The St. Johns herald., 1890-12-04
Force versus The Ballot.

OI LdDOI-LHOuSu Oul PlCJ GNAO' against the nonsense of high-sound
 ing titles has never been reconciled to "masters" and knights" SucE things belong to an adolescent state-either historic, social or per sonal. But under it all there is purpose and an aspiration that all people with hearts in the right place sympathize with. If the methods of the workman are sometimes crude, sometimes violent, and some times foolish, the man is not to blame-for what we call civilization has made his situation so that such things are only its natural out growth. No man can understand the position of the worker until he has been dependent upon the dole paid to the labor of his own hands, from day to day. The demand for food, the kiss of wife and the pratt tie of children are just as sweet as to the man whose income IS ten thousand a year-and nature makes no distinction in the desire to have both. Nor does nature give title to the one more than to the other. We have so often referred to the idea of force underlying the eco- homie relations of civilization that it need not be repeated here. Force, we mean physical force, has been behind our laws of acquisition and property-and the remedy for their disabilities must necessarily, 10 the great mass born and reared under them, lie in the employment of force. But it can not in the nature of things succeed. Why? Simply that the self-same necessity that makes man slave and work for living incites the hired detective force to oppose him-the necessity to get food and shelter. These con ditions we believe MT. Powderly un- derstands, and we have always had a hope that he would or could make his influence felt more potentially in that direction. And we hope so yet, despite the tone of asperity and vindictiveness that his last address discloses. One thing real leader can not afford to do-and that is to indulge in demagoguery. An appeal to caste feeling or class prejudice, no matter as to the class, is a con fession of Weakness-in the man who makes it-not in the cause he advocates. And in the late address this tendency" is more marked than formerly. We give all apolO- gy for the feeling of disappointment but it is none the less there. But we commend him for his declara
 tion against strikes, and read be-
 tween the lines he confesses the late one unfortunate. What else does this declaration mean: "If we must have strikes, then we should pre- pare for them, and not allow every subordinate to rush the order into them at a moments notice or with out any preparation" That fact has been the cause of most of the disasters to workingmen from strikes. The true remedy MT. Pow derly fully understands, for he has more than once announced it. And that is by voting-by agitation, ed ucation and political action. Why is Vanderbilt stronger at the polls than Powderly? Ballot for ballot they are equal. As factors of force they balance-but for want of in- telligence and from the necessities of living, the one can control more ballots than the other. There is only one remedy for this-indepen- dent, intelligent political action. Force in America is crime as a remedy for any social grievance. We have a civil war in one sense, every election-but we count bayo- nets instead of using them-and the victory is with the result of the count. AS matter of force an cleo tion is just as decisive as the battle