Smyrna times., 1892-07-20

REV. c. HERBERT RICHARDSON, of
Baltimore, discoursed on Sunday on
the labor troubles at Homestead, and
said
The real reason for the action of the
workingmen, according to a statement
of /. A. Williams and W. II. Jones, of
the Amalgamated Association, was not
a proposed reduction in wages"
said Mr.. Williams. The reduction in
the scale has not been vital. 1t is not
g much blow at the pockets of the
men as at uniOnism in general and the
Amalgamated Association in pareieu-
lar In other words, it was the belief
that it was the purpose Ofthe company
to ignore the association and to employ
union or nOn-union men that was the
real cause of the strife. This was
doubtless correct, and being so, other
matters need not be dwelt upon.
''If one is called upon to deplore the
sad occurrences at Homestead, 1t is
double cause for sorrow that they
sprang out of such a condition of
affairs. The right of men to enter or
ganizations, and as such to fix the
price at which they will work is un-
undoubted, but it is also the right of
men to fix the price of their labor inde-
pendently of organizations, and no
man or organization has a right to in
terfere with them in SO doing. The
contrary doctrine is advocacy of pure
and absolute depOtism, and leads to a
slavery and oppression of the individ-
ual tnat should never for one moment
be sanctioned in this free and demo
cratic republic. We gladly recognize
the rights and the value of labor, but
the position it took at Homestead was
perilous not only to its own interests,
but to the common veal.
The cause of labor was wounded in
the house of its friends. Receiving
high wages, possessed of comfortable
homes and working but eight hours a
day, it demanded substantially the
control of works that had cost oyei
$5,OO0,OO0, and when refused made
itself trespasser and viOlatOr of the
law. It must repudiate sneh leaders
and such action, or it will drive away
capital, the most sensitive of all inter-
ests and the supporter and promoter o
labor, or else it will necessitate tbs
employment of a large cOnstabulaTy OF
military force, the cost of which will
come out Of the pockets of the work
ingmen. Such q condition of affairs il
this country is intOleFable. There il
nothing SO advantageous to th'
cause of labor as the free and undis
turbed employment of capital. Capi
tal is the wings, the breath of labor
IL is the creator of modern society anC
civilization. the parent of industry. Il
is the vilest demagogery that teache
any antagonism of interest between
capital and labor. And above all, mus
this land be recognized as a countr,
where law and order prevail? It
never right wrongfnlIy to do right
even. What the militia of Pennsyl
vania has done at Homestead Is bu
what should have been done witbou
Pinkert0ns or sheriff. And labor hR
has as much cause of complaint agains
the militia. if any, as against either o
both of the others; aye, more, for th
militia has done what the others trieC
TO do-to restore the company's prop
erty TO its owners.
1--WE hope and believe the working
men of Homestead see the great errO
into which they have been led and vii
retrace their steps. The sympathy Q
the nation il with labor ali the tim
when labor is right, but the majesty {
the law and the rights of individut
liberty and Of personal property az
the foundations of our society and gol
.ernment. They must be upheld an
maintained against all assailants. Th