St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-07-07
THE HOMESTEAD RIOTS.

stories OF human suffering. The town
mas not hitherto been the seat OF dis
order. and the testimony of the local
priests and public officers is that the
community in general has been law
abiding and quiet one. A grsat indus
try. called into being by our national
system of protection, is located there,
and the population have been dependent
On 1t for their support and prosperity.
The work they have had to do has been
hard, demanding great powers of physi-
cal endurance in those who have beeiien-
gagged i'll it, but the proprietors of the
enterprise have had no occasion TO find
fault with the faithfnlness of their
laberers. They seem to have been
decent men, intent On their daily tasks,
maintaining their wives and children
by the sweat of their brows, and asking
no favors except that they might have
employment at living wages. Yester-
day war broke out in Western Pennsyl-
vania, and the combatants On the one
side were these same people, converted
into a lawlesS mob bent On destruction
and murder, and on the other side an
armed body Of mercenaries, hired to
play the role of assassins by million
aire philanthropist named CARNEGIE.
1t is dangerous thing for public
newspaper to apologize for deeds of vio-
lenee, but if ever frenzied men are to
be pardoned for forgetting themselves
and appealing to the arbitrament of the
rifle, will it not be on this occasion?
Here is foreigner coming to America
with little capital save a plausible
tongue and an active brain. With the
shrewdness of his race. he takes ad-
vantage of prevailing popular de-
fusion to the effect that the way to de-
velop the country's wealth is to tax it,
and enters into the steel and iron bust
ness. AT his behest, assisted by others of
like interests, he secures the cooperation
OF one of our great political parties,
which was created to put all end to hui
mon slavery. He inoculates Its men,
bers, albeit only small proportion of
them belong to the working class, with
the belief that protective tariff is a
safeguard for American labor, and that
by increasing its burdensome eYactions
the wages of those who toll with their
hands will grow in the same proper
tons. So masterful are his methods
and those of his conductors that they
klndie flame of national enthusiasm
for their creed, and win the assistance
OF many sincere and good men. who feel
a species of religious fervor as they
fight for protectionism in the conviction
that they are thereby fighting for the
good of their fellows.
Under their efforts wall too high to
scale is built around the steel and iron
industries of the United States, and
competition from without is entirely
eliminated. During the years of ma
tiOnal railroad building the price of rails
and the cost ofrailroad construction were
run up to enormous figures, and every
man who travelled Or shipped pound
OF freight was charged more for the
service Oh this account. when they
complained they were greeted by the
comfortable assurance that they were
paying tribute for the support of The
poor, and that, unless they were unpat-
riotic enough to want to see the pauper
labor of Europe in our factories, they
would offer no resistance to the system.
BY such arguments the conspiracy has
succeeded, and the wealth of its pro-
motors rolled up day by day. CARNE-
GLE, the head center OF the movement,
has left his competitors behind and is
numbered with the moneyed powers of
the world. From his humble beginning
he has come to dine with kings, and has
constructed monuments of stone to pre-
serve his name wherever his capriclous
fancy has suggested to him the desire.
So far as he and his feliow-propr ietors
are concerned, there is no criticism to
be passed Oh the merits of the plan.
But what about dignifed American
labor-hOw has it Jared? By getting
early to the ferges, and bending over
the hot fires till sunset, it has kept itself
from starvation. Sometimes it has got
ten good pay and steady work, and then
again it has been laid off for long
stretches of idleness. Now when the
crisis is reached, and the tariff born
booty of the CARNEGJEs has reached
a position of impregnability where it
can laugh at its victims, the mask is
thrown aside, and reduction of wages
below the point of existing is Or
dered all along the line. When the
wretehed creatures who have looked
forward to no happier fate than a life
long succession of painfully toilsome
hours protest. they are cut off in mass.
and the unchecked hordes of starving
peasants who are admitted to our ports
without governmental interference are
drawn on to take their places. There
is protection and plenty for every one
except the workingman. The market
for every known commodity is artificial
ly stimulated by the barriers which are
set against the entrance OF foreign
goods. The labor market alone is held
open, with the completeSt freedom of
trade for every hungry foreigner to
compete in.
Is it any wonder that humanity down.
trodden by such shameless devices,
frightened, Infatuated, should lose sight
of the respect which is due property
and the law, and resist the movement
for its final subsection? The GLOBE
thinks not. The war between the COM
mon people carrying their own mus
i1ets and the millionaires who have fat
tened on their labor is come at last.
God save the Union from the shock
which will follow. We have planted
ourselves on lie for quarter of a cen
fury, and the flimsy foundation is at
last giving way. Wealth aquired by
robbery has now to maintain itself by
the force of arms. The land of freedom
is turned into the field of bloodshed.
and the air is full of threats of
vengeance. because the oppressed are
awaking to realization of how they
have been cheated