Huntsville gazette., 1886-05-01
A WAR OF GIANTS.

| The Capitalists and Corporations Organ
lied For a Stubborn Fight With Organ
lied Labor in General and the knights of
Labor In Particular--Jay Gould Said to
Be the Leading Spirit. a ..as4a..ae.
New YORK, April 25.-Just as the
troubles between the Northern and
Southern States led year by year through
number Of decades to the struggle of
twenty-five years ago, so have the differ
ences between capital and labor been
gradually approaching the final struggle.
1t has been said of late that strikes all
over the country are indicative that the
period is at hand when the millionaire
and corporations on one side and the
workingmen on the other side must come
to a satisfactory and final understanding
which is to be the supremacy of the one
or the other. The strikers in a majority
of instances have met with success in
times past simply because they were or
ganized, but recent information indicates
that the milliOnaires and corporations
have also organized.
1t Is learned that from the day last sum-
mer when Mr.. Gould was forced to bow
the knee to the Knights and grant their
demands for an adjustment of grievances
on the Wabash system, that capitalists
and large corporations, seeing the hand
writing on the wall, have been preparing
for final struggle. Practically speaking,
a great union of the mOneyed interests
has been in course of formation for many
months. At first the surface railroad cor
poratiOns of this city did not belong to
the union, and they were forced to grant
the demands of their men in January.
Since then it can be positively stated that
the presidents of the roads have Joined
the big union, subscribed anywhere from
$l,000,000 and upward, and are now pre-
pared to give battle to the knights. When
Mr.. Hoxie turned his back upon the mem
bers of the general executive committee
of the Knights of Labor, he knew that all
the roads leading into East st. Louis had
subscribed $250,000 as fund to defeat
the strikers; he knew that all the other
roads of the country had subscribed, or
were willing to subscribe, hundreds of
thousands to crush the Knights of Labor
and the labor unions of the country
The last to come into the big union are
the sugar-retiners of Brooklyn. They
also have subscribed to the big fund and
are prepared to fight to the bitter end.
They are even more defiant than Mr.
the strikers back at any thing like their
former wages. They will shut down en-
tirely, they say, knowing full well that as
the Knights of Labor have reserve fund
from which to draw support, they also
have fund running up into the millions
from which to draw sustenance. A GER
tain president of one of the trunk lines
said to-day that this company stood ready
to subscribe 100000 to the big fund at
the first indication of trouble from its
employees. Whether Mr.. Gould is the
general master workman of the Knights
of Capital can not be learned, but such is
the report. This big fund has enabled
the corporations to scour the country for
nom union men, and it can be stated posi-
lively that in the event OF a general tie-up
of the railroads in this or any of the other
larger cities, there are men who stand
ready to take the places of the strikers.