Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-11
The PACKING House strike.

FORT WORTH, TEX, Feb. c, 1892
Editor Labor Department.:
Robert Burns said he could not well con-
ceive of a more notifying picture of
human life than man seeking work, and it
was on this strain that he penned these
verses:
See yondeT poor, o'erlabourd wight
So abjecJ, mean. and vile,
Who begS q brother Of the earth
1Ogiye him leave t. toll;
And see his lordly feiIOw-WorIn
The poor petition spurn,
Unmindful tho a weeping wife
And helpless offspring mourn
If I'm design'd yon lordlings slave
(By Natures law Gesign'dl
Why was an independent wish
Fer planted in my mind?
II not, why amI subject to
His cruelty or SCOrn:
Or why has man the viii and power
10 make his fellow mourn?
That was years ago, and was written out
of sympathy for the poor, then oppressed
by the landed nobility, but with all their
land and boosted royalty, to what insig nifi-
canoe does the power of Southern lord or
highland chief dwindle compared to the
power welded by such men as Jay Gould
and Phil Armour of to-day over the lives Of
men in their employ! The Mail of Wednes-
day makes this statement:
THE STRIKE Is OVER.
1.-THE eighty strikers are still out, and I'M
less they comply with the requirements of
the company are liable to stay out, and
their places are filed by new men. Col.
HOEie and Mr. Barnum went about during
the day iustrGcting the hands, and by even
ing had the men fairly instructed. The
colonel, in reply TO q committee, said he
wanted men-Iexas men-as he intended to
make the packery a Texas institution, even
to the hiring of his help"
~ - -
an appeal of mine made through the col
rmns of Fort Worth paper on behalf of
home labor, this company said it was i'm
possible 10 secure the competent skilled
labor here, and they must necessarily i'm
port it.
And now, in one day, the packing house
managers can so instruct force Of raw re-
Cruits as to enable them to take the places
Of eighty skilled wOrkmen! Oh. consist
eucy, where art thou9 Does might make
rightl Is there not something pathetic, no
bic, grand, in the pride and principles that
aCtuate these menu Think of the PROPOSE
ton: You must either board at the place l
tell YOU to- or quit work. In other words,
If | were a married man employed in the in
stitution and my young brother was also
employed there, that young brother would
not be allowed to board with me and my
family-thouGh the company does magnani-
mously accord TO me the privilege Of living
with my own wife, IN my own house, and
eating at my own table.
The company may say that this is not
what caused the strike. I am willing TO
C0ucede that il is not the immediate cause,
but the fact remains that this company did
make this demand 4 few weeks ago, and it
might possibly appear to some to be
Slrange Coincident that the five men VINO
composed the committee sent by the EN-
plOyes to inform the company that its dicta-
ton as to where the employees should or
should not board, and that those of the en-
ployeS who were married would not be al
lowed to take boarders-I say it is q note
worthy fact that these five men who so
notified the company that this dictation
would not be accepted, were the FIVE, and
the only men, discharged, and it is to have
these men reiustated that the other seventy
five men have ceased to work.
Col. HoXie says these five men are ''car-
pet-baggersn mark the word) or agitators.
l say they are five men who have dared to
have a mind of their own, and to assert
their American-bon freedom of boarding
and sleeping where they pleased.
Z. J. SNYDER.