Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-08-25

time employed by the New Yorl
Central were discharged without an.
: given cause. There exists not |
shadow of doubt in the minds o.
that committee that these men wer'
discharged for endcavoring to secure
the passage of the above amended
law.
After thoroughly investigating
the causes which led to the strik,
and after making every effort il
their power with the company tC
arbtrate or submit to investigation
by impartial men the question a
issue namely, whether the mer
were discharged because they were
Knights of Labor, and for the pur
pose of destroying their Organiza
ton, as they believe OF maintain, oI
for just cause and proper reasons as
the officials of the company allege,,
the general executive board have
by unanimous vote, determined tC
stand by the men, who, whether
their strike IL opportune or not, had
no alternative consistent with their
manhood.
/ have no doubt that il is the de-
termination of the management to
destroy the organization of labor
along the line of the New York Cen
tral, unless the organization subser-
viently bends it's knee to the will OF
the Vanderbilts. During the con-
troversy Toucey and Webb stated
and repeated the statement that the
men were not discharged because
they were knights, and expect the
public to believe them simply be-
cause they gay so.
Both these gentlemen deny GER
tain things in their conversation
with me which Devlin and myself
were prepared to make affidavit to.
Everything that could in honor be
done to terminate the strike on an
honorable basis for those men was
done; and the alternative of uncon-
ditional and absolute surrender on
the part of the men, or a protest
against the tyranny of the railroad
officials was presented to us. Under
the circumstances such surrender
would be unmanly. 1t would be
cowardly and unworthy the sons of
men who in two hemispheres strug-
gled and died for the rights of hui
manity.
We did not seek the quarrel. The
general executive board of the
Knights knew nothing OF it uutil it
was thrust upon them. Now that
we have to face it we ask the order
of Knights of Labor to come to orr
assistance with the means to win
the strike. We have to fight a
power which owes its lofty bearing
to the wealth which it has piled up
from the labor Ofthe employees of the
road. Untold millions are Mt its
command and we want money to
carry on the struggle. We not only
ask the Knights Of Labor to come to
our aid, but we ask all members of
all organized labor. If we are so
easily vanquished as to make the
company repeat the experiment we
not only ask of labor organizations
but we ask of the great public away
beyond our organizations of labor TO
come to our side.
We are fighting against power
far more dangerous than that which
laid down its arms at Yorktown
one hundred years ago. Their
fight vas against one king, To-day
it is against hundred, one of whom
in an after-dinner speech not long
ago, said: "There are fifty men in
this country who have it in their
power to control the currency of the
United States, control her commerce,
aud at = days notice stop every
wheel in the whole territory Of the
United States"
The struggle is far more momen-
tous than it was during the Ameri'
can revolution. Then our fathers
fought for liberty; now we are
fighting to maintain 1t. Then the
enemy was fully 1880 miles away;
now he is entrenched In our own
domain. He has his fingers around
our legislature. He stands at the
doors of congress To bar out legis-
lation in the interest of the masses.
He presumes to dictate to the exec
utive of the nation. lie attempts
to strangle and corrupt the judici-
AIRY, and he does all these by no
shadow of divine right, but by the
power of money wrung from the
bending back of railway laborers,
wrung from the mortgages of the
farmers of the land; wruug from
the business interests of America;
wrung from the very hearts of the
best and noblest Of the nations
poor,
II is against such power as this,
that cares for no right but its own,
that We struggle, and whether we
win or lose in the battle, We will
now go on until that power is weak
ened forever or the public Is
"damned,n The real animus of this
strike lies in the fact that our order
has been struggling with questions
which concern the control OF trusts,