The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-10
THE TELEGRAPH STRIKE.
Points on Which the Strikers Have Been
Led Astray-Why They Have Failed.
New York Evening Post.

New York Evening Post.
The principal reliante of the strikers,
probably, was on the sympathy OF the public
and the unpopularity of the company. From
the combination of these two influences they
doubtless expected an outpouring o. indigna-
ton, and probably numerous suits, with &C
companying m~andamuscs and the like,
before which the directors would have to
cover. We have already explained why these
hopes were futile. No suits could be
brought to bear on the company in time to
affect the existing dispute, nor would any
court decide how many offices the company
should keep open. 1t probably might con-
tent itself with one in each large town, for
anything the judges would have to say in the
matter, And then popular sympathy is a
dreadfully poor reliance for a man who
wants money by a certain day. What the
public has done in the case is simply TO cut
down its telegraphing in a way which has
greatly helped the companies in meeting the
crisis. The strikers were probably deceived
on this point by the newspaper fire against
Jay Gould, Cyrus w. Field and the other
monopolists.
There is one other point on which the
strikers have undoubtedly been led astray.
They have been mistaken in supposing that
the business men of the country were really
on their side. No disgust with corporate
m"ismanagement has ever, or probably will
ever, bring the business community to be-
lieve that strikes of the employees, ordered or
superintendea by trades unions, are a prop
er cure for it. Bad as our corporations may
be. no substitute for them in the conduct OF
our vast railroad and teleeraphic interests
has yet been discovered. We are and must
remain dependent on them for an indefinite
period for the means of CARVING on of most
of our trade and and manufac-
lures. Nearly all the trained talent of the
country in the field of transportation is in
their service. Their defects must, therefore,
be amended by law, after careful investiga-
ton. Very few responsible people in any
part of the country think they can be
amended by promoting strikes among their
employees. Moreover, there is among business
men "a vast amount of secret but thorough
going sympathy with the refusal of the West
ern Union to treat with the brotherhood, y
for the simple reason that they feel that no
employer can manage an army of officials
such as our corporations employ, if they
have two masters to serve, or if they can be
Withdrawn from duty any day by blowing a
whistle on the order of a committee of out
siders. Discipline is the life of all large or
CARNATIONS, and divided authority is fatal to
discipline. The strike, under such prompt
lngs, OF masses of men such as the railroads
and telegraph companies employ is a tre-
mendous affair, as that of 1877 showed. 1t
almost amounts to a social %convulsion, and
everybody who buys and sells, gives and
takes credit, and has money suns in goods
or buildings, shrinks from everything likely
either to bring such disturbances about or to
foster a state of preparation for them. In
saying all this we are not discussing what
should be done to protect the employees of
corporations against maltreatment. We are
simply explaining why strikes against cor
porations do not succeed.