Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-19
TRaNsGREssIoN ON BOTH SIDES.

TRANsGREssION ON BOTH SIDES.
The New York Central strike has arrived
at that stage when stone-throwing on the
part of the crowd is responded to by shoot
ing on the part of the guards; and the reply
to that is not infrequentlY mob attack
on the guards, with brutal beatings, that by
happy chance, rather than any respect to the
principles of good order on either side, fall
short of actual murder. No such wholesale
riot as took place in 1877 has yet developed
itself; but it is clear that the strike has pro-
ceded to the stage where all the ugly phases
of force aud brute strength, short of actual
and destructive riot, have been displayed.
Without any reference to the question in
volved in the wages dispute, it is necessary
to say that such proceedings as those re-
ported from Albany during the East two
DAYS are clearly due to the determination
of both sides to forcibly carry out their pur-
poses, without regard to the preservation of
order and maintenance of government by
law. The DISPATCH has too often in
sisted on the duty of strikers to take every
precaution against permitting their strikes
to develop.into lawlessness to permit of any
mistake in its position now. Either stone
throwing at the men on trains, or mobbing
the men who shoot in response to it, is an
infraction of peace and good order. Strikers
should take care to keep clear from such
proceedings, and the only way to do it is to
assist in the detection and punishment of
anyone who resorts to acts of riot in the
critical moments of strike.
At the same time there is an equal disre.
gard to the fundamental spirit of the law in
the resort to Pinkerton guards by the cor
poratlons. Corporations and employers are
entitled to protection, and disorder should
always be suppressed. But it is funda-
mental requisite that the officers of the law
who undertake to enforce order and arrest
rioters should represent the people and be
officially responsible for the proper perfor-
nance of their duty, If they cannot quell
disorder and restore the rule of the law,
they have the resort to the militia. These
are the constitutional and legal means for
suppressing disorder, and they should be re-
lied upon. The employment Of hired guards,
who are generally not even citizens of the
place where they are to exert armed author
ity; who represent not the law but one of
the parties in the dispute; and who are fire.
quently irresponsible and reckless, violates
almost every reasonable requirement for the
officials who are to enforce the law. The
employment of such men is not acting
within legal methods, but 1t is rather re-
sort to the medieval practice of levying pri-
vate armed forces for the purpose of carry
ing out by force the purpose of those whose
money puts these armed men in the field.
OF course the reply is made to the decla-
ration that employers should RELY on the reg
ruiar instrumentalities of the law, that very
often these will not repond to the summons.
This may be the case; but for that very
reason it is none the less the duty of en-
ployers and corporations to put the respon-
sibility for such failure on the people who
fail to do their duty. Because our political
system may nave inefficient or pusillani-
nous men in offce,is no reason why employ
ers should levy private war on their own
account; but it is reason for putting the
for failure to protect property
on the State. A practical demonstration
that the instrumentalities OF the law have
failed to maintain individual rights will
convince the whole people that the law must |
be upheld, and, as it did in 1877, unite all
but the reckless and lawless in the effort to
strengthen the civil government. This is
something to be encouraged by all good citi-
zens; but it has no kinship with the prac-
tice of employing hirelings to sustain not |
the law, but to enforce the wishes OF one of
the contestants, whether they are within the |
law or not.
The summary of the whole thing is very
clear. Strikers should be made to obey the |
laws, but they should be made to do so by |
the regular officers of the law. The resort to
acts of disorder on one side and the levy of
armed hireling on the other are equally OBJ
noxious to good citizenship.