The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-10-04
DEBARRlNG THE KNIGHTS.
Comment on the Action of the New York
Central Railroad.
New York lIeral,

new ! oIh IltItiu
The New York Central issued an order
Yesterday which is as startling as it is radi.
cal.
Third Nice-president Webb declares that
the corporation objects to employees being
members OF the organization known as
| knights of Labor
He thereup0n intimates that the road will
| hereafter make it a condition that all labor
ers shall reign their membership as knights
or bee dismissed.
50 important step could not have been
| taken without the concurrence Of the entire
management 1t therefore indicates the
| deliberate attitude of the road toward or
| ganization on the pant of the wage earners.
Ii is a perilOus but interesting expert
| mcnt on the part of associated capital 20
eNterminate associated labor.
We are curious 10 know what will be the
! end of this remarkable beginning. Ii Is
presumably first step which will make
others necessary. The knights are not
the only class OF men who have united for
mutual protection. The switchmen, the
| tiremen, the Brotherhood Of Engineers, the
Federation OF Railway Employees, have also
compact organizations.
Does the Central propose to stop with the
knights, or has it in mind TO break up all
the forms of organized labor now on its
pay roll: The logic of events seems TO
make that course inevitable.
IL will be admitted, Of course, that pri-
vate corporation has legal right 10 make
it's own rules, and 10 enforce them If it can.
These rules may be wise or foolish. The
legal right remains. 1t may, if it chOC SEES,
employ none but Presbytcrlans or CathO-
lies. or blacks or MOngOlians.
But the Central is something more than a
private corporation, and the people are di-
rectly interested in its management. IL eX-
lists by permission Of the public, is primarily
Tor the convenience of the public, and de-
ponds on the public for its charter IL is, in
a br y I sense, one Of the institutions of the
State. although incidentally its profits are
distributed among the holders of stock.
We are. therefore, justified in asking
whether it is eXpedient or for the benefit Of
the people that employees shall be restrict
ed in any OF their natural rights as citizens.
one of them being the right to organize for
their own benefit.
This movement seems AT first blush, then,
TO have an element of unfairness in il.
President Depew. as the head of that com
manding financial enterprise, has resOrted
10 measures whose severity is hardly war
ranted by the circumstances.
let it be- understood that those train
wreckers are dOuble-dyed scoundrels who
should De treated 10 the utmost penalty of
the law. But il would be emncntly unfair
TO insist that they represent the prevailing
spirit Of the Knights Of Labor. IL is not
true. as every fair-minded man will admit.
To hold the whole accountable for the crime
Ot the few is dangerous precedent 10 estab-
fish. such policy vigorously applied
would cNterminate every banking house and
every church, for there are rogues every.
where. All YOU can ask of the whole is that
they shall repudiate the rOgues who have
taken shelter under their roof, and that the |
knights have done boldly aud squarely.
This order il all the more startling he |
cause II seems 10 prove that the Central |
was neither frank nor truthful during the |
recent strike. The knights declared then |
hat certain men were dismissed simply /
and only because they were knights. This |
statement Mr.. Webb yehemcntly and in-
lignantly denied. He repeatedly asserted |
hat no man had been discharged because
ne was knight; that the Central made no
var on the Knights and did not propose 10
10 so.
On the very heels Of that denial he ISSUES
IN order thai the knights are obnoxious be-
ausc they are Knights, aud they must
iiher resign their membership or give M
heir places.
II IL impossible "a say that new facts have
lade this decision necessary. There are
0 new facts. The condition Of affairs is