The Labor enquirer., 1886-04-17


capitalistic MASTER But the labor muz
zle will be laid on the shelf of history In
company with the whip that bled The
back of the black man previous to 1851.
Not being able to refnte the argument
the force advocate had made, especially
as he offered proof which I well knew
the existence of, as in the case of the
street-car mems strike in New York
City, 1 did the most graceful thing that
could be done under the circumstance
bade him good day.
Speaking, as the force advocate did
from trade union standpoint, his argu,
ment was correct, for it is we'll under
stood that trade unionism embraces the
idea that workingmen must combine
and by force of numbers and by watch
ing thelrppportunities compel the en-
ployer to paY more wages. The strike is
the last resort which the trade unio mist
can and must fall back upon. 1t is 81 i'm.
ply declaration of war-absolute phys.
lcal force.
The man who believes that the way to
gain liberty for the workers IS to strike,
il in my op' nion a fool if he does not
carry outthe policy of those who have
been victorious in war. While do not
think that strikes are aught else but a
relic of barbarism, do say that had the
Southwestern strikers carried out the
strike to its natural, logical termination
they would have stood as solid line of
of musketrY from Galveston to the city
of St. Louis, and as in time of war, such
as the late civil war, they should have
not only shot to death railroad officials
and United States tr) oops, 'ut also those
who sYmpathized with their enemies.
We can carry this out farther in the
line of what l believe to be good sound
argument ,and as the state of Maine did
not consider it her fight in the rebelli n
any more than it Was Callfornia's fight,
so the workingman in either of the above
named states should consider the work
ingman's fight in the Southwest to be
his fight also, and be prepared to carry
the war into Africa"
Ifthe president orders out troops to
kill strikers, the labor men of Washing
ton should, if they are up in the tactics
of war, kill the president and his adyi-
sors, raze the White House scatter every
public building in Washington with ex-
plosiVes, and burn the bridges ahead of
the train that carries soldiers to the
Southwest. | contend that this is carry
ing the strike to its logical termination.
Such is the barbaric logic of war-strikes.
If believed in strikes as a solution
of the labor problem should certainly
be in favor of programme similar to
the aNove, and should tell my brother
workingmen to not 60 to war with theiI
fists against gatling guns. While | know
that it would be great price to pay for
labor's deliverance, an while believing
that it will never be necessary, l still
think that campaign including all the
horrors enumerated above would result
in victory for labor and we would hear
nothing but peans of praise to labor and
no words of condemnation.
We know this would be the case for
capital, in the case of the car strikers
whom tne force advocate" has told US
Of has proven that all that is required
is to thrash it and it will admit we are
right
But the brute force of both capital and
strikers must give way to better and
more just method of settling the Difficult
ties that arise between nan and man.
An era OF Justice is nearing, the advent
of which will tend to do away with sys-
tenn which makes it possible for venal
sordld man to order out his liveried
assassins to enable another equally bad
man, who happens to possess hundred
millions, to tyrannize over the men VIII o
have earned him his millions. J. J. &.