St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-17
Chauncey Depew, However,
Greatly Admlres the Chief
of the Engineers.
lie Delivers an Eloquent Ad-
dress Before Knights Of
the Throttle.
20 Them Is Due the Collapse
of the New York Central
Strike.
Capital and Labor Should
Meet on Common Ground
for Common Good.

P1TTsBURG, Oct. I6.-The Interna-
tioual Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neerS held its annual open meeting III
the Grand opera house this afternoon.
Among those who wrote letters of regret
were Gov. Campbell, of Ohio; Gov.
Beaver. of Pennsylvania; George w.
Childs. of Philadelphia; President
George B. Roberts, of the Pennsylvania
railroad, and other prominent railroad
officials. After prayer by Gil and Chap
lain q. r. Dorrity, Mayor Gourley, OF
this city, in an eloquent address well
coined the delegates to the city. Chair
man Adams then introduced Hon.
Chauncey NJ. Depew, president of the
New York Central Railroad company.
The appearance of the distingu shed
orator and statesman was the signal for
the widest kind of applause. He was
rendered genuine ovation. When
order had been restored, Mr.. Depew
proceeded to deliver an address which
was listened to with great interest.
Several times he was compelled to pause
owing to the deafening applause of his
hearers. MIR. Depew said:
Only an invitation of unusual attract
iveneSs could induce ne to spend two
nights Oh the sleeping car and deliver
an address. but your call to be with you
for The third time was an Indication of
the undated friendship which has eX-
listed between us that demands all
equally cordial recognition. My vOluble
and yoiuminous friend, MIR. Powderly,
said recently that at the meeting of the
locomotive engineers in New England,
which L addressed i'll the opera house at
New Haven just before sailing for Eu-
rope, your grand chief, Mr.. Arthur, and
edited the audience by falling
Into Each Others, Arms
and kissing. While that event did not
take place, l am glad now, as then, to
express the esteem felt by every one
for the man whose ability and conserva-
tlSm have done so much to elevate and
dignity labor and to win for its efforts
the respect of the country. This is the
twenty-seventh annual convention of
the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neers. During the period of your exist
ence and prosperous growth hundreds
of labor organizations have been formed
and dissolved. They have been started
to carry out novel theories, or TO put in
practice unusual and untried processes.
The success OF your body is due to its
rigid and answering adherence to the
right principles upon which it was
founded. Association is the rule of our
time, and finds expression i'll the gen
eral laws upon the statute book under
which, with little expense or formality,
people with kindred objects can lncor-
porate for almost every conceivable
purpose i'll business, religion, be-
nevoience and the arts. or for
literary or social objects. We have
learned from experience several inn
portant lessons. 1t has been demon
strated that socialism, either with in
dividuals or by the state, is incOmpat-
ibie with our liberty and cannot survive
under our institutions. Over 800 SOcie-
ties have been formed to put in practice
socialistic theories. They have been
headed by earnest, Self-sacrlficing and
devoted people and wrecked by dis
cipleS who could get along with nobody
in this world and would never he re-
ceived into the next, and who fondly
imagined that they could create a better
world of their own. 1t is equally clear
that success is impossible unless the
Manhood of the Individual
is secure, and his ability to improve his
condition and rise above his surround
admitted that The individual has liberty
OF thought and expression. and that the
will of the majority must be secured
before action can be taken. No labor
organization can permanently succeed
whose sole and only object is to increase
wages and diminish hours. 1t lacks the
essential bond of mutual sympathy and
brotherly help in bearing or tightening
each others burdens. The tendency of
such an organization is inevitably and
rapidly to collisions and failure. In
the United States our pace is so rapid
and our development so phenomenal
that without due consideration we rush
rapidly to extremes. This is true
both of capital and labor. The
money required to construct tele-
graphs, to build railroads. to establish
banks. was beyond the power of the in
aggregated capital, representing the
contributions of many, to perform these
works. At the same time, through COM
missions. departments and state officers.
the hand of the government was con-
stantly upon them for the protection of
the public against eXtOrtion or djScrim-
ination. But within few years every
thing, from pine lands to peanuts, and
from sugar TO sardlneS, has been organ-
lied into some form of corporation or
trust. This universal effort to absorb
the individual. TO divide the people into
employing companies and employees and
to destroy competition, will
inevitably End IN Disaster.
Hostile legislation and the laws of
trade will leave only the legitimate Ell.
terprlses surviving. In the same way,
and from the same causes. there have
been several ambitious attempts to form
gigantic labor trusts, which should
combine under one central and auto
cratic authority every occupation in
which a wage-earner or bread-winner
could engage. In all such associations
of trades and occupations having moth
ing in common, certain qualities of au-
dacitv, tiuency of speech and capacity
for manipulating caucuseS and conven-
tons, push to the front many men who
know little of the great interests con-
fided to their care. Labor must lie as
intelligent as capital upon its own
grounds. The committee which calls
upon the employer or the railroad officer
must know its own business as well
as he does; otherwise from angry
contentious because of ignorance
comes the exercise of brute force, and
violence 1allS 10 secure that which Ill
nine cases out of ten could have been
had by intelligent presentation. Hun
dreds of committees of our employees
have been to see me, and l can safely
say that after the full and free discus
sion which always took place not one. OF
them ever went out of my office except
to carry back satisfactory message Il
their constituents. l do not mean tina
what was asked was always granted
because an intelligent committee, wher
it meets the president of the railroad
and sees the other side, always modifie
and sometimes abandunS its demands
The reason for these ready settlement
was that the men understood their owl
business, and knew precisely what the,
wanted and how much the compan
could afford to concede. But in the op
erations of what may
Call the Labor Trust
l have had three experiences. A fore
of fifteen men were located at one poin
on the line, and, in common with othe
trades in that neighboThOod. were iIem
beers of the local assembly. The chic
of that assembly was a shoemaker. VIII