Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-08-01
DEATH TO PINKERTONS.
DETERMINATION THE ONLY WAY TO
ABOLISH THEM.

The San Francisco "Star's" Radical
Utterances on the Homestead Lockout
Calls the Thugs and Their Employers
Cold -Blooded Assassins.
We have always advocated the correc-
tion Of abuses, the redress of wrongs, by
peaceable means. But the locked-out
employees Of the Homestead works en-
ployed the only weapons at their COM
mand-gunpowder and dynamite
which they used with deadly effect
They did right. Our only regret is that
they did not blow up the barge with
Pinkerton's three hundred hired asas-
sins, instead of giving them quarter. A
creature so base as to hire himself out
to shoot down starving men who are re-
sisting oppression should be shown no
more mercy than a rattlesnake.
In no other civilized country in the
world would private army of licensed
whenever labor and capital have dis
agreed, these hated mercenary Hessians
have been called in by capital to force
labor into submission at the point of the
bayonet. In the present conflict at
Homestead, the boast of these cowardly
rutfians was that they would "mow the
strikers down like grass" That they
did not do so was because their bullets
were answered by more bullets. But
their piteous appeal for their miserable
lives was answered by mercy. Mercy is
a gem most brilliant, but in this case it
was misbestowed. Had they all to
man been wiped of the face of the earth,
the world would have been given an
"object lesson" which, however awful
to contemplate, would have resulted in
great good.
But we are told that it is the system
under which we live that is responsible
that these Pinkertonians are themselves
victims of that system; that, therefore,
they should be spared, but the system
should be abolished. We admit that,
under just conditions-the opening up
OF natural resources to the people-such
an army as Pinkerton's could not exist;
enough men could not be found to enlist
in such work; and if they could, the plu-
tocrat would be gone and their services
would not be in demand. But YOU
might as well urge that, if footpad
stands before you with cooked revolver
in hand, you should say: go on, nv
friend; shoot off my head; you are
not to blame; it is the SYSTEM when we
change that, then you'll be changed" !"
Are Pinkerton's toughs as good as ordin-
AIRY footpads? Do they not hire them
selves out to murder peaceable men who
object to having their homes desolated
and the bread taken from their wives
and helpless children? What rights
have they, then, that any human being
is bound to respect They should be ex-
terminated-by law or without law.
=, But what of the men who employ
them? What of Carnegie and Frick?
They should be put to death by slow
torture, as they are endeavoring to put
so many thousands. What fate can be
worse than that of toiling, toiing, from
early morn till night, sick at heart, weak
IN BODY, without one ray Of hope; to go
nome exhausted, when your days
work Is done, and see your children with
outstretched arms piteously pleading for
bread you cannot give to see a weeping
wife and mother trying to console them
and give then cheer she cannot feel; to
lay your weary head upon the floor, not to
sleep, but to dream of starving children.
another reduction in your wages, of more
munger, OF eviction from your home, of
yourself and family being outcasts on
the streets-dying of starvation in the
midst of plenty
That is the fate we would mete out to
Carnegie and Frick-the same death by
slow torture" that their thousands of
employees would suffer if they did not
rebel.
This war; at the Homestead works
IS not to be regretted, save for the wild
.ows and orphans it has made. The
blood of the slain is upon the hands of
Andrew Carnegie and Frick. Legally
they may not be, but morally, before
God and man, they are they are mur-
derers.
The reason this "war" is not to be re-
gretted is that it has illustrated to the
people, better than anything else could,
the beauties of protection" 1t has
shown that in an industry protected by
duties ranging from 40 to $50 per cent,
the manufacturers reap all the benefit;
that the wages of labor, instead of being
raised, as was promised, have been
thrice reduced, until they are now below
the starvation point. But Carnegie is a
1ifty-millionaire, who endows colleges,
churches, libraries and hospitals on the
money he has saved from his "hard
earnings" by his frugality and "protec-
ton to American labor. ."-San Francisco
Star.