The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-07-31

A Feature OF Tue lclcSFhPheEs
The most remarkable feature OF the tele-
graphers' strike, more remarkable even
than the "amiable obstinacy" Of the strik-
ers, is the steady growth Of their cause in
public favor. The great business com
munity does not stop to enquire whether
their cause is Just, whether they have been
oyerworked and undergrad, whether Sun
day ought to count for two days, whether
women ought to receive the same pay as
men-the public is against Jay Gould, II
looks upon the strike as against Jay Gould
and the often and harder he is struck the
better the public likesit.
There are other shrewd constituencies
men who have made millions by Cypress
ing labor; there are others who have pilec
Pelion on Ossa Of fraudulent gain; other
who have accumulated large wealth by
rigging the stock market by fleeing the
unsuspecting, by wrecking railroads, by
betting against the national credit. The
Vanderbilts, Sage, Hatch, Fisk, Keanl
Tilden and other notorious gamblers come
TO mind. Roll them all together and they
would not make n Jay Gould. And II
is because this one man represents all the
deyiltry OF reckless stock -jobbing, the
d~ebauchery Of courts and legislatures te
do his will, that he is hated by the pub
leland Knocked in the hour Of his calamity
The man who has consolidated into his
W pocket the earnings Of thousands oil
men and women Is looked upon with
hatred as the Consolidated Evil Of graspini
ayarice and corporate oppression.
This Is why the striking telegrapherE
would have the public sympathy If there
were no shadow Of meritin their demands
Perhaps this is ~"unreasoning prejudice"
Men do not stop TO reason when a mad
dog is at large and they get the drop on
him" in a close n 1t makes a big
man OF Gould to concentrate all this Ill.
feeling upon him, but he has earned his
bad eminence. He flashed on the country
as the skilful manipulation OF Erie, by
fraud thrusting himself into the directory
OF that company, then beating down the
stock from 81 to 35-a loss Of $40 so on
every share to honest and innocent holders.
Not content with this he put out Sl9,-
100000 OF fraudulent stock, and wrecked a
valuable property. While he was playing
this havoc he pulled judges and they
danced as though they had been his pup
pets.
In 1868 Gould led the ireebooters who
shut up s64,O0O,O 900 Of money from genera
circulation, beating down for the time the
value Of everything. Interest went up, TIT
farmer got twenty less cents u bushel for BIZ
wheat, and the short side Of the marke
THAT being Gould's side) wa the only in
terest that profted by the disaster. Before
he could get this very Western Union
where he wanted it other people had tc
suffer. He made war on II,
broke its stock down from 9E
to 55, took lit in and swelled it
stock from ST., 900, 600 to $4,000, sl5,oOO.-
Of which was only "water," and on this hi
forces the public to pay him big dividends
He has been practically without opposition
having consolidated n after another o
his rivals. His Wabash deal is n OF thu
scandals Of the time. In that he pocketeG
$3S so a share and let the trap fall on the
credulous who believed in his promises.
It is strange that there Is general will
ipgness to see Mr.. Gould caught for onct
in his life? Capital has not been able to dc
It, and the feat seems to have been reserved
for orpanizad labor.