Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-05-05
Rights and duties of capital and labor.

In an article under the above heading, |
the Baltimore Sun of the 22nd instant
says
'We have 80 often counseled dissatisfied |
employees to let boycotts and strikes alone,
rely on the support of public opinion as the |
surest agency to redress their grievances in
the long run, and, above all, to do no law
less act that can by any possibility estrange
public sympathy, that we feel, in present
ing Mr.. Powderly's views upon the subject,
that in another form we are in substantial
accord with him. There is one other nota-
BILE paragraph in bis testimony that de-
serves to be read not only by laboring men,
but by corporations and individuals as well.
81 believe" said he, "that the law of the
land is higher than any organization or any
corporation, and that when man violates
the law of the land, either as Knight OF
Labor, or as private citizen, or as mem
Der of corporation, he should be punished
for it, and that his connection with an or.
ganization should be no shield for him, and
l have thought that the man who violates
the law, and who is worth millions of dol
lars, should suffer the same as the poor
man." This is the foundation-stone OF all
free government, as we have time and again
shown in these columns; for it is we'll to
bear in mind that here, where the people
have themselves made the law and chosen
their agents to administer it, there can be
no excuse for it's deliberate violation, and
| it ought to be strong enough to reach ag-
gregations of men, whether they run rail
roads and are called corporations, or regu
! late labor and are called societies. No man
ought to be above or beyond it; even though
he sis worth millions of dollars" he "should
suffer the same as the poor man. Ii this
1 Al Co. 80 for of I,a
people themselves, and the remedy is not
to disobey or override the law, but change
| it and its ministers until both are brought
in accord with an enlightened public Opin-
ion. 1t is just at this point the knights of
Labor run their greatest risk, and we say
it in all kindness. In indicating their own
rights they must not strike down the rights
of other people. Their right is to take
cognizance of their own grievances and
remedy them by peaceful means, by 'arbi
tration and reconciliation if they can, and
to this limit at least, they act within the
scope of their organization as defined by its
head and will certainly be sustained by
public opinion wherever their grievance is
real and their demand reasonable. To cor
porations the lesson is quite as important
Il Assuming that there is middle ground be-
tween those who assert that the companies
are not the owners of the railroads, but only
epublic agents to run them for the State, and
Those who deny that they owe any response
bility to the State at all more than indivi-
duals engaged in private business, the fact
remains that by virtue of its right OF emf
nent domain the State still controls the soil,
and where it has reserved in the charter,
{ which is its contract the right to "alter,
amend or repeal" it is obvious that not only
is the corporation responsible to the law,
but to that public opinion which is taking
shape day by day, and which finds expires,
sion, when fully formed, in the statutes OF
the State. 1t will certainly not do to as
sumo that neither labor nor the public have
any rights which corporations are bound to
, respect. Altogether, these utterances Of
Mr.. Powderly are worth remembering. And
if he shall impress his order with the neces
sity of obeying not only the laws, but the
rules which he has set before them, his mis-
sion of peace will receive alike the sanction
, of his own times and generation. and OF
that higher law which has conferred its
blessing upon the peacemakers."