Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-07-20

aar,raster fntelltgencer.
1R1DAY EVENING. JULY 40. 1888.
The Telesraphers' Strike.
The managers of the Western Union
telegraph company can hardly feel grati-
aed over the general expression OF thu
public sympathy with the striking oper-
ators yet it is not likely that these
managers feel any acute chagrin at the
condemnation visited upon them by the
public, since they are quite used and
hardened to it. There is probably no
more generally disliked corporation In
the country. It has well earned the
hostile feeling to 1t by its gross disregard
of public sentiment, its arbitrary treat
ment of the people, its inefficient dis
charge of the important duty it has
assumed towards them, and particularly
by its inceasant effort to secure q
monopoly of the service which 1t shows
constantly its unfitness to perform. A
telegraph service to be useful needs to
be prompt and certain. That provided
by tho Western Union company is known
to be both dilatory and uncertain. 1t is
not safe to trust message to it and 1t Is
not possible to feel sure that it will be
delivered in advance OF the mall. Ii
there was free competition with this
company it would have to improve its
service or lose its business. Its policy
has been to preserve its business by buy
ing up its competitors. 1t has thus
swelled its capital to many times the
cost of its plant, and is still without
the facilities which would enable
it to perform in q satisfactory way
the business which it has been per-
mitted to mcnopolize. The company is
rotten to the core. Its plan of buy
ing off competition is one that
cannot last forever. Its stock cannot be
swelled to any larger figure without being
given additional value. Jay Gould is
desperately engaged in q present endea
vor to hold its value up until he can get
out !; . plan which isso plainly indicated
in his undertaking to pay the dividends
on its illegal stock that only the very
gullible can be gulled by his device.
It is this overgrown and unpopular
concern which is now assailed by its
employees. They have suffered from
the same cause that has injured
the company's customers.
The necessity for paying dividends on
q grossly exaggerated stock has required
q reduction of operatives salaries and
this has been possible because the CON-
pany monopolized the telegraphing busi-
ness, and alsne offered employment tc
telegraphers. It is just under these
circumstances that combination among
employees becomes necessary for theil
protection. If there was any competi'
tion for telegraphers there would be M
occasion for a strike by them to gel
proper wages. The matter would regu
late itself, just as other wages are regu
lated In the open market for them
There is no market for the telegraphit
services one company fixes the price
and pays it and that company has OBJ
tained this power by combining will
competing companies as they arise and
swallowing them up. A corporation
animated by such q policy, of course
cannot complain that its EN- 9lOyes TAXI
lesson from its operations and do Z
little combining on their own hook tx
raise the price of their services. Th'
course was so manifestly forced upon
them that they have the entire approva
of the public in undertaking it. 1t is Z
a clear case of the bitter bit.
The Western Union company propose!
to have the public help it out of its diff
Guilty by submitting to an indefinite de
privation of telegraphic facilities. Pres
ilent Eckert, who we are sorry to be
lieve to be Pennsylvanian, has tlt
impudence to announce that messages
will be received by the company "sub
ject to delay and to mailing en- route IL
necessary" Mr.. Eckert has been SO long
away from the free air of Pennsylvania
and 10 long associated with the mel
who have made the Western Union com
pany infamous, that he has entirely los,
his reckoning as to the rights of the pub
lie. There are some things this company
cannot do. 1t has found that it cannot
water its stock dd libituna, and it will find
out that it cannot send its messages by
mail and further, that it is incumbent
on it to forward them by wire with rea-
sonable dispatch. 1t is a duty which il
has assumed and which it must discharge
unless excused by the act of God. 1t
cannot be excused by its inability to hire
telegraphers on its own terms. The
public cannot be dragged at its chariO'
wheel while it drives them over its EN-
ployes. The courts In New York lately
decided that railroad company was moi
excused by strike among its freight
handlers for its delay in forwarding
freight. No other decision was pos
sible. The duty of the common car.
rier is to forward the goods entrusted tH
him safely and promptly. 1t is d
duty he cannot decline. He must
take the goods offered him and
he must carry them to their desti-
nation with ordinary speed and care
The like logic of the law controls the
telegraph company. 1t must discharge