The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-15
/, PowDERLY AND GOULD.

FOwDERLY. AND GOULD.
Remarkable Letter Of the Master Workman
to the Railroad Magnate.
= New York, April IA The following CORE
spondence is self-explanatory:
SCRANTON, Pa, April IL, 1886,
2 O'CLOCK, A. NJ,
ITO Jay Gould, President Missouri Pacific Railroad:
"Dear Sir-The events of the past forty eight
hours must have demonstrated to you the abso-
lutte necessity of bringing this terrible struggle
III the Southwest to speedy termination. You
have the power, the authority and the means to
bring the strike to an end. have done every
thing in myspower to end the strike The gen.
tlemen associated with me in the general execu-
tive board of the Knights have done the same:
Every thing consistent witnA honor and manhood
has been done in the interest of peace. No false
notions of pride or dignity have swayed as in
our dealings with you or the gentlemen asso-
ciated with you. <zs
I'm the conference with you on Sunday, March
2S, understood you to mean that arbitration
would be agreed to; tho only method Of arbitra-
tion that was discussed was in line with that sug
gested in the letter which sent you in the name
of our board the day previous There was moth
ing particular agreed upon, as you well know.
You said that in arbitrating the matter the de-
mands for losses of the company during the
that it would not be the part Of wisdom to bring
that question up in the settlement of the strike.
When called upon you again, that evening,
you had prepared. as the result OF your under
standing of the. mornings interview, letter
which you intended to give to me. That letter
included telegram to be sent to Mr.. Hoxie, and
in that telegram you said that the damages sus-
tanned by the company would be proper sub
ject for the arbitration board to dis
cuss. The latter part Of the letter or
falo txyo,1 IN Qtrik off ter Ua
had talked the matter over for some time. and
left you as you were about to 60 to your room to
rewrite the letter, which you afterwards placed
in the hands of Mr. Mcdowell, to be given to me,
for had to leave at that time in order to keep
an appointment at the hotel whore stopped.
The statement which you have since then made,
to the effect that you had prepared that letter
before Icalled is not quite correct for if you did
have 1t prepared you changed itafter we talked
the matter over This. I believe, ~ win admit
ssIn the conference held between the members
of our executive board and the directors of the
Missouri Pacific company, at No. l9o Broadway,
on March 80, you said to Lac that you understood
me to say that the men along your lines would
be ordered back to work at once, they having
violated the rules of our organization. then
reiterated the statement which l made to
you, and now repeat it: The men along
the lines of your railways will. be ordered
back, to work. but if they are given to under
stand that they are deserted, that we do not
take any interest in them, it will not in any way
mend matters; on the contrary, it will make
things worse. There are all along the roads out
there great many men who have no regard for
organization or law-men of hardy spirit energy
and daring; men who have left the East and
have taken up their homes in a wild country,
such as that is, will not submit as quietly as
the mon they have left behind in the East. They
are apt to do rasher things than they would do
elsewhere. and have no doubt we have some
of them In our order. In fact, my experience
with the men Of that vast section leads me to
think that the men on both sides out there are
more dare-devilsh than they are in the East.
Even the business men of that country are of
that stamp of character Both you and Mr..
Hopkins heard me make that statement, and
believe the latter agreed that was his opinion.
ss aaassF ass sa' and strike nsidae saa e
you that it would not spread; that an effort
had been made to have the mensof the Union
Pacific take up part Of it, but that the Knights
of Labor on that road had a'standing agreement
with the management OF. that road that there
was to be no trouble or strike until the last ef-
fort to effect settlement had failed. and not
then until the court Of last resort had been
reached. When l made that statement, Mr..
Hopkins remarked that they had better strike
then, for if they did not the Union Pacific would
not much longer have sufficient money to pay
their employees. The impression made on me
was that you would be pleased to see strike
take place on the Union Pacific
MIS- polleV0, covers Tue cnlcI pOlnCS OF 0S-
cussion. did not hear either you or MIR. Hop
kins say that the present troubles along your
road would not be arbitrated with the men who
were not at work. 1t was my firm belief, when
I left you that night, that you meant to have
the entire affair submitted to arbitration at the
shared by. Mr.. Mcdowell. who was
present during the entire interview.
When you sent the telegram to Mr.. Hoxie, you
sent it as president of-the Missouri Pacific Rail
H,w~,v Av,t pIay
sends his message to an inferior officer, and it
meant as much to sensible man the most
imperative order could possible mean. When ].
as the chief officer Of the Knights of Labor. send
message such that, it is understood to be my
wishes, and those which are respected by the
subordinate officer to whom they are sent. It is
not his place to put different construction on
them. and give them his own Interpretation.
His duty is to observe the spiritof the instruc-
tion.s The man in, power need not be an auto
crat in order to have his wishes respected. 1
would like to see it done comes with as great a
force from the man in authority as i must have
it done That was the idea that entertained
when left your house that night
II also explained to you, at your house. that
night that the men who had entered upon the
strike had not violated any law of the order in
so doing; that while / thought it would have
been better if they had laid their grievances be-
fore the general executive board before striking,
vet there was nothing in our laws to command
them to do So, said that a. district assembly
of the Knights of Labor bore the same relation
to the general assembly. of which was the chief
officer that one of the States of the Union did
TO the general government of the United States,
and that while could interfere, it was under
the law which gave me Jurisdiction over the en-
tire order, and not under any particular law I
furthermore explained to you that the spirit. OF
our organization was opposed to strikes and
that was the reason why our general convention
never enacted any particular LEGISLATION for the
governments of them. also said that the occa-
sion had never before called for any interference
| from the general officers, but that this strike
would show the necessity for the passage, at our
next convention. of laws that would place the
subject of strikes under control of the general
executive board of the order.
when, on Monday, March 90. you sent me
the letter marked personal you at the same
time told newspaper correspondent that you
hadsdope So. What your motive was in mark
inc ynIlf.lAfter ,narsanal and at thA sania TINA