The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-08-30


attempts to regulate the conditions of my service,
or the payment therefor, while in the employment
now undertaken.
And do hereby further agree that will, while
in the employ Of said company, render good and
faithful service to the best of my ability and will
not in anywise renew re-enter upon any rela-
tons or membership whatsoever i'll with any
such organization or society.
Dated......................,1 1883
tSigned
[Address] ...............
Accepted for the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany.
This cannot but be regarded as a direct
blow at individual rights and individual
liberty, and while the Western Union Com
pany may perhaps have a legal right to ex-
act such pledge from its employees
though we doubt it very much-it has GER
tainiy trenched closely on the limits of cor
porate power. The right to strike is as
inalienable as the right to practice any
religion that man may choose. No court of
justice III the world would or could compel
a man to work for wages which he consid-
cred insufficient, or under conditions which
he regarded as unreasonable. Nor can there
be any question that the Iaborer has quite
as clear right to combine for the advance
ment of his interests as the capitalist or
business man, and this attempt of the West
ern Union Company to coerce it's employees
into surrendering that personal liberty of
action which is the first essential of man
hood, smacks strongly of the tyranny Of a
modern Car. No one can be in doubt as
to the object which the Western Union
Company has in view in reducing its en-
ployees to this state of abject submission.
It hopes thereby, of course, to make further
combination and organization among them
for mutual protection impossible, and its
heartlessness is further shown by the adj
mission of President Green, who is reported
by the New York papers as saying:
AS / told General Eel1ert this afternoon, the
several hundreds of thousands of dollars which
have been lost in the strike regard to be the best
financial investment made by the company. Here
after General EcIert tells that he will get one
third more work out of man for day services,
and the economy of such step win retrieve the
! loss in less than six months
In other words, the helplessness of the
| operators, after they have signed this cast
iron oath of submission is to be taken adj
vantage OF, and they are to be made to do
extra work in order that the company may
retrieve its financial losses!
Now, as we have said, this action on the
part of the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany may be legal, but we doubt it, Tele-
graph companies do not stand upon the
same footing as private individuals. They
are the creatures wholly of the people, hold
ing their franchises only with the peoples
consent, and responsible to them, through
the legislative bodies which chartered them
for the abuse of their powers
Judge Cooley, one of the most distin-
guished iurists in the United States, in a
very thoughtful article printed in the Sep.
tenlber number of the North american Re
Uiew, says:
The case of corporations which are created tc
1 serve public ends in new ways and by means o.
new inventions and discoveries, differs from thai
of railroad companies in this, that their business
being new, duties and obligations of exceptional
character have not been prescribed for them by the
II,
is not a common carrier and therefore does not
come under the rules which control the carrier.
business But there is precisely the same reason
why the State should regulate its business and lSeer
It's charges within the limits of reason that applies
to the business of railways, The telegraph exists
only by permission of the State, and is only con
structed by the aid of the eminent domain. The
main object in granting the aid is to promote the
public convenience and welfare.
Certainly, it was not the intent of the rep
resentatives of the people who endowed the
Western Union Company with the franchises
which it now enjoys to surrender any of ths
individual rights of the citizen. No sucl
waiver was made in its charter, and, az
Judge Cooley says, all rights not specif
icaIly mentioned in the charter of corpora
ton, must be regarded as reserved to The
State. Yet, by its action in this matter o
compelling its employees to renounce theil
membership in the Brotherhood, and enter
into solemn covenant never to join any
similar society, the Western Union Com
pady has taken away from hundreds and
thousands of citizens their individual liberty
and we hold that in SO doing it has exceeded
the powers vested in it by the people, and
given good cause for the institution Of pro