Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-05-26

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JOURNAL is paid for advocating the
cause of true labor.
Of course it is paid. Like other
workingmen on the pay rolls we get
our bills liquidated promptly every
month. And this sort of thing we
want to keep up. 1t is a reciprocity
Of equivalents which We desire to
perpetuate by preaching peace and
goodwill to companies and men.
There is for the JOURNAL 10 liveli-
hood in war. 1t has tried that role
to find itselfat last the target of both
hres-between the opposing lines
without flag or shelter.
The result pleases the JOURNAL.
The victories Of peace are so much
more renowned than those of strife
that it will henceforth fight against
war; the rewards of peace are so
much richer than those of war that
1t will ever hereafter strain every
nerve to prevent war; 1t gains di-
rectly in job patronage and indi-
rectly in that which comes from the
people, friendly and unfriendly, who
must have the Journal.
But the criticism INDUCED by the
professional workingmen who are
makinga a herculean effort to edit news
papers raises the inference that then
are working for nothing, boarding
themselves and sleeping in the barn.
That was what John Swinton. the
ablest and best of them all, did, and
the people he served so well stole his
great labor for years and made him
candidate for the poorhouse.
That was what the brave, honest,
bu; misguided and BETRAYED John
Siney did IN another sphere of sac
riftce. Inspired by rebellion against
the wrongs laid upon labor he
gave to revolutionary methods the
best years Of his life. With hand
and voice he worked, and to the last
exemplfied his faith in the justice of
his cause. His property, health and
life went into the balance, and he
lost all. When he fell into trouble
his followers-the beneticiaries of his
martvrdom, abandoned him to his
fate. He emerged pauper; it took
the COW from his family to pay the
last bill, and to-day his grave, almost
like that lonely, unknown tomb on
Mount Nebo, is designated by pine
slab IN response to an appeal to COM
memorate in undecaying marble his
name, courage, virtue and fruitless
martyrdom.
The second Moses in his grave is
far worse off than the first.
So il goes. These are but two
examples of hundreds of less prom
inence. They suffice to show that
the su-called 'army of the discon-
tented" deserts its color bearers,
while in nearly every other popular
movement ''the soldiers of the legion"
gather around their heroes and stay
to the last Of property, breath and
blood.
10 return
But the professional workingmen
now engaged in the newspaper bus
mess are not counting Swlnton's nor
Siney's sad fate. They are working
for pay, and they are getting great
deal they do not earn.
This brings the JOURNAL to the
point of extending its most dis
tinguished consideration to the pro-
fessional workingman at Gallitzin,
Pa, with the information that 1t has
not yet begun on the Knights of
Labor that it has been skimming the
surface, and that when we get to
digging under the crust we shall say
something real bad. We may tell
how hundreds of them, whose names
We have, stole the JOURNAL for
years, and of other hundreds whose
names are on mercantile ledgers
along the Greek. who, after precip-
itating strike, fed upon the
means of such friendly merchants as
could or would supply them, and
then, in their own chaste language,
"would be ID before we will pay
any strike debts"
Perhaps our memory is short, but
old accounts, still open-still un-
settled, tell a story of faithlessness
and loss which cannot be impeached
by any attack upon the JOURNALS
consistency, loyalty, or what not
There are bright exceptions to be
found here and there of men far bet