Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-09-20
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.

Mass Meeting In Union Square-A Disap-
pointed Audience-IIugh d. Pentecost
Talks Nonsense-Powderly Afraid of
Independent Political Action,
The Union Square meeting held last
Saturday evening to express sympathy
with the New York Central Railroad
strikers was an odd affair. That under
no circumstances can the strike be said
to have been an utter failure TRANSFERRED
from the casual remarks one who walked
through the square caught here and
there from the knots Of men who began
to gather from an early hour. Such
expressions as these were heard, for
instance: otis no use kicking 'gainst
bricks, those fellows are too much for
u.s. they got the money, we halnt got
nothing; they'll get the best of us every
time; "What darn shame we cant all
pull together; "This thing will never
end without the whole business is put
into the hands of the government;
Guess the socialists are right after all
"Something is coming, and it won't be
long coming, either etc, etc.
SO far-good; but the transactions on
the platform we're interesting and slgnl-
ficant to the looker-on. Chairman Carson
opened the meeting with the remark,
that it was rumored the meeting meant
politics, but that no politics with cute
twinkle of the eye was TO be talked
from that platform. This statement
acted like wet blanket on the audience,
and the chill it gave was made all the
more apparent by the few isolated cheers
of people who here and there had eVl-
IDENTIFY not understood 1t.
Hugh O. Pentecost was the first speak
er. He delivered one Of his best har
angues-typically anarchic, that Is,
thoroughly Inconsistent. lie recon-
mended non-resistance, the turning Of
one cheek to the smiter of the other,
and in the same breath urged his au-
dience to burst the harness that bound
them fast. The land, he claimed, was
all the workingmen needed to be free,
and in the same breath he declared that
without the abolition of the money mon
opoiy the workingmen would be slaves.
Besides these and numerous other con.
tradictions, he recIed off a string of
statements that revealed either the
crassest ignorance or deepest malice.
Washington, the man pre-cminent for
civic virtues, was, he said, to be ad-
mired only as killer; no one would
take up politics as weapon of redress
who was not a cncat; &c, &c.
DR.. McGlynn followed, and he was
followed by Mr.. Powderly. When the
latter came forward he looked tired and
Disguised. He tried to rectify some of
the statements of those who had pre-
ceded him, but himself showed an
amount of faint,heartedness that was
sickening to behold. Politics evidently
was on his brain, but he burst not say
SO openly. The ballot, he said, should
be used with effect in November, but ht
uttered not word about Independent
political action. He launched into {
string of personalities against Depew
and Hill but never once did he rise tt
the plane of principle and when he pu
a question or two to the audience upot
which he desired an affirmative answe
the response was so weak that he him
self admitted it, and called out for tn,
ayes a second and third time.
At the close of Powderly's address tn,
meeting was adjourned. AS the reporter
of the WoRKMENs ADVOCATE moved
about the dispensing crowd listening t,
or elicting expressions of opinion, h,
gathered the general sentiment to b,
one of disappointment. Something
whatever that may have been, had evi
IDENTIFY been expected by the Knights
That something, whatever it was, die
not happen.