Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-05-19
BoycOtting a Boomerang.

To the Editor OF the Gazette.
IT is reported from Austin that the
labor organizations of that city have
united together in II resolve to with
hold their patronage from business
men who advertise in the Statesman,
assigning as a reason the employ
ment of a non-union force of printers
by that journal. 1t is to be hoped that
the rumor will prove groundless, as
such course should not only be re-
GREETED on account of its mischievous
tendencies in exciting hostility between
different classes, but because it Is di-
rectly foreign to the best Interests of the
laborers themselves. The ostensible
cause for this particular action is the
extensive growth of advertising pat
ronage of the Statesman and its gen
eral prosperity under the change of
management and force. Judging from
Austin the sweeping pronunciamento
against its patrons would operate, if at
all, against large majority of the
merchants Of the place. Thus to jeal-
ousy alone may properly be ascribed
the motive for this act; if, as was
freely predicted by the movers
in the present boycotting pro-
gramme, the Statesman had tottered
on the verge of financial distress in
stead Of upbuilding in all material
prosperity, il would not now have
been deemed necessary to seek to Grip
pie it financially. The Statesman has
no cause for alarm at the situation.
The public quick to discern and con-
denim an unjust or ungenerous move
ment, will rally to its support more
heartily than ever before. The meas
ures proposed have always proved re-
dictionary; organized effort to destroy
| the business of any enterprise be-
cause it chooses to exercise the
prerogative of selecting its own em-
ployes, can only produce one result,
and that disaster to those enga ged
| in it. This has followed so uniformly
| that it seems experience would deter n
| ately men outraged at the success OF
/ competitors rarely consult experience.
Boycotting can never win in u country
hallowed like this, with memories of
such sacred stripes for freedom. lis
principles, or rather its purposes, are
foreign to all sense of justice and pro-
the unnatural relations ''' of
the Old World, and its introduction
here must he condemned in tones of
severest censure by all who are jealous
of the maintenance of cur free lnstitu-
tions. Its methods are fraud, and its
end injustice; it is the plea of selfish
ness, the prayer of tyranny, and neither
to be condoned nor tolerated.
Do those misguided organizations at
Austin ever stop to think that they are
but invoking the vengeance of those
who are not by any means pow
efless to execute 1t? The
blow they aim at the States.
man, il eflectual, falls far more cruelty
upon the business interests of the
town. 1t is an assumption Of control
over the private business of every mer-
chant, every lawyer, every physician
and every business man of whatever
, calling, and as such is not likely to be
disregarded by them. Suppose they
should unite in a determination not to
, employ any man connected with a
} labor union. What howl would go
up. And yet it would be but the legiti-
/ mate result of the present action of
those organizations. Boycotting may
cut both ways, and it does not re-
quire any great discernment
to tell which is the
. longer blade. But the business inter-
j ests will engage in no such undertake
ing, in the first place, because it is I'M
necessary, and secondly because as dis
Greet business men, they recognize that
! such tactics will not win.
, The best defenses of the working
men are merit, fidelity and industry.
These will always meet with recogni-
+ ton and reward, and no amount of
! force, or method of organization, can
! supply their places.
A WAGE-MAN.