St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-22
TALK TO A BIG CROWD.
DE6S AHD HOWARD P0UR OUT HOT
SHOT.
BIG MASS MEETING.


Railway Union Appears to BE
Very Much ia Favor The
Strike Is Sanctioned by Rail-
way Men in Minneapolis.
Over thousand men gathered IN
Century hall last night and listened to
addresses 10y President Debs nd Vice
PRESIDENT Howard, of the American
hallway union. The hall seats about
800 people. so that over 100 were obliged
to stand. The speakers were at their
best and entertained the audience well.
MIR. Howard was the first speaker. His
effort was q fiery one. and during his
discourse he demonstrated lie un.
derstood fully every point of
railroad work OIL which he touched.
He said there is but one hope for a rail-
road man unless he expects to become
pauper and a county charge when the
critical time of life comes around
That hope is to save enough money dur
ing his prime of life to live OIL the inter-
est of the savings when he is no longer
mt for duty. Then he went on to show
that the average length of life, or
rather usefulness of railroad man. is
but ten years, which demonstrated that
the hope he had referred to was an
absurd and a forlorn one.
MIR. Howard then continued: "You
will say to me: whats a railroad man
10 do then" Will answer: Stay where
you are; you are not fit for anything
else Then you will say: What's
fellow to do when they want to fire you
all the timer l will answer this by
saying: Get together and form union
so they can't fire you except for willfnl-
neglect, incompetency or injury to your
employers goods and chattels."
Mr.. Howard maintained that mas
much as the railroad men were effected
just as much as the corporations, they
should have a voice in the shaping of
the conditions of business. The work.
ing classes were still under a form of
slavery. White men in the North at
the present time are treated worse than
were the slaves on Southern plantations
during the days of slavery. This state
ment can be proven by going into the
offices of the Great Northern road
in st. Paul. where the en-
ployes are treated far worse than
were slaves in the South. When
they are at work in the Office they dare
not say their souls are their own. They
walk about and talk in whispers.
obliged to fawn and cringe and lick
the boot that kicks them. The speaker
said he had seen it. and knew that the
unfortunate clerks were afraid to look
around for fear Of being discharged.
There was scarcely man in the au-
dience, he said. but had the courage to
shoulder his musket and fight for the
freedom of his country. Why. then,
shouldn't he be brave enough to fight
for his individual rights and his eman-
cipatiou in labor and life.?
Haven't we sense enough" contin-
ued Mr.. Howard, ito emulate the eX-
amples the corporations set for US?
Can't we see that they, by organizing
and joining together, are able to per-
form more than alone and singly? Then
why don't we do the same thing if we
can better ourselves and our condition."
He took rap at the courts and the
judges, referring especially TO Judge
Sanborn. who he said, was travelling on
the hands of the railroad corporations.
The judges under such happy condi-
lions could afford to protect the rail-
roads in everything they did and de-
sired to do.
1--WE are in this fight to win, and we
are going to win. We have got the
only key to the combination, and no.
body else can undo it, The only thing
that can undo us is treachery OH the
part of the brotherhood men, but we
don't think there is any danger in that
quarter. We know the engineers will
not work with 'ScabS.' and we know the
firemen will not do it either. So think
we have got them"
Mr.. Howard then proceeded to score
the Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis
Tribune. He said they had treated the
the union and the strikers i'll a scandal
Gus manner, and they were doing all in
their power to cheat the people out of
their rights. He advised them to boy
colt the papers. for without their pat
rOnage they could not live. The owner
of the Tribune, he said, was expected
to return to The city i'll few days, and
ne (Howardt would see that he was ac-
Quainted Of all the facts in the case.
He intlmated that he would raise the
dickens with that sacred Office or know
the reason why.
President Debs followed his eloquent
and fiery colleague In an interesting
discourse on sociology that was really
all epitOme sermon. He referred to
Coxey's army as due to the present So
cial system, and in the army of common
wealersat Council Bluffs, he saw an
incipient revolution. What was needed
TO bring about betterment of present
affairs was more honesty IN labor. less
duplicity and hypocrisy and thorough
organization. He went into an
explanation of the objects Of the
American Railway union. and said
wages, but to level them up. There were
no railroad men in the country who
were being paid more than they earned,
but there were multiplied thousands
who were being paid considerably less.
All this was brought about and made
possible because of imperfect organlza-
ton. So far as the speaker was con-
cerned, he would like to see an orgahi-
cation which took in every labOring
man i'll the world. The American Rail-
way unions object was to embrace
The various branches of rail-
road employment might be housed
separately, but they were all
amenable to the same laws and were all
banded together, with but one object in
view, that of protection to every man in
their ranks. In business houses when
the managers wanted to retrench and
cut down expenses they did not begin
at the bottom and cut the wages of the
men who were beieg paid the least, but
made it universal cut. 1t there was to
be any partiality shown. 1t would be to
those who were at the bottom. The
railroad companies just reversed this
order of things.
The Great Western railway had con-
templated to make reduction of wages
the 18th of this month, Mr.. Debs said.
but the strike up here scared them off.
There was no doubt in his mind but the
Great Northern strike would terminate
in favor of the men. he hoped there
would be no extension of trouble. but in
the event it was necessary TO do so a
second appeal would be made and the