Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1890-11-03
THE COMMON GROUND.
PLATITUDES FROM DR.. DEPEW'S
LATEST TAFFY PULLING.

yhe New York Centra1's President Talk
About Manhood-Another and Nor
Matter of Fact View" Labor Union
Are Curse to the Country
Chief Arthur and Chauncey Depev
had most delightful taffy pulling Sc
ance before the Brotherhood of Locomo
tive Engineers at Pittsburg. What Ar
thur doesn't know about the rights ant
duties of the workingman Chaunce,
does. and what both know would no
make very large book But so long a
these worthless can stuff the engineer
with capitalistic straw and persuade
them that it is the correct thing tt
mind their own business and main
tain a dignifed Indifference as to wha
becomes of the rest of mankind, knowl
edge and honesty are not needed, in fact
would be in the way. The twinship o.
Depew and Arthur is said BY some pro
found economists and historians to typi
fly the identity of the interests of labor
and capital but there isn't any way Of
telling which of them represents labor
Depew said some things in his address
at Pittsburg that feel it duty to chal
lenge, though they have been knocked
out time and again by writers and speak
ers ON labors side. But Chauncey is a
very refractory pupil; he refuses to
learn, or at least to admit the truth
when it is presented, and it is necessary
to keep hammering away at him. Of
course he pooh-poohs the idea that the
railroad is an institution which should
be operated by the government. That is
socialistic, says the railway president,
and would destroy the individuality of
American citizens. He further says that.
Success is impossible unless the man
hood of the individual is secure, and his
ability to improve his condition and rise
above his surroundings is conceded
What rot this is coming from man
who is at the head of a corporation
which positively forbids a majority of
its employees to belong to an organize
ton, the sole object of which is the i'm
provement of it's members
But consistency is one of the jewels
that this railroad president doesn't wear
He denounces one organization and pats
another on the back. Well, in this he is
shrewd, if not consistent, for it is by
collision with the head of the one fa-
vored that he is enabled to crush the
other. 1t is the most arrant nonsense
for Depew or any other railroad man.
ager to claim that he sees any material
difference between the engineers organ
ization and that of the switchmen. II
he got into a fight with the former he
would as willingly play the latter against
it as he has done the opposite in the
past, and he knows, Notwithstanding
his statements, that there is just as
much honesty and intelligence among
the Knights Of Labor as in the Brother
hood of Engineers, and he will learn
some of these days that many of the en-
gineers understand this.
In his Pittsburg speech Mr.. Depew
paused in his fattery of the Brother
hood long enough to dip for moment
into economies. He brought out that
old worm eaten chestnut, Labor cannot
live without capital to furnish it with
employment" Of course he meant
that the capitalist is necessary to the
laborer, and such a statement is bosh.
To produce the things needful to ex-
istence there must be union of labor
and capital, but capital is the natural
resources and the tools, and these by
right belong to the laborers. That they