Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-04-22
WHO ARE 1.-THE LABORERS 7"
+ From the n. 7. Evening Post


free will, and tho employers are satisfied
with Thorn, and the roads are doing large
business in the trans orlation cffreight and
passengers. Nevertheless, We Ite hearing
still from the Knights OF Labor, through
their officers, Powderly, Turner, Martin
Irons and others, not only that the strike is
not over, but that the railroad companies
are still engaged in the preparation Of some
sort of wrong against large body of labor
ers telop gng to their organization, concern
ing which they are asking not only for srbi
tration but for some sort of Congressional
Now we know what they
mean when they say the strike is not over.
They mean that tho men who struck six
weeks ago have not gone back TO work, and
are not willing to do so until they are asked
by the companies 10 return on their own
terms. We see nothing reprehensible in
this. No man ought to 60 back to work
for either the Missouri Pacific or the Texas
Pacific unless the terms offered by these
corporations are satisfactory to him, and be
thinks he can do no better.
But what wrong are the companies doing
TO the knights of Labor, or to labor i'll
general, or to the community at large?
What is it that the Congressional commit
tee ls going down to inquire into? About
what did the citizens committee propose
arbitration the other day? What is it ex-
acly that the Master Workman is COM
planning Of? In like manner what is it that
O'Donnell and his Empire Protective Union
has against the Third avenue street rail
road? The members of the Urion have
refused to work for the road because they
do not like the terms OF tho service. This
is their right. No one has any business to
quarrel with their decision except their
creditors or persons dependent on them for
support. The company has accepted their
decision and is employing other men, who
are presenting themselves in great numbers
to take their places. What then are O'Don-
nell and his Union complaining of? What
wrong is the company doing them? Why
are they hanging about the road, and why
has an immense body Of police TO be en-
ployed to keep the track clear, and prevent
attacks on those men who are driving and
conducting the cars?
These questions go to the bottom Of the
labor problem as now presented TO the
American public, and they cannot be con-
sidered too carefully or answered too clear
ly and distinctly. We believe that in its
manner of answering them the American
people will furnish almost as valuable test
both of their own temper and capacity, and
Of the strength of democratic institutions,
As was furnished by their answer 10 the
Southern challenge TO take the field in de
fence of free labor. What they are now
asked to do is 10 permit Il few hundred
thousand laborers, Of foreign birth mainly,
TO set up government TO take the place OF
that already in existence in the State and
nation, and enforce submission 10 it not by
means Of open warfare, but by vast mum.
bers Of riots, assaults, and isolated acts Of Vi
olence and disorder directed against persons
and property, and other more petty annoy
ances, in the hope that the public may be
worried into acquiescence.
What PowderIy and Turner and Irons are
trying TO do in the West, and what O'Don-
nell and his men are trying 10 do here, is
not to secure employment for labor, on
terms satisfactory TO the laborers-fora vast
army Of laborers stand ready to do and are
doing the work which the strikers refuse
but to establish the rule that nobody has
any right to be considered laborer, or be
employed rs such, except members Of their
respective organizations They want lis 10
admit that the II 900 men now employed
BY tho Southwestern roads are not real Ia
borers or entitled TO sympathy or protection
from the militia or the courts, and that the
Knights of Labor should BIO allowed 10 make
war on them with pistols and knives and
brickbats, and drive them from their
work, and rob their families OF
their support. They want us TO ad.
nit also that members OF their respect
tive organizations, by merely becoming
members, acquire vested right 10 remain
in such employment as they may happen 10
have ut the time Of joining, no matter what
their behavior may be and whether the en-
ployer wants them or not, and as long as
they please, on their own terms. This
would convert every laborer's place into an
Office for life, on wages and hours Of work
fixed by himself, or in other words, an Office
for which there has been no parallel in the
history of mankind, except, that of mill
tary dospot. 1t is onl military despots
who have ever made places for themselves,
or determined how long they should hold
them, and what their rate of pay should be,
without consulting those who paid their
salaries.
Does any sane man suppose that the
American people are going to organize
their business on basis of this sort, and try
to do the work the nation through agents
whom they can neither hire nor dismiss,
and whose wages they cannot fig? We
think it will he discovered, even by the
most ignorant and simple minded of the
Knights before long, that the world is not
going to be carried on III that way just yet,
and that in considering the claims Of labor
and the interests Of labor and the needs OF
labor, the American people will not over
look the vast army of the poor and unem-
ployed, whose existence is revealed by
every strike o: the unskilled or slightly
skilled. There is no claim to human sym
pathy and help arising out of poverty and
readiness to work for livelihood, which
the men who take the place of strikers do
not possess in higher degree than strikers.
1t is they who are really Labor" and it is
they who present the true labor problem,
with which the philanthropist and legsla.
tor are called on to deal.
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LETTER FROM FAUQUIER.
Correspondence of the Alexandria Gazcitc]