Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-10-27
ARE OUR CITIZENS FOR,
AGAINST BOYCOTTINGf

AGAINST BOYCOrTINGs
An organized body Of men have now
formally declared war upon every man in
the community who,will not join in the
attempt to crushtbe hteaigcaeer and REG
rsrER. No man must ask any questions
abont whether the demands the organ
ization make are just or unjust, nor must
he call in question whether the methods
employed to accomplish the purpose OF
the boycotters are right or wrong. No
one must dare to assert his manhood and
say that the God who created all men free
and equal, gave every man a right to aim
self aud a right to make a living ior
himself and family without getting
down on his knees and submitting to the
dictates Of Others or be ruined. Nor must
any a stop to consider the great injury
such organized piracy will infiet on the
CITY. 1t matters not how many OF our
business men are ruined. 1t matters not
how many of our manufacturing establish
ments must close their doors and allow the
fires from their furnaces to die out. Nor
does it matter how much capital that
would be invested in our city to give en-
ployment to workingmen and make our
community prosperous, is driven away to
build up other sections. The prosperity,
the happiness, the good of 35, 600 people Is
to be considered as nothing; the unjust
demands OF a few men are to considered as
everything. Men, too, who were earning
from $3.50 to S. 80 per day, and quit their
Jobs because their employers refused an
advance.
The issue is now joined and it is for this
community to decide whether this foreign.
un-American boycott serpent b be
nourished in its bosom to afterward strike
its fangs into the citizens who nourished
it, or whether Wheeling shall have the
honor of crushing it out for once and for
all. II is for our people to say whether or
not it shall be considered safe for a man to
invest his capital in manufacturing or bus
ness enterprises in Wheeling.
Now the people can either support the
morning dailies that have always sought
to build up our city, in their fight for man
hood and right; or they can support the
boycotters, who are trying to teal down
in their unjust methods. The morning
dailies believe that they are right
in the terms they proposed
to the printers and they know they are
tight in fighting for the most cherished
principle of American manhood and citi-
zenship that the bOvcotters are trying to
crush out, and they intend to stand by
their convictions. Now if ouSpatrons stand
up for this principle the boycott will be
crushed. Where boycotts have succeeded
it has been through fear and hesitation on
the part OF citizens.
What position do the citizens in this
section intend to take: They must be
either tor or against the boycott. The
boycott can only triumph through their
aid. If citizens aid the bOycOtters by join
ing in with them, withdrawing support
from bOycotted firms or encouraging
boycotting by looking approvingly on
while the business OF their fellow citizens
is sought to be ruined, it must be taken
that they are in favor of the bOycOtters.
This is the only way the REGISTER can
have of judging and it will have to act ac-
cOrdingly.
The boycotters thrive upon the fears Of
a passive and unorganized majority.
Proper courage and organization in every
community that has undertaken to stamp
out this foreign hybrid has always NC
ceeded. The proper effort would be nc
cessiul here. Will you make it?