Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-05-04

said for the public prints about the re-
lat10ns of Eugene Debs, the promoter
and president of the American Railway
umon' the new railway labor organiza-
ton, TO the Brotherhood of Locomotive
t1remen, whose headquarters are To-
Gated here, it is known that the pro-
ceedlhg to discipline him is being dis
cussed by brotherhood men liz all parts
of the country.
lie has been the idol of the organl
Zatlol, and when he resigned the posi-
uon OF secretary and treasurer at the
international convention at Cincinnati
last year he could have had nything he
might have asked for from the order
He Was reelected in spite of his decli-
nauoh and was forced to decline the
second time. The convention then
wanted to vote him q handsome gift
OF money with which to take a vaca
uon IN Europe. This he also declined.
Solbe of his friends know that ne
beneNed the brotherhood had passed
tie day of its usefulness, but it is
safe to say that not many expected him
to speak of it in the terms which are
the occasion of charges against him
on which he is to be tried this evenins
before the local lodge of the brother
hood.
Debs held undisputed sway in the
brotherhood for a decade. He, more
than any other man, framed its laws,
and that is why the brotherhood men
resent his recent interviews. The
question is raised as to whether he
will be able to take any considerable
following into the new organization.
Debs says the brotherhood is handi-
capped with official machinery and bur
dened with costly insurance assess
ments; that he has been in forty-nine
contests with railroads and not one
has been victory for the brotherhood:
that the men who cannot keep up with
their assessments are expelled aud
wear the stigma of "scab,'" until now
a large majority of firemen are re-
vengeful enemies of the brotherhood.
On the other side, it is denied that the
brotherhood has been or is an eXpen-
sive and effectual association.
Up to the year of 1885 there was no
then the brotherhood has engaged in
but four authorized strikes, two of
which were lost and two won. Those
lost were the Burlington big strike,
which drew upon the members for
nearly half million dollars, and the
Ann ArbOr strike which Is, as a matter
of fact, counted as lost The two won
We're the New York elevated railway
strike and the Carondelet and East
st. Louis strike.
The fact that there have been but
four strikes is urged as the best recon-
mendation for the effectiveness of the
brotherhood policy and it is known
that there are scores of instances where
concessions have been received from the
employers through the mediation of the
brotherhood representatives. Road
after road is named which granted to
the men an increase of pay on other
requests when asked by the brother
hood
Debs is Il man of rare power with
laboring men and is full of resources
in such an emergency as the present
one. While he was building up the
tiremen's brotherhood he did not fig
ure in public as a labor leader but
that he will conspicuously do so from
now on all who know him, including
those who oppose him il this contest,
freely admit. 1t is believed that in the
next few years his name will become
us familiar to the reader of newspapers
as that of Powderly or Gompers.
Perhaps there is no other man i'll the
country who has so intimate personal
relations with the local labor leaders
in the various cities of the country.
He has been with them in their lodges
and assemblies and invariably made Il
strong Impression. Whenever he has
visited city, and he has visited all
of them in his capacity as grand Sccre-
tary and treasurer of the brotherhood
he has been called upon to deliver an
meeting he has met the local leaders
and such is his personal magnetism
that he has made a friend and ad-
mirer of about all with whom he has
thus come in contact.
In the brotherhood lodge here. be-
fore which he will be tried, he has
many personal friends, but most of
them think he has gone too far in his
effort to construct a new, or rival or
ganiZation. They like him personally,
but what he has said tends to break
down the brotherhood, to cut from
under them the support and prospect
of insurance benefit, for which they
have paid, on a plan he himself faith
cred. They are also surprised to find
him making assertions which they say
misrepreSent the brotherhood, such,
for instance, as the intolerance for fire.
men who are not brotherhood men,
and call over the names of a number
who live here and who are close per-
sonal friends of brotherhood men. The
brotherhood, they say. never was so
strong numerically and so wisely and
conservatively conducted as in this the
seventeenth year of its existence.
What Debs will do or say tonight is
not known, but he will undoubtedly
make defense that will appeal to
the cld-time friends. If he is expelled
or forced to resign he will no doubt
relnquish the editorship of the Fire
mems Magazine. which has become a
prosperous and powerful periodical
under his control. 1t has a circulation
OF more than 10000 monthly copies.
While Deb has not appeared before
tho r,,11,lio national copSo no ic