The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-10
THE RIGHTS OF FREE LABOR.

the Mayor of Cincinnati, to the effect that he
had sufficient police force to enable working
men who so desire to return to work without
fear cf interference. The Importance of max
ing IS intelligence public was regarded so
great that he caused it to be published in the
form of proclamation. The Mayor of city
of 10000 inhabitants, in free America, an.
nouncing in formal manner that the work
| ingmen of that city will be afforded protection
in their right to work! If they wish to earn
bread and clothing for their families, the
Such monstrous wrong as is revealed by the
necessity of making such announcement was
never before felt in this land. The idea that
the workingmen of America have to be pro-
tected while they work is one that may well
cause every law-abiding man to ask what the
| vaunted freedom of this country amounts to,
that the men who. labor have to be protected
in their rightsto earn food and clothing for
those dependent upon them. The men who
make police protection necessary for the man
| who wants to work can not hope to perpetuate
such a tyrannous power Without qualifca-
| ton, such usurpation of control cannot be
| tolerated. It matters not how many men may
| have been wheedled OF bulldozed into such
position, it cannot be maintained. The work
| ingmen themselves are sure to revolt against
such tyranny. The rule in this country has
been that every man has the right to work for
| what he is willing to accept for his services,
can not be abrogated for any man or orgaaiza-
ton of men. If this is the position of the
Knights of Labor they must abandon it,
for they have no more right to say what man
| shall or shall not do than has any man to say
| what they shall OF shall not do in the matter
of working to suit themselves In short, one
| man has as much right as another in this
country, or the boast that we are free people
is burlesque. No tyranny could be more
hateful nor more destructive of freedom. If
organized" labor is standing out for recog
milton of this fright" they might as well
give it up now, for even though they should
succeed in temporarily terrorizing the public
into an acceptance of the idea, it would prove
so hateful to workingmen themselves that
they would not stand it; and would soon
destroy the organization that insisted upon it.
The second remarkable statement and in
| the same line, is that the strikers at Detroit
were holding meeting to decide whether the
proprietors of certain car-shops, from which
they had struck, would be allowed to employ
other men in the places of such as had
voluntarily refused to work longer. This is
beautiful idea, truly. What has this country
himself up as a dictator and declare that no
other man shall take up what he has refusedg
There is no ground for argument on this
| point, for it cannot be conceded without max
| ing mockery of what we have been pleased to
call personal freedom. Popular government
would be destroyed, and in its place would be
set up an oligarchy as tyrannous in it's
exactions as any on the face of the earth.
| The day will never come when this prepos-
ferrous demand will be conceded, for the very
sufficient reason that it can never be without
| surrendering the dearest rights of the individ-
ual at the bidding of any who may choose to
organize for that purpose. Workingmen have
been led into this untenable position by reading
papers whose existence depends on keeping up
| feeling of discomfort among workingmen.
| This, however, is no excuse. The man who
allows himself to become monomaniac from
reading infammatory literature has only him.
self to blame, nor can he expect the world to
believe as he does. By organizing with others
he may for time succeed in having his pecu-
but at the last the truth will prevail and the
right will triumph. In the United States the
rule has been that the individual citizen has
the same rights before the law as has any
organization. Organized force cannot have it's
own way unless it is in the right. This is
| free country, and the American people will
see to it that it is kept free. It may require
| fight to prove this, and there will be fight
just as sure as these hateful ideas of inter-
ssring with the rights of the individual are
attempted to be forced upon the people. John
Smiths family are suffering because John
Smith ia ont of xvork Thav want con, atb;p r,
to eat and something to wear. If John
Smiths neighbor quits his place in shop be-
cause he is dissatisfied with anything John
Smith is going in and take that place if he can
and if he is suited with 1t. No man, nor
hundred man nor Thousand nor hundrad