New-York tribune., 1886-05-02

|
The case of the Executive Committee of the
Empire Association seems hard to some. These
men, it is said, i'll ordering strike only sought
| to benefit a large body of laborers, and did not
know that they were doing wrong to anybody
| To them it did not seem wrong to demand
| from the railroad companies what they con-
sidered just. SO their defenders will reason,
and it will be added that the men did not know
at all events that they were violating any law,
and therefore should not be punished.
| But if what the men have done is in fact
| illegal and hostile to the welfare of society,
their ighornace of the law or of their duties
cannot excuse them. No law could be main
| taiped the public welfare could never be de-
Tended, if any one could escape penalties by
| pleading ignorance of the laws OF the land. III
there is general ignorance. so dense that thou
sands of men who are usually law-abiding have
exposed themselves to indictments and convic-
tions rs bOycotters, so much the greater reason
for fixing public attention everywhere upon the
fact that certain acts are Illegal and VIII be
punished What the law is will be decided by
a trial. On that point il is now appropriate to
SAY nothing. hut the moral right or wrong OF
the matter may and must still be publicly and
frankly discussed. The strikers committee,
whether in violation Of the law or not, can in
no wise claim the excuse of ignorance for Its
offence against free labor and against society.
The men may not have known the precise
language Of the law, but they did know that
tncy had no right to starve six men and their
families, to rob them Of their rights as free cit
liens and free workmen by demanding their
discharge. So much they knew The demand
was an act of tyranny, which every member
of the committee would have denounced as in
famous if an association of railroad managers
had demanded the discharge of these members.
The committee ought to know that the great
army of unorcanized laborcrs in this country
has the absolute right under onr laws to work
for a living, and that any attempt to deprive
one man of his right is crime. Ignorance
does not serve because it does not
exist. The members of the committee,
whether they knew the language of the law or
not, knew that they were trying to deprive GER
tain men of the means of livelihood, land in
their conscieEces they knew that was Il crime.
Nor can they plead that they did not know
what they were doing when they ordered the
strike on all city railroads. The object was
openly stated. They meant to stop all the
roads, and to inhct upon the whole community
such loss and suffering as to force it to do what
they demanded. Force is despOtisn, and this
is not a land of despotiSm. Law means equality
of rights, equal for others for the Empire
Protective Association, and that body attempts
a crime when it attempts to force this com
munty, that is, to deprive it of its rights. The
language of the leaders of the strike leftn no
cOncealment of their purpose. They threat
ened to stop, not only all horse cars bat all
elevated roads and all ferries. In a word they
threatened TO intlict upon the inhabitants of
this great city a terrible disaster, to the million
who work for a living peculiarly ntolerable,
in order to force the million to submit to the
dication of a few. That they knew was a
wrong. Pretexts are idle. 1t does not make
any difference whether the committee believed
what they asserted about the other ALWAYS or
not. They knew that in any case they had no
right to inflict tremendous loss upon million
unoifending and industrious people
If the law does not reach and punish these
men for the great wrongs they have committed
against free labor and a peaceful city, if it
appears upon trial, though guilty of a great
crime in morals and intent, they avoided the
statutes and broke no law, then the whole COM
munity will acquiescc in their acquittal, but it
Will earnestly demand of the Legislature that
it shall without delay make the law so clear
and explicit that this intOlerable wrong cannot
again be committed with impunIty. But
whether the men accused have broken the law
is to be determined by the courts. 1t is the
opinion of the Off rers of the law, of the Grand
Jury, and of the judge. that they have. That
there has been great offence committed, every
honest man must realize Ii the law reaches it,
and Furnishes it severely, the punishment ill
fall upon the heads of persons who deserve it
infinitely more than some of their half-crazed
followers who rushed into coarser acts Of vio-
lence with exactly the same motives.