The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-12

SClOuS Will, ana is not 10 De fGpTeSSeO. LII Will
gain its ends somehow. for the need of them has
entered into the common heart, and they are
within the reach of the common hand, which is
sure to find a way of grasping them. 1t is re-
sorting to all sorts of crude devices to get them.
1t Is trying politics in a ftful way, and it is try
ing the resources of organization, including
colossal strikes, with all that the word implies.
Be assured that it cannot be turned back, for
that way Is the pit. 1t is doomed to advance,
for that is the way of life. We can aid it by
Legislation, but cannot stop it. We have no force
that can overcome it, for it is itself the control
mig force. Louis Napoleon once boasted that he
could brighten France with 8 "whiff of grape
shot" but he did not thus boast when the grape
had full play in 1871.
Now, and always, let vain threatenings be alb
Jured, and let every man whose hopes are bound
up IN the peaceful development OF our young
democratic Republic seek FOR ways of perempto-
rlly riehting the wrongs that have turned it out
or It's proper course.
The demands of the labor movement, which
are to-day proclaimed from the housetops, and
strlven Tor by the organized forces here spoken
or, have their root in that primeval law of equal
ity proclaimed by the Declaration of Independ-
ence and In that familiar trilogy of common rights
which Jefferson puts as its preface.
After all, no more than the editor of The
World. can | forecast the outcome of that ever
swelling movement. which is taking on shapes
more and more menacing to the uSurpers who
bestride our country, and have seized the re-
sources that by right of nature and virtue be-
long to the disinherited millions.
The Movement Must Lead to Reaction.
George w. Curtis. in Harper's " eekly.
The great strike in the Southwest, and the
smaller labor strikes and troubles elsewhere,
have naturally led to serious consideration of
the practicable defenses of enterprise and in
dustry against sudden and violent Interruptions.
This is not to be interpreted as a disposition to
deny or to disregard the rights of any man, but
on the contrary to guarantee and protect the
rights of all men. 1t is the direct employers of
labor who are Immediately affected by such in
terruptions, and among the propositions we OBJ
serve a letter to the Chicago Times, signed
Manufactures, which suggests a general organ
lzatlon OF capitalists and manufacturers for
mutual protection against strikes. The article
comedies that the proposition IS not new. In
Rhode Island it states that there is an organiza-
ton OF manufacturers who pay into the treasury
one-1fth OF the the sum of their monthly pay rolls,
which has now swelled to the sum of 81, 900. 900.
Such a plan, says the article, would not put an end
to strikes, but it would curtail unjust demands
and it would enable employers to meet the labor
organizations upon a fair ground. Intelligent
and cool headed leaders like Mr.. Powderly have
seen, of course. from the beginning the POSSIBLE
ity OF such movements among employers. United
action and boycotting, and all for each are meth
DDS as open to employers as to employees. A com
OthOA AOCh OuC oSoku6t q thOldC LIN "OAta
be an indescribable disaster. But no employe or
union of employees will suppose that, in a contest
so desperate as that which a general strike would
involve, the employers would not resort to the
most powerful weapons at their m
The unions of employees assume to decide.what
kind of labor employers shall engage and what
wages they shall pay, how they shall direct the
labor which they hire and to whom they shall
sell its products, and all other details of the bust
ness. They assume to ommand laborers to
leave their work without knowing why, to for
felt the chance of resuming it, and to
abandon the support of their families and
trust to a committee or an association
to keep them from starving. There is no such
despotism in the world as such a system, and
there are no slaves so abject as such a scheme
produces. 1t is the humiliation of liberty, and
naturally it invites counter organization. The
question which is raised by the Southwestern
strike is one of the most important possible.
The vital necessity of pied railroad
transport and the enormous amount of money
invested in railroads make a suspension of rail
road traffic a national calamity. That such a
calamity should depend upon the within of an
irresponsible body of men, wholly unknown to
the law, is simply anarchy. 1t is the end of con-
fldence, OF regular industry, OF regard for law.
Such a situation must end, unless society is to
be dissolved. Honest men who live by wages,
and who honestly acQuiesce in this system of
blind obedience TO an unknown authority, can
see that in the contest which that authority may
provoke the final result does not depend upon
duIQOOI0s OCotku GtiOu Vi all III LdkLEO d00l al tu0
country, total suspension of railroad traffic and
the massacre of all railroad officers would end
neither in increased employment nor in higher
wages. 1t would end in terrific ~reprisals and in
a common catastrophe.
The Knights of Labor sometimes boycott a
newspaper. But if the newspaper interest, in
all its branches, should retort by boycotting
every workman in any branch gifts employment,
paper-making, ink-making, machine-making,
printing, refusing absolutely to employ any man
in any branch who had any connection with the
knights OF Labor, who would suffer moSts Riots
would not remedy the situation for the boycott
ed workmen. Destruction of property would
merely confirm the lockout, exasperate passions,
and postpone peace. The moral Judgment of
the community would pronounce against the in
stigators of the trouble, as it has pronounced
against the Southwestern strike. These tremen-
dous reprisals are resources to which employers
have not yet generally turned. But the demands
of the Knights of Labor to supersede the lawful
government, to dictate to every man what
he shall do with his own, to per-
NIT all great enterprises and in
dustries to be prosecuted only as they
shall choose, will not be tolerated in a free coun-
try and by a free people. There is no excuse for
such attempted tyranny in this country. where
Knights of Labor are voters and can influence
legislation, and where there is no public sympa-
thy for corporations and great associations of
organized capital, but the strongest disposition
to favor labor and the laboring man. Nothing
has shown this more plainly than the friendly
toho VI press GOWarUS Tie hulSHtS y hduor
until the recent events in Missouri, which have
revealed so clearly the scope and tendency of the
situation that, except in a few demagogue sheets,
which are the worst enemies of honest labor.
the condemnation is universal. But its charac-
ter should be understood. 1t is not condemna-
ton of the union Of any body of men lawfully to
demand what they hold to be their rights and
dues, and to refuse to work except upon certain
terms. That is nor denied. What is condemned
is the union of any body of men to interfere
unlawfully with the rights and property Of
others.
How Prohibition Kills Business.
Des Moines Register.