The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-02

state and force him by threats to write his
resignation Of his Office. It was . very
great outrage and every man concerned in
1t made himself liable to arrest and prosecu-
ton for assault. The excuse offered for this
outrage Is that Mr.. Corey was suspected
of an intention to Introduce negro labor"
No matter what his errand was, nobody
shadow Of right to force their way into
his bedroom and coerce him to depart.
The whole proceeding was not only in
stinct with lawlessness, which is not
always punished as it should be, but it
was instinct with folly which seldom
escapes rerribution. In this instance
the folly lies in the fact that
maIcontent labor is dependent for
its moral capital, which alone can as
sure successful revolt against capital. upon
the sympathy and support of public opin-
ion, and the pubic opinion that is worth
anything to labor is always alienated by
acts of violence and lawlessness. There
are some things that the leaders of labor
organizations ought to impress upon their
associates, and one of these is that the
right to strike is not whit more sacred
than the right to labor.
The sacred right of the individual nom
union man to labor was never disputed,
but granted by the old English Trades
Union leaders and thinkers like Howells,
Broadhurst, Holyoake and Bradlsugh,
who urged voluntary association without
intimidation or violence to gain or keep
recruits, and always declared that the
employers had as good right to combine
rs the employees, saying that labor could
claim no right it withheld from capital;
that the nom unionist had a right to take
work whenever and wherever he could get
it; that the more perfect the organ
ization of labor and capital the
easier to adjust controversies with
out strikes. On this platform of
legitimate trades unions, as opposed to the
new socialistic school which holds that the
right to work is communal, not individual,
and seeks to prevent the employment Of
non-union men by intimidation and vio-
lence, stand two great agents of labor-em-
ploying capital, Chauncey Depew and ex-
Mayor Hewitt, of New York. Both recog-
nize the right of labor to organize
for its own security and pro-
lection; both point out that a gil
gantic federation of labor, like gigantic
combinations of capital that seek to destroy
competition, are foreordained to failure;
bo+b hoId @bo+ s{r;rau .rd looJorts aro
equally indefensible in abstract justice and
that disputes should be settled by their
voluntary reference TO joint boards of ar
bitration, who must know the profits of
the business and must treat blacklisting,
boycotting and ''lockouts" as all illegiti-
mate expedients.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neers is founded on the principles of the
old Trades Union, while the new social
istic school is represented by Powderly's
administration of the Knights of Labor.
The difference between the two schools of
trades unionism is the difference between
men who keep the sympathy of the public
by laboring for their rights within the law,
and men who risk the loss of public SYM
pathy by acts in violation of law and pub
lie policy.
This socialistic school of trades unionism
strikes at the interests of every wage
Garner and would deprive him of the
liberty of disposing of his wages. The
non-union individual is considered by
these agitators to have no rights which
any trades union is bound to respect,
and the individual employer is de-
MED the right to hire and dis
charge whom he pleases; that is, to
manage his own property and business in
his own way. This is the tyranny of labor
which is quite as shameful and stupid q
thing as the tyranny of capital. The his
tory of the Knights of Labor presents an
instructive illustration of the evil wrought
by an organization started on the social
istic principle of taking away the freedom
of the individual laborer for the benefit of
the whole mass of laborers.
The Farmers Alliance is practically an
other socialistic experiment. The result
of these experiments is to make labor the
slave of the few despots, capricious. gener-
ally cunning "jawsmiths, who rule their
union; to make the farmers the puppets Of
fools or finally the prisoners and slaves of
able knaves. When this stupid socialism
proceeds within law it is sure to commit
hari-kari as 1t did when Kearneyism cap
tured the California legislature and pro-
ceeded to legislate the goose that
laid the golden eggs out of the
state. When the goose, capital, found
out that the Kearney lawmakers
intended to pick out her feathers
one by one, the goose at once exercised her
indisputable right of fight and proceeded
to migrate where she could build her nest.
lay her eggs in peace and hatch them with
profit. When the Kearnev lawmakers
found out that the golden goose had fed.
they felt as the boy did when his grand
mother died-he "never was so mortified in
all his life." but the golden goose was gone.
and the labor interests of California in
1S79-S0 got "black eye' that
has not yet wholly disappeared from the
face of that great state. This is the conse-
quence Of socialistic tyranny in shape of
agrarian and class legislation, and it
ought to be a warning to labor for all time
that it is possible to act so foolishly and
unjGstly within law as to put capital to
flight. Capital has always this advantage