Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-12
TERMS OF THE DISPATCH.
PIrTsBURG. TUESDAY. JULY L.. 1892.
TWELVE PAGES
THE RESTORATION OF ORDER.

The decision of the Homestead workers
to receive the State troops peacefully and
even cordially cannot be too frankly rec
ognized or too warmly commended. LII
doing so they concede their duty to re-
spect the power of the State, and justify
the hope expressed by THE DISPATCH that
an interval of reflection would produce a
decided change of mind from that which
created the bloodshed and violence of last
week.
The State troops represent government,
law and peace To oppose or obstruct
them would be to array force against
Government and to try to pull down the
fabric of democratic law. Such a course
would be avoided by all men who are
not driven insane by the passion
of conflict But since the Homestead men
were so far carried away as to array them
selves in violent defiance of the law, last
week, they are entitled to credit for re-
gaining control of themselves, and even
emphasizing their allegiance and submis-
sion to the authority of the State.
1t is possibly factor in the promised
exhibition of loyalty and even friendli-
ness to the troops that is presented by
the desire to show that the presence of the
troops is unnecessary, and to secure short
duration of their stayat Homestead This
is natural wish and one that is quite
legitimate, on the supposition that the
law-abiding and pacific frame of mind is
thorough and permanent The military
power having been called in, it can be dis
pensed with when the danger of further
disorder is entirely past When that de-
sirable consummation is to arrive involves
much uncertainty.
Now that obedience to law and the su-
premacy of individual rights is in process
of restoration, the possible settlement of
the dispute between employers and men
comes up for discussion. The function of
the troops will be solely the maintenance
Of peace They will neither force men to
work nor prevent them from working.
The decision of the wages dispute will
thus be left to pacific methods. In these
the workingmen can hope for success from
two sources, and only two. The first is
that with the evident sympathy and aid
from labor the whole country over, they
may on the one hand be able to maintain
their position, while the indisposition of
labor generally to take work in the mills,
will make it difficult to run the works
without them.
The other possibility, though now a
remote one, is that which the great
majority of the public would be glad
to see, the final reaching of point
where the firm will consent to a joint
hearing of the case with view to its CON-
promise, either by conference or arbitra-
ton. 1t is neither necessary nor wise
to conclude that determinations formed
by the managers of the Carnegie
Company weeks before the recent events,
and perhaps reiterated now under the pres
sure of strong antagonisms, are not suscep-
tible of some modification or amendment.
The universal wish that employers and
employees shall prove an ability to live in
peace; the possibility of aid to the locked
out men bv sympathetic strikers: and the
popular belief that a settlement should be
made by which the men at Homestead
can obtain work at the place where thev
live and where what property they have
is located, all point to the propriety of set
ting the dispute by conclllatory and hon.
orable resort to reason.
This method of dealing with the subject
is to be urged because it will be the
broader and wiser course. 1t is idle to ig-
more the fact that there are deeper mat
tiers involved in such disputes than the
bare legal rights. There are questions
in such disputes that cannot be settled
by simple enforcement of the laws of
property. They have got to be settled by
going further back than that, sooner or
later, and the better the feeling between
capital and labor, the easier will be the So
luton.
Let us hope this wise course will be
adopted. Generosity toward antagonists
is higher quality than pugnacity, and it
is highest even where pugnacity might be
successful. When legal peace is restored,
industrial peace should follow, as a result
of the combined efforts of both sides.