New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-04-29
STALL LJBOR BE FREE9

The New-York Chamber of Commerce Is to
be heartily commended for the good sense of
| the resolutions adopted at The meeting on Tues
dav, and especially for the adoption of the
seventh resolution, declaring it the "para-
"mount duty of every American citizen 10 uphold
sand Strengthen the hands of the guardians OF
the law, in maintaining law and order as the
@only possible foundation for the prosperity OF
"the employed as well as the employers" In
the previous resolutions the Chamber had dis
tinctly declared in favor of arbitration, as the
proper mode of settling disputes between en-
2loyerS and employed had wisely pointed out
that such dispu es are generally best settled ny
conference between the parties directly inter-
ested, without the intery ention Oh third
parties; and had urged that labOrers who strike
must respect the freedom and the rights oi
other laborers who desire to work Ill then
stead Throughout, the resolutions manifest
good sense and a spirit of far-mndcd justice
toward all wOrknsmen who seek by peaceful
means an Improvement of their condition.
A forcible commentary on these resolutions
was the arrest in the same city, Oh the same
dav. of a large number of trades-unODlsts,
almost without exception foreigners by birth,
who had been indicted under the conspiracy act
for their participation III boycott III Is 10 be
hoped that in this or other cases test OF the
law may be speedily made, so that 1t snail De
clearly established that the right OF worker TO
discontinue work when he peases, and TO ask
for higher wages OF better terms carries with 1t
no right whatever to interfere with the business
of his late employers or to restrict the freedom
of OF Ier workin gnen who may wish to take his
place 1t is time that convictions should sharply
| empbasize the broad distinction between Il
peaceful str Ike and a strike with violence J;
between refusal of men to continue their ac-
customed work and their refusal to let other
men work; between the boycotting of any ill.,
dustry and an attempt to benefit honest labor.
Bcycotts and strikes with violence are simply
acts of war against all honest industry, and
must in this country be suppressed if the free
dom of labor is to be maintained.
| This is the key of the situation to-day. Mr.
Powdery, III his article in The North american,
says that the people are safe but that property
and mOnopOlies are not safe. lie is lamentably
mistaken. Property is safe enough, as 1t always
is The owner of property can always find
some place on this planet where his rights are
protected. Property can flee from one land to
another, AMI is safest when it Is warned. But
honest labor is to-day, more than it ever has
been, at the mercy ofiorganizations professedly
for its benefit. IL is the curse of industry Ill
this country that these organizations, with their
noble aims and their large opportunities Tor
usefulness, so often fall into the hands of agl-
tators, who use them only to keep alive strife
between employers and employed, to support
themselves in ideneSs, or in many cases to
secure for themselves political preferment.
The great majority of labOrers, 100000 OF
men and women who have chosen noJ to join
any labol organization, are to- day threate ned,
as they have never been threatened BEFORE by
a little minority of 100000 persons, who
assume to dictate both to all employers and to
all laborers, and deny the right of any worker
to labor without the consent of a trades union.
This dictation is only empty and laughable until
it is supported by violence and the boycott.
Therefore violence and the boycott must be
suppressed, that American labor may remain
free.