The midland journal., 1892-07-22
Revolutionary Rumblings.

The dread tragedy which took place at
Homestead on the Monongahela last week
seems destined to give orr philosopher,
philantbropisls, sociologists, statesmen, leg
islators, and theorizing doctrinaires an abun-
dance of material upon which they will now
be forced to go to work whether they will or
no.
All the enlightened people of our well-to-
do classes have long known that just below
the surface Of the nations daily life were
perilous conditions liable 10 out-crop and
| compel consideration at any moment.
1t is not surprising that this comfortable
body of citizens should strive to put away
the evil day when they would be forced to
| find solution for lot of complex and dam
gerous problems which might no longer be
denied. Unless all signs fail that time is
now at hand, and it has come with that
startling suddenness which has marked the
advent of all great revolutionary epochs of
| the past.
| The task which now confronts the whole
AIRY of our humane and patriotic citizens is
the most solemn and momentous that ever
came 10 aEy people in any age of the world
and we must needs be strong, unsel6sh and
wise if we do it in peace and in harmony
with Gods eternal justice.
Usually nation finds the work over.
heavy when dealing with only one great
problem that is urgently insistent for solu.
tion. But this Homestead horror has
brought to the front whole group Of social
industrial and political problems, which are
so closely correlated that they must needs be
handled as one body.
The primary proposition of the working
men of Carnegie's vast iron plant, and for
which they bravely fought and heroically
died, is this: That the toller who had
bought plat of ground, built home, mar
ried wife and is rearing family, near the
great factory where he had worked for years.
had gained thereby certain inalienable
| rights which capital must respect that the
antocratic millionaire owner, moved by
selfish greed, shall not arbitrarily discharge
this man and reduce his family to beggery :;
! that the honest toll of this worker has given
him valid claim to means of subsistence
through toll; that he has a moral mortgage
on the mighty factory which his labor has
helped build up, and that it shall furnish,
him livelihood through the toll of his
hands 80 long as he does his task and be-
haves himself as decent man that if ques.
tions come up between the laborer and the
capitalist as to wages or treatment, that they
shall be settled by fair arbitration.
To this proposition Carnegie, Frick, and
every corporation lord in the land. makes
this answer: The right of capital to own
property is absolute and unassailable; the
worker is only incidental to it and shall
have no voice in the management of the
factory or his own pay; capital is supreme
in its own domain and answerabe to no
power whatsoever. If the toiler will not
leave his labor organization when asked so
to DO by his employer, he can be discharged.
If he grumbles at a reduction of pay, hours
Of labor or conditions of labor, he can be
discharged, and his only recourse is to either
abjectly surrender or go ont into the world
as tramp looking for work.
The Homestead uprising brings the case
Of labor versus capital before the high court
of the whole body of our people, and the
determination of that issue will practically
fix the relations between capital and labor
in all portions of the republic. Every
worker and every capitalist in the land
knows this. Hence the supreme significance
of the issue now on trial between Carnegie
and his toilers.
The Homestead catastrophe was indeed
fitting denouement TO the shameful shutting
of eyes and criminal neglect of our alleged
statesmen to the open warfare which has
long been waged between capital and labor
on this continent.
The legislators of the nation have been,
consciously or unconsciously, the lackeys of
our millionaires. and when they did not aid
them in their ruthless oppression of the
t1iler by iniquitous statutes, they kept their
hands off because the plutocrats felt sufi.
ciently strong to crush down the outraged
workers whenever they should make asser.
tion of their free American manhood.
During fifteen years the organized toilers
have kept up ceaseless protest against the
lawless, murderous and entirely unconstitu.
tIonsl Pinkerton army. But the congress of
the United States gave no heed to their
righteous appeals, and the plutocratic daily
press of the country was either silent or else
spoke in condemnation of the indignant toll
ers' audacity in daring to ask for Justice
under the law of this democratic nation.
Since last week-and what marvellous
transformation has been witnessed The
plutocrats, the corporationsts, the comfort
able well-todo citilens-who have said.
"all hands off and let labor and capital fight
it out, for capital shall surely VIM have
been thrown into awful CONSERVATION by
an undreamed-o of event.
All day long the roar of battle ebbed and
swelled on the banks of the Monongahela,
while the civil authorities Of great nation
and of a great state stood with their hands
in their pockets and watched the VARYING
phases of combat which was part and
parcel of private war between canital and