The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-07-09
NO POLITICS IN 1T.

While 50 many Democratic papers
are eEdeavorilg TO make political
capital out of the Homestead riot, it
is refreshing TO find at least one Mary
land Democratic Journal that takes
the correct view of the situation.
Under the above caption the Balli'
more Morning Herald makes the
following very sensible comment.
We observe that certain newspapers
are disposed to charge the Homestead
riot generally to the protection policy
OF the Republican party, and directly
to the operation OF the Mckinney
tariff law. The unfairness of this
charge is so transparent as 10 be mani
fest to every intelligent and dlscrimi-
mating reader. While il is true that
the policy of protectioa has stimulated
the development of immense manu-
featuring plants, and that labor troubles
are frequently incident to the conduct
of great producing centres, it is neither
just nor logical to say that such troub
les are odiously due to such policy.
II would be equally proper to saddle
upon the inventor and utiIizsrs of
steam the responsibility for all the
horrible tragedies that have ensued
from the use of that element as
motive power. The most sanguinary
labor outbreaks that have occurred
IN this country were the Railroad riots
of 1877, and they were, IN no manner,
to be put down against protection or
against any other creed of any party.
They arose from difference of opin
ion between employer and employee
as to compensation, just as variance
of opinion on the same subject has
led to the pending troubles at Home
stead, and just as similar opposing
views in the future are destined to
lead to other dangerous and acrlmon-
Gus disputes between capital and
labor so long as human nature remains
what it is.
Other iron and steel mills IN Pennsyl
vania have submitted to the scale of
wages dictated by the workmen. Is
that also result of the protection policy
and the Mckinley TARIFF Certainly
if it is fair to assume that Carnegie was
inspired by the Mckinley law to defy
the workmen, 1t should be equally fair
to suppose that the neighboring mill,
owners were prompted by the same law
to yield to their employees. But such
an assumption in either case would be
fallacious.
The fact is that there is no relation
between the Homestead strike and
politics, and the attempt to make It so
appear is only IN the line OF partisan
Misrepresentation. All such demon
STATIONS are merely the logical results
of the country's giant growth and of
the co-equal extension of the enormous
influences Of both capital and labor.
For instance, no such riot as that of
Wednesday could have happened thirty
years ago, because the elements essen
tial thereto were not here-there was
no such steel mill, and there was no
such aggregation of workmen in any
part OF the country.
In tree-trade England, where modern
manufactures found their earliest and
/ most prollgious development, the
antagonisms between labor and capital
have been more frequent and more
bitterly hostile than in any other
country. But free-trade in England
was no more responsible for English
labor riots than American protection is
answerable for the disorder in Pennsyl-
vania.
In each case, as before indicated, the
troubles are to be assigned to the
formidable growth of the always war;
ing influence OF labor and capital. AS
to the deplorable situation at Home
stead, there is no politics in it save in
the minds of those whose vision rlrely
sees anything that is not jaundiced over
with the bilious hue of partisa1ism.