Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-07-10
The TOo.Ready Rifle and Revolver.

The recent occurrences in Duluth are
lamentable from every point of view. 1t
is always to be regretted when en-
ployers and employed cannot adjust their
differences without strikes and lockouts,
but when to these undeniable calamities
is added bloodshed the evil is intensi.
fed greatly. 1t is a curious fact that the
authorities in the United States are far
more apt to resort to bloodshed than
those of Europe. The police officials ct
the higher grade are too prone to set a
very trifing estimate upon the rights and
life of the citizen. An English police
man will stand many times the provoca-
tion that his American brother will en-
dure. That the laws should be main
tanned is true, but their authority could
often be made to prevail without the
high-handed violence SO often thought
necessary. In the bloody and disas
trous riots which prevailed in Pittsburg
over decade ago nothing was palmer
than that most of the destruction of life
and property was directly to be traced to
the foolish preeipitancy of the
militia, which fred upon the
mob in reckless and indefen-
sible manner The result was the loss
of twenty million dollars worth of prop
erty and wanton sacrifice of life. COL
Thomas A. Scott, the President of thePenn
sylvania Central Railway, followed up the
incident by writing an editorial in the
North american ReuietU advocating the
creation of a standing army of one hum
dred thousand men for the purpose of
oyerawing the masses. Fortunately for
the well-being of the United States, the
lordly railway magnate found few sym
pathizers in the country and none in
Congress.
The dispatches say that the police of
Duluth claim that the first attack was
made by the rioters. This may have
been the case, and yet it affords no ex-
cuse for the Wholesale shedding OF blood.
1t is the duty of policemen and the
volunteer or other soldiery to exercise
great judgment in such cases, and not to
proceed to extremities on the first provo
cation. In England, on occasions of
riotous outbreaks, it is the invariable
custom to read the riot act by the
Mayor of the city or some COM
petsnt magistrate before the mill
tary are allowed to fire on the
people. Even then the first discharge is
always with blank cartridges. No such
preliminaries are thought essential in
republican America. On the first pre-.
tense the life line is passed, and such
occurrences as the Duluth incident are
telegraphed over the country.
Those who take sanguine views of the
future, and who look for the time when
arbitration shall settle the disputes be-
tween capital and labor, can find very
little to support their cheerful theories.
There seems to be less of spirit of con.
cession on either side than existed
thirty years ago. Wealth is entrenched
much more strongly now than then. An
unpleasant feature of the day is that the
disagreements between capital and labor
are increasing with the passing years.
We were told that the election of Harri-
son would make every thing lovely. On
the contrary, that event has added to
the financial and industrial depression.
Day by day the workingman is being
forced into a narrower groove and riot is
the natural outcome of the process.