Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-07-31

are oftenest the result OF oversproduction,
improper speculation, etc., and by reason
of which working forces have to be re-
duced or wages leEsened. Szch are, OF
course, cases of hardship; but in the pres
ent protest of the telegrsphers there is no
element of over. production, failure Of de.
mand for commodity. or the decline OF
trade On the contrary, the wages OF the
operators have been scaled down during
period when the business of the employer
was rapidly augmenting and it's profits
steadily increasing, and with them steady
increase of labor exacted from the en-
ployea without corresponding remunera-
ton. By its unwise act, the Western
Union Telegraph Company, which leads in
these exactions, has added fresh fuel to
the communistic tendencies OF the day.
and has rekindled hope in the breast Of the
socialist. Not being driven by loss Of
trade or fuctuating market to Cypress
its employees, it nevertheless does so, and
thus teaches the communist anew to be.
lieve that all the tendencies of capital are
tyrannical. Again, there was opportunity
for arbitration-the workmeu earnestly
asked it, they waited patiently for it, but
the company turned the cold shoulder to the
offer. because it had the power to do go, and
not because it was driven 10 it to protect
the earning capacity Of the capital invested.
Again, by its refusal to pay fair wage,
the company. which is under obligations to
the public to conduct its telegraphic cor
respondence, imposes upon the people a
condition that is unreasonable when it
asys: "We will do the work, but
subject to delay in other words,
'fYou must aid us in resisting our en-
ployes." Now the quarrel between the
operators and the company became the
business of the public only when the pub
lie had to bear the punishment prior to
that i. was only question of human sym.
pathy. As the New York Post well says,
this business is the business of the whole
business community" The strikers have,
then, public sympathy because their case
is pitifuI, but the trouble excites especial
public interest because the public rights
are invaded. The operators and line men
were dissatisfied with their wages and
hours of labor. It was their right to cease
labor. 1t was the right of the companies
to refuse to employ them, but it was not
their right to refuse or neglect to do the
business of the public, for which they have
been chartered, and for which they have
been granted the use of the streets for their
poles and wires. It was therefore the duty
of the companies 20 hear and adjust thee com.
plants of the employees. in order that the obi
cations to the public might be discharged.
The ironworker, or bootmaker, or tobac-
conist who declines to employ men, does
not thereby violate any obligation to the
public and does not disarrange the COM
merce Of the country. He has the right
to 60 out Of business, and so has the tele-
graph company; but in doing so It has no
warrant to unnecessarily inconvenience the
community, nor at the same time to cling
to the charter right to do business. In
other words, it is no sufficient excuse for
the telegraph company to say 90 We delay
your business because we refuse to pay
workmen whostand ready tOso do the labor,
that there will be efficient discharge of
duty" These, then, are some of the
reasons that set honest capital against the
companies IN the present strike, and which
by their action are doing it serious
injury. and arraying labor in still more
antagonistic attitude toward capital. The
wise capitalist is he who does his full duty
in the work of identifying the interests he
represents with those represented by the
workingman.