Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-11-14
BEHIND THE OLD WORLD.
WE ARE NOT IN ADVANCE OF THE
NATIONS OF WESTERN EUROPE.

Outrage by an Unprejudiced Editor.
Questions We Must Solve Intelligently
If We Would Save Our Institutions.
In the Editors Table" department of
The New England Magazine for Septem-
ber there was an able article on Home
stead, especially dealing with the en-
ployment of an armed force to intimidate
the locked out men. The article is too
good to cut, but its length makes it neces-
sary to limit its use here to the following
excerpts:
The Fort Frick and Pinkerton exhibition
which we have just been witnessing at Home
stead shows that we are not in advance of the
nations of western Europe, but in important
respects behind them, in the securities for
liberty, equality and real democracy. 1t Is an
exhibition befitting only the feudal middle
age, when every little baron on the Rhine
from Mayence to Cologne had his own battle
Rented castle and his own gang of archers and
spearmen, and robbed and warred at his own
will. 1t is insutferable and a thing not to be
endured in democracy, that any men or any
companies of men, for whatever purposes in
corporated. should have the power of organ
izing and armng military and police forces of
their own to act in the settlement of affairs
in which they are themselves interested
parties, and to shoot men when and how they
may direct state in which such things are
possible or are apologized for is, we say, but
the parody of u democracy, and if the savage
massacre and rout of the unfortunate Pinkerton
men at Homestead is the means of waking the
country up to the seriousness and true sig
niicance of this whole question the violence
and the bloodshed will not have been in vain.
1t is foolish and feeble business to discuss
the details of the horror; to ask what sort of
brut tali this slnypl thot vpl ba
bad blood was once up, or to ask whether this
side or that fired first. 1t matters very little
who fires first in an irrepressible conflict
That the conflict occurred when and where il
did, at the river bank, and not after the force
had intrenched itself behind the portfolios, is
the chief thing for the humanitarian to rejoice
at, for had it been deferred it cannot be
doubted that the results would have been vast
ly graver than they were. 1t was a case of
lawlessness meeting lawlessness, where con-
vention ceased and there was a return to the
first principles of the struggle for justice, and
each incident following the first collision is to
be judged not as an incident in a generally
legal status, but as an incident in the strife of
tribes who are yet in the ignominies of faust
recht. To indict the workingmen for murder
and do nothing to stamp the crime of the other
side as vastly the greater, is to bring our ma
chinery of justice into contempt, and this can
safely be left to the common sense of the coun-
try.
Whether the wages of the striking men were
proper wages as measured by the wages of
similar workmen in similar mills, or by the
particular condition of the iron industry at
this time, is a question so complex that we
should deem its discussion by any one but an
expert with full knowledge of details an i'm
propriety. We only wish to emphasize the
fact that these strikers were not men on
starvation wages" but quite the contrary,
for the sake of eliminating from the main
question the issue about protection, which
the politicians have thrust into it. There is
an issue about protection, and we have our
own opinion about it; but we do not wish to see
the American people let their attention be be-
guiled by that for moment now from the
much more serious question at Homestead.
The collision at Homestead would have oc-
CURED just the same had the material in the
workmen's hands not been protected" mate
rial. Let protection" and every other acci-
dent be put out of mind, while the American
people fix their attention upon the sole two
questions of moment In the case, until they
| evolve some wisdom to serve them In the
| future: The question Q) whether mOneyed cor
porations may decline to arbitrate with organ
lied labor, or take arrogant and arbitrary atti-
tudes with a view TO breaking the organiza-
tions and compelling workmen to deal with
them NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in word, ANAL
gamated iron shall not have the same rights
in court as amalgamated gold; and the ques-
tion t2) whether, If collision comes and soldiers
are necessary, they shall be marshaled by the
corporation, by its hrelings, and get out their
guns at its discretion, or be managed by an i'm
portant third party called the state.
Let every one of us know that if melioration
does not proceed from the concession of the
rich, then it surely will proceed from the
grasping of the poor. Let none of us need any
second prompting to declare that IL any man is
indeed piling up millions out of the labor of
discontented men with whom he has driven
sharp bargains about wages, and out of the
profits is building schools or libraries or hos
pitfalls OF churches the title of "Christian
philanthropist," which 1t tickles him this week
to wear, shall not Outlast the week, but shall
give place to the plain and homely label, stuck
fatally upon his forehead by the lightning of
| God-an unjust man.
Let every one of us hold to strictest account
| the rich and privileged man; let every one of
| us make every excuse and demand the most
| generous forbearance for the rude and strug-
| Cling man. Noblesse obligel Each serious
man among us will take anew to heart the
warning word of Emerson, 1T is better to
work on institutions by the sun than by the
| wind" And as for this sad scene at Home
stead, where now are twenty dead men in
graves instead of twenty live men in homes
the man who knows history surveying IL, will
ask few questions concerning the little legal
! tiles, but many concerning the great equities
| He will hear the voice which trumpets across
| the tumults of the centuries the stern re-
minder that when, in the throes of the Old
| Worlds new births, the yet unstatuted Justice
speaks, the interfering law, else adamant,
must take its place among the cobwebs
Happy the nation where discredited and
threadbare law does not have to slink away,
but retires with dignity and with bow before
the justice that is becoming law. Happy this
nation of ours il Its people are so timely wise
that the historian, looking back from the fu-
ture to today, have no prompting to remember
homestead, nor to trace analogies between
that sad summer day and the April time when
royal and most legal force marched stealth
lily out of Boston among the Massachusetts vii
lagos and farms-and marched back again,