?
There is not communist in the land that
does not take the same position. The
Unions opinion, coming as it does in the
face of the.known results, justifes all that
has been done. 1t is one thing to sympa-
thize with strike and to wish the strikers
success; it is quite another and very
different thing to wish success to mob or
to men who engage in laTless action. An
orderly strike may deserve the sympathy
of tho whole community. We believe if
the train men who struck work had
contented themselves with this, and with
a presentation of their grievances to the
public and to the stockholders of the
companies, they could have carried the
sympathy of the country with them, and
undoubtedly public opinion would in such
case have been inclined to force the rail-
road managers to come to an. amicable
arrangement with their people. Every
thing shows that these are thoroughly or
ganized, and that they had it in their
power by general strike to put the COM
panies and the public to such inconvenience
as would have caused universal demand
for an arrangement.
But all this advantage ground they have
forfeited by their lawless conduct; and to-
days as matters stand, they do not deserve
the sympathy or help of any honorable or
intelligent workingman anywhere. 1t is a
fatal blunder they have made, and the
less excusable because there is now abun-
dant evidence to show that the strike was
pre-arranged, and was to take place sim
ultaneously on most of the great lines. 80
general stoppage of work, so great NJ
widespread a demonstration could no,
have failed to be effective had it been car
ried on in peaceable and legitimate man
ner. If the men have been wronged, as
they profess, they would have advertised
their cause to the public in manner
which would have gained them universal
approval. As it is they have set..at defiance
not only the laws, but the conservative in
stincts of the county, the law recognizes
and protects the right of all men to refuse
to work except on terms satisfactory to
themselves; but it does not permit them
to prevent other men from working who
desire to do so. Unless the state is TO be
given up to anarchy, and its courts and
laws are to be defed with impunity, its
whole power must he exerted to suppress
violence, maintain order and protect it,
citizens in their right to work, and the
business of the country from lawless
interruption.
1t is pure communism to sustain such
action. 1t is rank demagogueism for any
public journal to talk Of higher law" in thu
face of such results as we're attained a
Pittsburgh. No honest or respectable
workman can endorse any such doctrine o
allow their sympathies to go out to sucI
mob violence. The men who are block
aiding roads, burning cars, attacking troops
breaking open and sacking shops, throw
iDg stones into moving trains, are no
F strikers; but they are rioters; it is not
strike, but an instruction, and has not
hope of success. 1t may still further Grip
pie the railroad companies and disabl
! them from paying fair wages; it may pu
the country TO great Inconvenience, loss an
expense; but it will be crushed out; an
{ when the end comes, after all the diserac
: such anarchical attempts bring upon tn
f country and upon the workmen, what goo
! will have been accomplished?
The times are hard; many thousands c
. families all over the country now kuo'
! what want is who never knew it before
j.. and when men who are themselves suffer
ing hardships hear the pitiful story of othe
men also suffering, or claiming to be, it
natural and not improper that they shout
- sympathize with them and wish them sue
cess in an effort to prevent decrease
wages. But when it comes to justifyin
r the results of the present strike it is
different thing, and no honest workma
j. will sustain it. The workingmen Of thi
D, country are an resistable power; they are
IT majority of the people; indeed, they al
of the people. And we mean by the ter
:. all who earn their living by work of or
e kind or another. Whenever they demau
t. the enactment of benign law, or the r.
n peal Of an oppressive one, the demand vi
i have to be granted, because they posses
d the votes to enforce it. But this lars
l. class cannot and will not permit few e.
IN elusive societies to rule it and present tt
II country the ultimatum of submission
e their demands or revolution. Labor neeC
d the protection of laws as we'll as capita
IT and the five million of workingmen in tt
IS United States will never consent to see tt
IT government turned upside down at tt
IT dictation of paltry minority of commul
e lists, who talk of higher law as just
8. tication.
D. The McEdary- HAYES Choking Scrap
. The suit against Marshal Halves, fl
'e assault and battery, James McEdary con
planning witness, was dismissed by State