Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-12
THE BOYCOTT DENOUNCED.

n-Extracts F rom an Address Before
 the Labor Union Yesterday By Edi-
 tor Osborn of the Register-The
 Strike, the B OycOtt and ArD1tratAoh'
 Editor Norris G. Osborn lee tured oetore the Labor Lyceum. yesterday afternoon. A large audience was present. The speaker would not deal with the dry statistics, but in a plain conversational way would state his views, appealing to the intellige nee, not to the prejudices of his hearers. In opening, then, the speaker promised that all fair minded people would concede that both labor and capital have rights, and rights which are bound to be respected. It was also gen. orally acknowledged that both labor and cap ital were dependent upon each other. Of the two. however, labor was more dependent up on capital than capital upon labor. Capital was more or less independent of all consider ations, for it could at any time withdraw from business enterprise and find Judgement of profitable security, for a time at least, in the investments of class of which our govern ment bonds are the best example. Labor, on the other hand, withdraws only at serious loss. If idle it falls an easy victim to the distress of want. Capital must exist or there would be no employment in manufacturing or mercantile industries, no great railways, no telegraph systems, and even no corner groceries. Capital is wage earner likewise. The laborer must keep healthy to earn his living and capital must be kept healthy to produce an income for itself and others. Hence moderation and self.control must be exer cised to prevent the driving away of capital from business enterprises. Capital, as a rule, is timid and conservative. It is the hen which lays the golden egg. Capital is sometimes cold, calculating and selfish. It sometimes combines and exercises unjust power, and by the aid of dannable laws has t1ampied labor under foot. Proceeding then to consider the question of strikes, the speaker said organized labor societies were commendable and such associations should be legally incorporated. Strikes were lawful if urged in perfectly just cause. Strikes coupled with coerc1ve and destructive measures were to be con- demned. The right to strike is based upon constitutional right to lie idle. The right to demand work from a human being, whether that being wills it or not, died, thank God, the moment Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation. The right to employ or not and incontestable. The capitalists right to conduct his personal business as he chooses is co-existent with the laborer's ri ght to or oanize and strike Labor has 8 right to strike, but not to resort to violence. Such a resort is one of the most mischievous phases of social revolution and retards the success of the strike. The speaker here illustrated a case where men having struck because re fused higher wages try to coerce the manu- facturer to discharge the men who, want ing work, have taken their places, and to bully and frighten away the new hands and to prevent mer- chants from supplying the hands with gro ceries, etc This work the speaker condemn ed. Dictation, he continued, is a two-edged sword to wield. As Dr. Smyth truthfully said to you last Sunday:
 ''The people are impatient of dictation. The community will not long suffer the walking dele gate of any one body of to go about the streets a walking dictator to other men, We will have no Caesars, crowned or uncrowned, rich ever should become necessary, to fight the whole brood of industrial Caesars, big or Httle whether they be matched in the offices of wreckers of mems industries or in the councils of misled industrial agitators; There is considerable of the Fourth of July yet left in this country"
 Strikers have unQuestionably the right to exercise all their powers of moral suasion in urging the new hands in peaceful way to unite with them in advancing the interests of labor. No one set of men have or can they get mortgage on the liberty of their neighbor.
 The speaker then forcibly illustrated the fact that all men are after the mighty dol Iar' and that all men are interested therefore in upholding the economic laws which pro- tect the right to make capital productive. The speaker terminated this branch of the subject by quoting Powderly in denunciation of strikes. He then proceeded to speak of the boycott and said:
 THE BOYCOTT.
 The boycott, as I understand it, is the punishment or fine inflicted upon an offend ing employer for adhering to his refusal to oonan6a tO fha demands Tnade him
 The justice of such measure cannot be de- tended upon any principle of equity, for the simple and single reason that the boyco:ter has no higher authority for his power than the accident of circumstances by which he js made strong at the expense of justice. The boycott is foreign to American principles of government. It strikes at the very founda- tion of personal liberty, and if once reeog- nized 8 legitimate weapon of industrial warfare would topple the whole structure over. It's natural tendency is to become tyrannical and despotic, for it's character is such that it cannot bear prosperity. It is to the legitimate strike what rum is to the idler. It inebriates, intoxicates and drives men mad and goads them on to irresponsible deeds of violence and injustice The philoso-
 phic strike, if we may call the peaceful strike such, admits of, nay even invites arbitration, that almost divine means for the solution of labor troubles. The boycott is tyrant who orders other men to kneel at his feet and take the oath of absolute obedience and de- pendence. As has been we'll said by another, ''It introduces a species of dictation against which every instinct of independence and fair play revolts."
 The boycott, moreover, is @ boomerang which is sure, rule, to react upon those using it. One of it's worst features Is that it n- iures the innocent, in order to punish those who have been arbitrarily judged guilty. It has no limit in it's application. It affects most of all the merchant of moderate means, for, as a rule, he is the one least able to defy the boycott. It says to him: "Obey me or we will withdraw our patronage from you and compel others to do likewise We will ruin your business, though we admit that you are not personally responsible for the
 boycotted John Smiths action. You are un- fortunate in having accidentally become i'm plicated in it, but for that we not respon- sible, and you must suffer the wrongs of
 martyrs for our sake" And this, my friends, is demanded without the ability being pre- sented to substitute new gains for the loss incurred. I do not believe that any of us would peacefully submit to such double in l justice were we the sufferers from a boycott. I What would we all say if the courts of jus l tice decreed that it is better for hundred 1 innocent men to suffer than leave one crimi- | nal unpunished ? Every one of us would I clasp hands, and with shoulder to shoulder 1 with fear of God and love of justice in ! our hearts e4clSln, DeCLer a hundred crlml ! nals escape than one innocent man suffer- 1 The boycott like the strike, dependent up l on violent measures for success, is declara
 tion of war made upon industrial enterprises 1 It paralyzes the arm of trade and clouds tho l sky of prosperous times It kills employ l ment and in the end causes the most suffer | ing and distress among those least able tc l bear them-the wage earners. I would say | to every working man in the world, driv'
 the keen blade of your intelligence into thu ! bowels of this monstrous enemy and xiii 1 him. Beware, beware, he is fooling thee he is fooling thee," as the olt song runs. Remember that 8 free people in a free country will no l tolerate the demands of anyone who seek ! to supersede lawful government; nor to die l tate to man what he shall do with his own. , The speaker now considered the thirt | branch of his subject as follows:
 ARBITRATION.
 Having devoted much time tos the strike as it should be, and condemnation of tn. boycott as it is, the question suggests itself | what should labor do to make it's opinion re | spscted and it's organization recognized9 Tn,
 first thing to do is to organize, more upon tn.
 basis of quality, however, than quantity
 Interest the working classes in the science of organization. Select as your representative
 before the public men after the pattern ol
 MT. Powderly. Level-headed, jusrice-lovina | and broad-minded men of cool Judgment anc