New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-08-02
DgMAGOGUES and STRIKES.

DRMAGOG UES And STRIKES.
| 1t is to be expected that public journals, like
| public men, will act according to their own
| nature in dealing with contests between labor
| ers and employers. The shallow demagogues,
in the press or on the platform, naturally favor
all strikers through thick and thin, whether
their cause Is just or not, whether their
course is wise or unwIse. No true friend
of labor, for instance, would have sustained a
strike 80 palpably destined to defeat and dis
aster as that of the iron workers last year, or
one disgraced by such acts of lawless violence
as the railroad strike few years ago. But the
| thorough paced demagogue does not ask
whether the demands OF the men are right, or
whether they have chance of success he goes
in at once to get what small advantage he can
for his paper or his party by shouting for the
strikers, right or wrong, and by belaboring
everybody as a tool of monopolists who ques-
tons in any respect the justice of demands
made, or the propriety or wisdom of methods
chosen. Just al present these demsgogues are
irving to make political capital from The fact
that most of the reasonable Republican papers
have not in every particular, and altogether
without reserve, sustained the telegraph strik
ers. The Republican party, they say, is the
party of monopolies and against labor.
Yet these are the very papers that have de-
nOunced the Republican party Tor maintaining
a protective tariff. That tariff has in incidentally
improved tire condition of all labor in this
country, and to that alone it is due that the
wages of labor here have not been eros ded
down from 80 10 go per cent TO The low level
dc scribed by Mr.. Porter in his letters from
England and Germany. This constant, faithful
and effective defence of all labor by the Repub-
lcan party has met with constant opposition
from the very demagogues, in the press and
elsewhere, who now cain that the party is not
the friend of labor. If these have really be-
come the friends of labor themselves, why do
they not favor the policy by which wages in
this country have been maintained If they
want to promote the true interests, not of few
thousand strikers, but of the whole body of
skilled labor in the country, why is it that they
have only sneers, Misrepresentation and abuse
for the protective policy7 How can anybody
believe in their newfound affection for "a
thousand or two strikers now, while they show
no friendship whatever for the million workers
whose wages are sustained only by the tarif
which these demagogues oppose
The truth is that the most thoughtful and
sincere friends of labor consider strikes q
doubtful remedy for any evil. We recently
quoted long and earnest editorial, apparently
by the Grand Master Workman, il the official
organ of the Knights Of Labor, which after
showing the disastrous results of these struggles
to the laborers, asks ais it not apparent that
we have cancer in our midst that must be
removed before we can hope to make any prog
"ress?" But this same spirit of earnest desire
for the real and lasting interests of the wage
earners, when shown by Republican journals,
is denounced by all the demagOgues. The as
ISOLATION of telegrapheIs, moreover, has set on
foot movement for the organization Of a
merchants and telegraphists'" company, the
object being to employ cooperative industry
in competition with existing lines. Cannot the
demagOgues themselves that this move
ment offers an infinitely better chance of per-
manent benefit for the workers than any strike
for higher wages2 1t is wholly in line, too, with
the recommendations of The journal Of United
Labor already quoted. Whether this particular
NOV ement succeeds or not, the more the minds
of wage-workers are brought to seek, through
rather than through strikes, permanent rene
dies for existing evils, the better it will be both
for the workers and for the general interests of
the public. But the persons who care nothing |
for the real interests of labor, and are merely |
seeking newspaper favor or political capital, |
will naturally encourage strikes on all occa-
sions fit and unfit.