The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-09-29
THE OUTLOOK OF LABOR.
Strikes Discussed by the Big On.
ion Leaders.
Eugene DELI Raises the Cry Of BoodIa
p. j. Mcclure Extracts . Lesson.
James McGfll Finds a Parallel
in the Dark Ages.
1892, BY BAcHELLER JOHNSON
Legislation Shaded BY Doodle.

Legislation Shaded BY Doodle.
By EUGENE y. DELI, OF THE NATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN.
Those who study the outlook, even
specifically, must of necessity con
clude that the country is in the grasp oil
a labor crifis of fearful proportions.
AS l write, labor troubles, in foul
States, are Of such magnitude that the
military power in all such States has bee n
invoked to enable employers to operate
their industries, the civil authorities
being no longer able to cope with the
crisis
In Pennsylvania, at Homestead, 5000
troops in all the pomp and circumstance
of war, were ordered out by the Governor
to enable Carnegie, Phipps 81 Co. to re.
duce wages and aid H. G. Frick to ami
hilate organized labor and fill his mills
with scabs
At Buffalo railroad officials, refusing
to deal fairly with their switchmen in
the matter of wages, and with autocratic
insolence repudiating the organization
known as the Switchmens' Mutual Aid
Association, precipitsted a strike which,
while less than 500 men were involved,
became so formidable, that the civil au-
thorities quailed in its presence, and again
troops, probably 10, 1000, were ordered to
the rescue to crush organized labor and
protect the alliance formed between rail
road officials and scabs.
In the far away northwest, in Idaho, in
the Ceur d'Alene mining regions, where
neither the civil nor military power Of tho
State, nor both combined, were sufficient
to enable employers to reduce wages and
inaugurate scabism, the Federal troops
were ordered to perform the task.
In the State OF Tennessee, where miners
revolted because convicts Of every shade
of crime were permitted to rob honest
men of their bread and subject them to
insufferable degradation, troops throng
the coal regions and mountain streams
run red with the blood of workingmen
because Of their effort to emancipate
themselves from revolving conditions.
Grouping such haggard facts for the
contemplation of the country the con-
clusion is inevitable that we have reached
a labor crisis well calculated to alarm
all prudent men.
l do not doubt the power of great
States like New York, Psnnsy lvania and
Tennessee to crush any labor organization
when acting single handed and alone.
do not doubt the power of this great
nation when the President, the Com
mander-inChief of its standing army,
issues his proclamation declaring war
upon labor organizations. In all such
emergencies the doom of organized labor
is as certain as fate, and the capitalistic
emplyer and his swarm of scabs secure
notab lie victories.
Under such circumstances the pluto
cratic employers and their serfs Twill
doubtless rejoice The press will pro-
claim that ''peace has been restored"
that normal conditions prevail" and
that great industries are going forward
adding to the great wealth of the coun
try. But there is another side to the
question-men of thought, unsubsidized
by wealth, will study it, and the results
of their Investigations will create alarm.
There are at least 3, 200, 600 organized
workmen in the United States. They be-
hold in passing events a purpose on the part
OF capitslistic employers, backed by State
and Federal troops, to annihilate their Or
CARNATIONS and reduce their me mbers to
a condition of abiect servitude, pay them
such wages as their greedy policy may
dictate and make the name of working
man" the synonym of slave.
Current events are everywhere creating
the present the bond of union between
labor organizations-I refer to federated
ompact-scarcely exists at all Indeed,
in the organizations of railroad employees
there is no such alliance at all; but there
exists profound sympathy-a fellow feel
ing does prevail-and as organized work
men see their orders, one by one go down
u ind er cleaning bayonets and frowning
batteries; as they see their comrades
dead, or dispersed, or imprisoned, or
homeless wanderers, they realize that
their turn must soon come, and, as a re-
o0iN, ehNAS - ScRASA4 ohieSt' - go
of their lodges the gloomy outlook is dis
cussed and they see but one way to over
come their enemies, and that is by feder-
alton. Without it the epitaph OF organized
labor may be written now, as we'll as
when, at TO distant period, dead labor
line the strand like the
of ships after a storm.
Here it may be said, and should be
said. had various orders of railway en-
ployes been in active alliance the .Suffalo
strike, had is occurred at all, which /
doubt, would not have contin-
have been no necessity. as there would
have been no opportunity, fer the mini
tary machine to get in It's work. Rail-
read officials would have recognized the
order of switchmen. settlements OF all
questions would have resulted, exaspera-
and hates would not have been
As i; is there Is not home
Of an organized wor&ingman in America
where deep seated hostility IS not nursed.
3 condition OF affairs that every good citi-
gen must deplo-e.
am unable 10 suggest any legislation
VIII ich would remedy existing Ills Leg
islatioa is largely shaped by boodle-
Honest men there are IN Congress and
Legislatures, but there Is always de-
generate element with 4 price attached,
known 10 the lobbyist as creatures whose
manhood and obligations weigh IS a
feather in the balance against a railroad
pass or a more substantial bribe- The