Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-03-08
POWDERLYS POSITION.
Holds the Interests of Labor Above
ALI Re " Jealousies and Proposes
to Stand By Principle.


A Fair and Honorable View Of the
Situation.
SCRANTON, Pa, Feb. 2S.-A reporter
comes to NE this morning and asks what
my opinion is concerning the strike on
the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
Railway. The expression Of opinion Is
required a. to whether 1 favor the taking
of the places of brotherhood men by
knights of Labor. I have nothing to
say concerning the matter of the strike
on the road in question, for l do not
know the particulars, but if true men are
making an effort to do away with the
European custom of grading men up and
down, regardless of merit, then they are
right for making the fight for equality.
Ny opinion of the man who takes the
place of another who is struggling for
| his rights is that he deserves the con-
tempt and scorn Of every man who loves
| Justice. It is true that members of the
| Brotherhood have on repeated occasions
taken the places of the Knights of La
Dor. It is true that away back in the
I,early days of the '70's Brotherhood men
| did the same thing with the machinists
and blacksmiths at the command OF their
chief. It is true that the brotherhood
nen stabbed the Knights of Labor in the
! back on the Southwest systean, not only
by taking their places, but by urging
them 80 strike with the proffer Of assist
ance if they would do so. It is true that
| the knights were used as cats paws by
| the brotherhood man in that struggle,
and it is true that many engineers were
! burned in rakipg out chestnuts for 9th
ers. It is true that brotherhood men did
take the places of Reading men in the
strike On that road. The merits of the
various cases herein mentioned have
nothing to do with the principle of honor
which is involved in all of them.
It is TO be the eternal shame of the
| Brotherhood men that they stopped to
such acts of meanness and treachery and
unmanly conduct. The man who takes
| the place of another when that other is
| engaged in struggle with corporation
| is scab, whether he be member Of the
Knights of Labor Or member of the
| Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
| When Charles Wilson ordered members Of
the Brotherhood to take the places of
|
| smiths Union in 1872 and 1873 he did
an humanity, cowardiy act. When Arthur
allowed the members Of the Brotherhood,
| over which he exercises such discipline,
to tamper with the rights of the striking
employees of the Missouri Pacific and
| Wabash system, two years ago, he, too
violated that principle of honor which
should restrain man when about 80 do
wrong. It mattered not that the strikes
| in question were rot ordered by the chief
officers of the knights Of Labor. If the
man who are interested feel they were
right, and took up the fight as employees,
reg ardless of what organization they
belonged to, and on their own respon-
sibility, they hao the right to do SO; and
under the laws of the land members OF
the Brotherhood were not obliged to make
| cravens of themselves, as many OF them
did, both On the Southwest system and in
the Reading strike.
The taking of the mems places was
'mean and dastardly." If these actions
were taken with the sanction of the Chief
of the Brotherhood, he, too, is mean ana
dastardly, but "two wrongs never make
| a right" and what is mean and dastardly
| in a member of the Brotherhood Of En-
gineers can not become grand and noble
in member of the order of the Knights
of Labor No knight of Labor should
belittle his manhood by STOPPING to such
dirty work. If it is the habit of the
brotherhood men to do such work as the
taking of strikers places, in heavens
name let them have monopoly of it.
Knights Of labor, if you take my advice
you will stand baok and allow this strug
gle to GO on. Let the brotherhood de-
monstrate its power to stand alone, with
out any ''entangling alliances" with those
of other trades. Let the past be forgot
ten in this strike. No matter how bitter
you may feel toward these men, remem
Der th at they have not stepped out of the
mt of selfshness yet, and 1T is best to
teach them what manhood means by
keeping your hands off the Chicago, Bur
lington and Quincy strike. The spec
tacle presented by men of labor who be-
! long to different organizations rushing
at each others throats when a strike
takes place must be a gratifying thing
for the employees Of labor to look at. It
must indeed give satisfaction to the cor
poratiOns to know that neither the
| Knights of Labor or brotherhood men
| dare in future ask for better treatm ent
| with any assurance of receiving it. 1t
must be consoling thought to the mon
opoI;st to know that his power is not half
| so dangerous to the labor organizations
as the possibility that another labor or
ganizaticn will spouse his cause, through
revenge. Labor will forever be bound
hand and foot at the feet of capital as
long as one workingman can be pitted
against the other. No strike should be
entered into until the court of last resort
has been reached, until the last effort
consistent with manhood had been made,
until the heads of the opposing forces on
| both sides have been consulted and their
verdict given; until the last bridge has
been burned between them. Then if it
was determined that the last thing pos
sible had been done to avert trouble,
every detachment of labor's army-horse,
foot and artillery-should be wheeled in
10 line in defending the rights of the
men in the branch. I have never
seen such strike and never ex-
poet to until the narrow preja of
the past are buried; until the principles
of knighthood are properly understood.
| Then we will have no strikes.
Knights of Labor, from Maine to Cali
fornia, stand back. Keep your hands
off. Let the law Of retaliation be dis
regarded. and let the men of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad win this
| strike, If they can.
Z. Y. PowDERLY,
General Master Workman.
They tell down East of poor fellow
who owned q remarkably fat hog, and
who also owed a rich man. The hog was