The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-07-30
An Address from the Strikers.


board of the strikers association
counselling peace and good order,
was made public.
The statement is as follows:
The most evident characteristic
of our time and country IS the
phenomenon of industrial central
ization, which is putting the con-
troll of each of our great national
industries into the hands of one or
a few men, and giving these men an
enormous despotic power over the
lives and the fortunes of their en-
ployes and subordinates the great
mass of the people; power which
eviserates our national constitution
and our common law and directly
antagonizes the spirit of universal
history in its worldwide struggle
after lawful liberty; power which
though expressed in terms OF cur
rent speech as "The right Of en-
ployers to manage their business to
suit themselves, is coming to mean
in effect a right to manage the
country to suit themselves.
"The employees in the mill of
Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps q Co., at
Homestead, have built there
town with its homes, its schools and
its churches; have for many years
been faithful co-workers with the
company in the business OF the
mill; have invested thousands OF
dollars of their savings in said mill
| in the expectation of spending
their lives in Homestead and OF
working in the mill during the Pc
Rod of their efficiency. In addition
to the ordinary gifts and advan-
tages of our citizens the national
legislature has seen fit to specially
foster and protect by public taxa
ton the industry of their mills, and
the State of Pennsylvania is to-
day guarding it at great and extra
ordinary expense.
Therefore the committee desire
to express to the public as its firm
belief that both the public and the
employees aforesaid have equitable
rights and interests in the said
mill which cannot be modified or
diverted without due process OF
law: that the employees have the
/ right to continuous employment In
the said mill during efficiency and
and good behavior without regard
to religious or political, or econmic
or other association; that it is
against public policy and subver-
sive of the fundamental principles
of American liberty that whole
community of workers should be
denied employment, or suffer any
other social detriment on account
, of membership in church, a po-
litical party or a trades union;
, that it is our duty as American citi-
zens to resist by every legal and
ordinary means the unconstitution
anarchic and revolutionary policy
of the Carnegie company, which
) seems to evince a contempt of pub
|, lie and private interests, and dis
!; dain Of the public conscience by Its
s refusal to submit to lawful arbitra-
q ton, and by the lawless importa-
ton of band of armed mercena-
l ries to forcibly deprive the EN-.
/ employees of their equitable rights
y in advance of any legal adjudica-
g ton thereupon and without pre-
b yious appeal to the lawful forces
f of Allegheny county and the State
n of Pennsylvania. The committed
! wishes it known that we will prose
cute the said public and private
interests in the courts of law ane
t. equity and that we demand OF con
eres and the state legislature dis
IL tinct assertion of the principles
b that the public has an interest II
is such concerns as that at Home
,e stead, and that the state has dut.
le to Judge the affairs of such con
le Germs when occasion may require.
"Finally, we desire to state EN-
phatically that as defendants o
A. and petitioners for law and orde
Dr. we pledge ourselves to refrain
e. from violence and lawlessness, ant
IN we rest our cause, which is the pee
te ple's cause, the cause of America
liberty against anarchy on tn
er one hand and despotism on tn
err other-with the courts, the legisls
&c An.or a,l the nnhlic COINCIDENCE.