The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-08-25
THE TELEGRAPH STRIKE.


its quietus as soon as he returns.
THE TELEGRAPH STRIKE.
AS foreshadowed IN our last the strike o
the telegraph operators has come to an end
On Friday of last week Mr.. Master Work
man Campbell at New York sent out HI:
official announcement of the abandonment
of the strike by the Brotherhood as fail
ure and that all members might return t.
work Immediately at the old wages where
yer they could get situations. The reason
for the failure, IN a subsequent interview
Mr.. Campbell gave no doubt as trulhfully
as tersely by saying THE other side had
the most money" The STRIKE he SAID, cos,
the Brotherhood 100000 IN wages los
and money expended. He estimates it COS
the Western Union indirectly and future
losses sum in excess of what 1t would
have cost to have paid the operators IN,
advance asked for ten years. The mor,
effect has been to show the public that not
only operators but the public at large, ar,
at the mercy of two or three men so far al
telegraph business is concerned, and 1t has
shown the public to be at the mercy OF
monopollsts. The Western Union will re-
cover quickly from the strike, but it has
lost to rival lines large amount Of bust
ness which will never be returned
The strikers had evidently overesImated
their own strength and endurance, They
relied on the United Workmen for impOr-
tant aid but got none from that quarter
Then doubtless they imagined The tele-
graph companies could not get along with
out them, forgetting the readiness with
which the American people adapt them
selves to the most involvement changes,
and failing to foresee that the public, find
Ing the telegr aph no longer able to serve it,
fell largely back on the mails, thus helping
the companies to resist their striking work.
men by lessening their business.
The struggle has not been without It's
lessons. 1t has shown, for instance, in the
language of the Chicago Journal, that
the corporation with which the strikers had
to deal is one of the most powerful selfish
and illibeIal institutions in the country,
whose conduct since its present organiza
ton has presented it to the people of the
United States as the most perfect specimen
of an obnoxious monopoly that has ever
grown up under the sanction and protec-
ton Of the laws. Its treatment of Its EN-.
ployes has been SO nlggardly that they
have been literally forced to enter formal
protest against long series of abuses, and
In order to obtain some redress to resort to
The desperate expedient of strike.
mo doubt the strikers SAID to themselves
before taking this step that the necessities
Of the public would aid them in securing
their demands, and in this assumption they
we're justified on the start, but only to find
hat the corporation was rs Insensible to
public opinion as 1t is to the rights of those
who are compelled to wear its badge of
The sympathy of the vast ma
ority Of the people has been on the side OF
he strikers, and the complaints on account
If inefficient telegraph service have been
oud and bitter. but all this has had no
more effect upon the company than the
blowing OF the northeast wind. 1t has again
proved by its conduct the truth of the old
'dage that corporations have no SOULS"
Another lesson is the need, from positive
OF public safety, that this
'soulless corporation" with its sixty mill
ons of fictitious capital IN the hands OF
nen whose honor Is limited only by their
'apacIty, must be surrounded with limi,a-
ions and restraints so that its power Tor
vii shall be brought within control.
The climax of meanness was reached by
he monopoly when, with its foo, on thet
heck of the operators, II demanded of them
IS the condition of their unemployment d
pledge under oath tina, they would with
lraw from the Brotherhood and connect
with no other organization that
inns at advancement or control of wages. |
We can imagine no sight more pltiable |
han that OF an honest workman reduced |
y the stress OF poverty and suffering g.
,ily to the humiliation Of lettering himself
nth such bond. What 10 the Western