New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-07-09
DEBS rs. COMMON-SENSE.

Worliingnen at the East are asked 10 STOP
work in order 70 force Mr.. Pullman to run his
shops at Chicago. But every strike lessons ana
does not Increase the demand for sleeping cars
and other products Of industry. Paralysis OF
trade means less means for travelling. fewer
traders on the road, and more idle sleepers
How can that state of things force Mr.. Pullman
70 ,1,n the shops when the demand for sleepers
Is TOO small already? Are the workingmcn
wisely advised 10 cripple their own resources
and deprive themselves of wages and or power
TO buy what they need, in the hope that bust
moss will be better and Pullman will have more
work at his shops? The naked truth IS that
instead Of helping the Pullman strikers, the
svmpathetic strike is simply destroying the last
chance Of their success.
Workngmen have one disadvantage which
they are never wise TO forget. hey cannot i've
long without work The man who has money
can If food is scarce and high, lie can Duy
what there Is. and suffering falls elsewhere
When business is Frustrated and property OF
all kinds is depressed 10 half its value the man
who has money can buy. and his profits when
nrices are advanced by restoration of order will
pay him better than To run factories nj FISK
Of loss. If Mr.. Pullman chooses he can invest
railroads and real estate and other property. and
pocket profits enough on his purchases 10 Dnlli
another town which he might call "DebS
S,oppng work to inturc wealth Is the last eX-
IRENE Of folly. If all the factories in town
are shut, and their men are locked ou'' docs
that hurt thc EMPLOYERS or the cmployclf Amer
leans ought to have sense enough 10 see lha'
the precise remedy which Is now proposed as
.f lsl, * hp
which The most cruel tyranny Of combined ON
blowers might suggest for the purpose of crush
Ing labor and depressing wages 10 III" utmost
II seems 10 some Of the men that organized
labor must be sustained in ,h!s struggle or All
THAR rights a. laborcrs will be imperilled. But
IL does not sustain" organized labor TO engage
in q snnselcSs and hopeless struggle. from which
all the advantages 90 10 the capitalist ana the
losses fall on labor That Is the way TO defeat
and crush the cause of labor, TO take away The
s,,nport IF sensible and industrious working
men from labor organizations, and 10 convince
emnloycrS that they cannot afford 10 make
terms with any organization which Is hablo 10
order a strike at any moment. not because lis
members have any complaint. but because some
men somewhere else are not rightly treated
by their employers For thirty years The path
81 labor has been strcwn with the wrecks or
denominations which have gone 10 ruin in cx-
actly the same way.
The most fatal OF all conceivable blunders,
for such an organization. IS 10 array II in hos-
tility TO the laws. and consequently IN h0s>lAty
10 all the conservative forces OF civilization
which uphold them. DcbS was an unWise ana
reckless leader Of strikers But he has become
n breaker Of law. defer Of courts. rebel
against The United States. To uphold him III
resisting the United States Court l. not 10
uphold the cause Of labor but To doom
II 10 the shameful defeat which must AZ
tend every rebellion against government by
the people. II IS TO ;urn labor ORGANIZATIONS
into conspraccs against the law and against
civilized society. And 1t Is 10 do all THIS win
the certainty that the interests Of strikers ana
Of organized aborcrs cannot In that WAY De al
yanced IN the slightest degree, but mat Inc
scnsclcss broadening OF the struggle will only
increase the disabilities and necessities OF labor.
divide and defeat the workers. and give 10 en-
ployers and capitalists larger opportunity ana
greater power 10 dcpress wages II they please