The record-union., 1894-07-31
THE REAL FRIENDS OF LABOR.

Let no one make any mistake about the
protests of the loyal press against mob
violence and force employed by strikers.
Those protests were not made because of
antagonism and hostility to labor. If Ia
boring men believe they were they are
wofully mistaken.
The real friends of labor knew that the
worst thing that labor can do is to ''alarm
society for its own safety" as Mr.. How
ellis puts it. Had none of the press OPP
posed the late boycott strike, and had it
succeeded in Chicago, or to the extent of
controlling Illinois and Indiana, the re-
serve force of the Union would have risen
up and have ruthlessly swept the insur-
rection out of existence, and have spared
not single leader from the halter. He
who does not read that result in the cleo
trical response to the Presidents pro-
elamation is stupid, blind, deaf and ig
norant of the spirit of the American peo-
pie.
Those who oppose disordersand stand
for the laws and against the boycott and
strike warfare" are infinitely better
friends of labor than are the labor leaders
who excuse seizure of property and the
intimidation of men in the interests Of la
supposedly.
The protests of the loyal press were far
more in the interest of labor than Of capi-
tal. Why? Because labor never yet pros
pered through or in disorder. whereas
capital is a coward and can flee from
threats.
But capital has its rights equally with
labor, and both must confess themselves
secondary to national integrity and unity.
Both must obey the law. So there must
be no misjudging the position ofthe press
that did not forget itself and that refused
to excuse lawlessness. 1t would not COM
mand its own respect if it advocated the
rights and defense Of one body of citizens
and ignored those Of another. This jour
nal, at least, never did and never will
advocate for one class protection that it
will not demand for another, since
orderly government is impossible if
there is discrimination in affording its
citizens protection regardless of worldly
possessions.
Intelligent workingmen must now see
that the Debs insurrection played into the
very hands it assumed to tie up. Why?
Because whatever OF reform the working
men had in view, and that might be ac-
Complished under the law, was changed
to an issue of force. with the National
Government as the target. The leaders
have now confessed it, Debs himself de-
elared it, that it was not a strike but civil
war; the leaders in California openly
preached it as revolution, and that their
intention was to seize the Government if
necessary. A more senseless disclosure
was never made, for their plans were not
equal to the seizure and holding OF 8
single city.
They mistook violence of the mob
stripe for law, and hence it was that those
who invoked Federal power to restore
order befriended the workingman by
saving him from the horrors Of a civil
war, III =lieh he had ali to lose. and in
which his gain was not even hinted at be-
cause it was not conceived by the blind
leaders.
The loyal press was the best friend OF
the wage-earner for another reason.
namely, that it stood for all people who
earn their bread and are dependent upon
capitalized industries. while Debs con-
tended for but one class, and that to the
ostracism of ali others. His reform,
then, was to be of the exclusive order.
He made no appeal to any other workers,
and promised them nothing.
Moreover the scheme OF the would be
revolutionists looked to the establish
ment of paternalism in government, and
that never yet redounded to the benefit of
the poor. Paternalism actually broadens
the opportunities of the rich, the shrewd,
the managing and the willfully idle to
live upon the necessities of others. Pater-
naiism means more classes than we now
have; it means especially an official class
that inevitably becomes an overbearing
one, and for the working class under
Government wage it means the lowest
.,<>..-s II = s..ox,-,,.g1 s,r,,. <riI
The safety of the Wage-earner in this
free system is in the least government