The herald., 1894-07-14
OUT OF EVIL, GOOD.

If there ia reliance to be placed in the
Dispatch received here yesterday, that
Cleveland having agreed 10 the appoint
ment OF com missioners of arbitration to
investigate the labor troubles. the lead
ers OF the unions ordered cessation of
the strike, the country will experience
great feeling OF relief. This has been
the greatest labor upheayal ever known
in the country. Its dimensions have
been perfectly appalling, although it did
not reach east OF Ohio and some of the
lake states. Had it lasted, and spread
over the middle and eastern states, no
one could foresee the end. As it is, it
has proved an industrial cataclysm of
the gravest character, and carries with
it material loss that will reach into
the millions. ~aN'
Whether the dispatch alluded to is
true or not, p, the strike is practically
ended. Ii wefail itodrswla . pregnant les.
son from this industrial eruption and
make provision that will guard against
its recurrence, we ehsll prove ourselves
unequal to the responsibilities placed
upon us by our times and our civilizs-
tion. 1t perhaps needed some great
revulsion like this to rouee us from our
lethargy and cause US to earnestly take
hold of the stupendous problem of the
day and solve it in just and equitable
manner. We have had II manifold and
repeated warnings OF what we might ex.
pect, but they failed to concentrate pub.
lie opinion and spur it to the discovery
of practical remedy. The present ex.
perience will do SO, or we will drift from
bad to worse.
Whenever large class of the CON-
munity is disafected there ia always
reason more or less grave for it. Some.
times considerable bodies of dissatisfied
people may be 80 for causes which the
great bulk of the community can find no
sympathy with. For instance, they may
be under clsnnish or superstitious con-
ditions that must only wear themselves
out. But for the past twenty years there
has grown up feeling among the masses
OF this country that an inequality Of
conditions has been gradually gaining
strength, due not to natural causss, bu t
to artificial ones. The genius OF inven.
tion and discovery has made it possible
that by combinations OF capital an un-
due proportion OF the increment OF wealth
can be absorbed by small class, whilst
the opportunities for well-being OF the
large class are narrowed to limits that
prove injurious and oppressive. Labor,
in this struggle, has been pushed to the
wall. Supplanted as it has been by the
great forces which inventive genius and
speculative sciencs have evolved out OF
nature. the new device of capital COM
binations has been enabled to oppress
and stint labor.
1t is the part of wisdom to learn from
the lessons OF experience. No country
can afford to disregard the symptoms Of
advancing commotion. The doctrine OF
laissez-faire which preceded the French
revolution paid the penalty OF it's indi-
ference to the signs of the times. II
Louis XVI. and the aristocrats had
taken warning from Rousseau and coun
sci from the encyclopedias who saw ss
clearly under the surface as Voltaire
with his far-reachiEg eye foresaw the
crash that was inevitable, the scanes OF
carnage that made Paris great human
Rbattoir for two terrible years might
have been avoided. Like causes pro-
duce like effects, and he is unworthy OF
the name OF statesman or friend OF the
human family who fails to apply timely
remedy to evils that have a tendency to
grow into colossal proportions. The
only remedy labor now has to capital
istic oppression-and how poor ana in
effective one it is how bar barcus and
unworthy OF this stage OF advanced civ.
ilization Lis in organized strikes. Men
may quit work and starve in the effort
to redress their wrongs. The remedy