New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-10-19
MR. B11JyE,s TEACHING ENFORCED.

MR. BL4IyE,S TEACHING ENFORCED
eve found prejudice so strong that we were
Actually in danger of our lives by insistin uDon
taking colored delegate to the theatre" So
said n Knight of Labor who had been at Rich
mond. @Wep meant white Knights of Labor.
He nut it too mildly when he called the mob
shirt prejudice" Mere prejudice never puts
lives in danger. 1t is lawlessness, the most
dangerous form of disloyalty, that the man had
10 fear. Tho mob, he fonn1, was in the habit
of ruling in spite of law, and determined to
rue in spite of law and meant to keep the
coored race in subsection. Instead of prejudice
he should have said theft. Deliberately rob
bling another of his rights nnd his means OF
livelihood for ones own gain is not called prcju-
dice where Just laws are supreme, but 1t Is
punished as crime.
aOur lives we're in danger" That was n
case of buldozing white men, not colored citl-
zens. Mob violence threatened white laborers,
and they then began to realize that it was not
right. Suddenly it flashed upon them that the
colored man would have a poor chance OF
putting in free ballot, or getting an honest
count, II confronted b. the same bloodth'rsty
and lawless mob. If h. could not vote freely,
how could he defend Nj nself against injustice
of employers No local official could be found
To care for the vote he could not east, and there
fore not one to stand up for his rights IA a free
laborer. A strike however peaceablo and
reasonable, could be treated az a conspiracy in
itself and punished by officials virtually con-
trolled by employers. That has been done at
the South more than once the Knights will find
if they inquire with open eyes. The trouble Is
that they have been going about with their eyes
shut to the grave duty which the Republican
party has been trying to perform, but now they
begin to see that if Southern labor ia not free,
and defended by just laws, Northern labor
cannot long be prosperous.
A great statesman is one who has the faculty
of so fitting his teachings to the needs of the
day that tho passing events, which stir the
hearts of men and open their eyes, shall serve
as a commentary on his words. With barren
theories which do not touch the lives of the
millions, the statesman has no business. His
task is to guide the thoughts and efforts OF
millions to the best government that can be
secured for them, and that can only be done
by considering the needs of the millions, when
they realize them and rs they realize them.
Mr.. Blaine's speech in Pennsylvania presented
the teaching; events at Richmond force that
teaching home to the understanding OF North
ern workmen. Their rights and Their hap
piness are involved in the maintenance of
lawful authority and equal rights to the South.
The politicians who try to befool them by sneer
ing at the bloody shirt are the men who will rob
them of their own rights and prosperity, ii pos
sble, by establishing at Washington a free
trade tariff and throughout the North q level
of compensation for labor not higher than can
be maintained in direct competition with gno-
rant ard virtually cnslaved labor at the South.
That is vi hat Mr.. Hewitt and Mr.. George, AMI
all Democratic candidates for Congress in this
great CITY, would do for Northern labor, and
that is what the Republican party, here as in
Maine or il Pennsylvania, strives to prevent.