Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1892-08-26
FOR CONGRESS,
WILLIAM M. McKAIG,
OF ALIEGANY COUNTY.
LABOR TROUBLE AND La WLESS
NESS.

hhIOGC.
FIRST OF all, we are n law abiding people
and believe in the rights OF property as well
as in the rights of labor. This is one of the
strongest characteristics of the American
people. Ours is government of law, moi
of rulers, and experience teaches us that n
long as laws stand on the statute book they
must he enforced and obeyed. 1t is the only
salvation of our liberty. II the laws need
TO be changed to meet new conditions oi
sDciety and life there is an appointed way
to change them, and no man is so humble
but he can make his voice and influence
felt TO some degree in bringing about @
change.
Labor is honorable and deserves an equa
recognition with the capital that employs il
Capital and labor are the two great forces
oil modern civilization, and hand in hand
they can conquer the world. They are moi
and need not be antagonistic, for they are
in truth the complement Of each other
When they fall out, when there is a strike
on the one hand or lockout on the other
il is certain there is a wrong somewhere, but
il requires investigation to show where the
wrong is. When violence supervenes the
general judgment can only be that the wrong
lay with the party OF violence
The striking switchmen at Buffalo com
menced at the wrong end. They have taken
The initiative and have appealed to force at
The outset. They are guilty of lawlessness
and probably of acts of vengeance in the
very beginning BY thus proceeding they
have put themselves out OF court and be-
yond the hearing of that judicatory To
which in the end they must be amenable,
final.
The switchmen at the Buffalo end of the
Erie and Lehigh Valley Railroad struck for
ten hours service day, with extra pay for
everything over that time, and as the man.
agement of the road declined to comply,
everything in the shape of cars, loaded and
unloaded, tanks, office buildings, &c, were
s raightway destroyed. The loss to the
company alone is considerable, and its loss
will have to be largely added TO by the
burning of the merchandise with which
many of the cars were loaded.
1t is astonishing that men of intelligence
and reflection, who are at the head of labor
organizations, do not realize how far such
Outrageous exhibitions Of violence ALLEVIATE
OF il nj l,,s inl.n -,
lie sympathy, and how very difficult, If not
altogether impossible, such lawlessness
makes it to working men to obtain the Just
demands of which they are in pursuit. If
the leaders realized how far such violent
outbursts and willful destruction of prop
erty damage the very cause for whose pro
motion they are apparently committed, IL
Is very certain that not only would they
raise their voices, as they occasionally do
now, against the preparation Of such vandal
deeds, but that in very short order they
would have within the labor organizations
themselves a public opinion created and
iosiered that would at any given time frown
down and render impossible such unbridled
barbarity. But il would seem that not only
the rank and file of the organizations, but
that the leaders Of the organizations, of
whom better things might be expected, are
to great extent purblind as to what con.
stitutes the genuine advantage Of the or.
CARNATIONS whose destinies they are guild
ing.
Lawlessness and violence have become
quite the order Of the day with members of
some OF the labor organizations who 60 on a
strike under the impulse of real aud lancied
grievances. The occasions on which labor
strikes are taking place without such a de.
plorable accompaniment, the trades unions,
fortunately, have a more liberal member.
ship, are like the visits of angels in the
adage-they are few and far between. Aud
IL labor organizations persist, as they are
now doing, in accompanying the expression
of their grievances with violence and threats
of violence, il is a question of a measurable
time when such organizations shall cease 10
be potent for good in any way. The peo
Pile of the United States will begin 10 look
askance at them, and then to regard them rs
inimical To the peace and welfare Of society
And If ever, through the stupidity of the
leaders Of the organizations they shall come
to forfeit all popular sympathy, then they are
bound to go under, for the people are by
long odds stronger than they, and will see
that their, the peoples, rights do not suffer
through mere class vindictiveness.