The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-03-02
PAI4ATKA. FLA. MARCH 2, 1888.
LABoR's KILKENNY CATS.


ton will watch with interest the new
phase it has assumed in the railroad
strike on the Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy road The engineers who
struck on the Reading road are all
Knights of Labor Their places have
been supplied by engineers who belong
to the Brotherhood of Locomotive En-
Rineers. The members of the Brother
hood on the Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy have struck now and engineers
who are Knights of Labor are pressing
forward to take their places. The
Knights say they viii return to their
homes and leave the places of the strik-
ing Brotherhood engineers vacant if
Chief Arthur win call his men off the
road and not cripple them in the fight
they are making against the Reading
company for what they regard as their
rights.
The conflict between two such strong
bodies, If it continues, will be a good
thing for railroad managers. They will
he able to control the property in their
charge as they see fit If their engineers
are members of the Brotherhood, they
can call in the knights of Labor and let
the hostile camps of labor exhaust their
strength on each other. The Brother
hood has refused all overtures from the
Knights of Labor in the past to become
a part of that order, and have refused to
participate in Knights Of Labor strikes,
on the plea that their methods of treat
ing differences between themselves and
their employers were radically different.
This was merely negative and their scru
pies have been respected by the Knights
of Labor, though not without some
grumbling. Now however members of
the Brotherhood have taken the very de-
cided step Of accepting employment in
the places of striking Knights of Labor
and the resentment of the latter has been
aroused.
The result of such conflict can only
be injurious to both parties. The Broth
erhood of Locomotive Engineers is better
prepared for contest than their labor
adversaries. They are compact body
obeying the orders of their Chief, whose
power seems autocratic, with the ut
most fidelity. The Knights of Labor,
although they have lost nearly half their
membership, are still very strong in
point of numbers, but they are difficult
TO rule, with divided councils and infil-
trated with spirit of disloyalty toward
Sthe officers they have themselves Sc
kected. Within the organization are
@eenl turbulent cliques and such har-
nlouy as there is in their councils comes
from the supremacy gained by the
strongest of these cliques.
One reason of the strength of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is
that the organization is homogeneous,
none but locomotive engineers belong to
IT.. Another is that they do not strike
until all other means of obtaining a re-
dress Of grievances are exhausted. They
are the first to propose arbitration and
they accept the results of such arbitra-
tod manfully, no matter how badly
they may be worsted.
1t is the aim of General Master Work
man Powderly to discipline his unruly
army into the same spirit. But he has a
\ heterogeneous mass of assemblies OF all
trades and no trades to deal with, men
who are not disciplined through the
force of their own occupation as mem
bers of the Brotherhood are, who are not
50 accustomed to obeying orders.
TO prevent unnecessary strikes is
the most difficult work before
him. Every unsuccessful strike dimin.
ishes the number of his knights, every
strike entered into without the advice
and support of the general officers
diminishes their authority If the
Knights engage in conflict with the
Brotherhood while carrying on war with
powerful corporation they will be
lighting against heavy odt.s. If the
Brotherhood succeed in putting dowr
the knights of Labor their own struggle
for existence will be much harder.