Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-05-20
False abOr Ethics.


ty (O.) coal mine has been so promptly
met by the State militia that it does not
promise to be much greater. The story
is short one. The proprietors of the
Silver Greek Mine proposed to employ
eolored miners from Virginia. So they
brought about 200 laborers of that COM
plexion to the mine and set them to
work The aggrieved white men OF the
neighborhood held meeting, and voted
to drive these sable miners away. Could
there be anything more absurd? any
thing more wicked? anything more
brutal? The owners had perfect moral
and legal right to select their employees.
The persons selected had an equal right
to accept the proposal. There is abso-
lutely nobody in the wrong except the
white workmen, who are all wrong. 1t
does seem strange that men of common
sense and ordinary conscience can be
so deluded. They claim what they are
unwilling to concede. They assume to
act with perfect Independence, regard
less of the interest of others. Yet they
refuse to those others the privilege OF
employing whom they please and of pay
ing them what they please. They do
not or will not see that if they have a
right to look after their own interests.
every other man, be he employer or Ia
borer, has right to look after his also.
Instead of cOnceding this, as logically
he must, the artisan who wants all that
he can get, assumes that he is entitled to
more than his employer sees fit to pay
him; and that the employer has no right
to look to cheaper markets for labor,
which is as much a commodity as iron
or cotton. Going further still, he also
claims that nobody has right to work
for less than some clique or association
has declared to be fit and proper, and If
anybody appears who is willing to do 50,
he proceeds to break that offenders
head, or to shoot him from behind a
fence, or to burn his house, or otherwise
to damage him OF his wife or his chill
dren.
Tyranny is tyranny, whoever may eX-
ercise it; and if man cannot enjoy his
personal freedom in working FOR whom
and for what he likes, he might just as
well be serf under some autocrat as a
citizen of the United States. These des-
potic persons show an ability to take
care of themselves! Let them loaf, or
labor, as to their proud souls may seem
the bestl But we deny their right to CO.
cree their fellowmen into following their
example. We speedily deny their right
to maltrcat and impoverish coiored pee
sons, who are specially guarded against
such cruelty by provision of she Con-
stitution of the United States. Until
they have succeeded in amending the
Amendment, do not let them undertake
to dictate to their fellow-creatures, and
to compel them to be idle against their
will.
These ardent souls have mistaken the
persons whom they should try to coerce.
They should mob the Legislatures. They
should hang the judges. They should
exterminate the militia. They should
abolish the sheriffs. They should tear
down the jails. And having done all
this, they should declare not an equal
division of property, for that would be a
great mistake. What they want is such
readjustment of the present arrange
ments that they shall be rich and every
body else poor. This is evidently thei1
cardinal notion. For this did Kearney
howl. For this did his sympathizers in
this city meet and speechify and resolve
For this are these wonderful reformers
struggling. And this. we take it, is pre-.
cisely what they will not get.-[N. Y
Tribune