The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-07-13


OF Labor Present Their Case to PresI-
dent Cleveland as the Statement OF Long
Suffering and Starving LabOring Men
Against GraspIng and Grinding CorpOr-
ate Employers.
CHICAGO, July S.-After consultation
between the board of directors of the
American Railway union and General
Master Workman Sovereign of the
Knights of Labor, the following was
sent to Washington last evening:
CHICAGO, July z. 1894.
To Hon. Grorer C3erelamd President Of the
United States Executive Mansion, Washington,
d. c.:
DEAR SIR:-Through long period of depres-
sion, enforced idleness and low wages, result
ing in widespread poverty, and in many cases
actual starvation, the working people have
been patient and law-abiding, and not until the
iron heel of corporate tyranny was applied
with the intention to SuOJugate the working
people to the will of arrogant monopolies did
they make any effort to stay their oppressors.
The Pullman strike was not declared until
the employees of the Pullman company were
driven to the verge OF starvation, their en-
treaties spurned with contempt, and their
grievances denied q hearing. No refusal to
handle Pullman cars was declared by any rail-
way employe until all propositions looking to-
wards arbitration and Cancellation were re-
jected by the Pullman company. Notwith-
standing the facts set forth above, which were
known to the public and the national authoTi-
ties, you have seen ut. under thesguise of pro-
tecting the mails and federa1.property, to in
woke the service of the United States army,
whose very presence is used to coerce and in
timidate peaceable working people into a
humiliating obedience to the will Of their OPP
pressorS.
BY your acts, in so far as you have sup
planted civil and state authorities with the
federal military power, the spirit of unrest
and diStrust has so far been augmented that
deep-seated conviction is fast becoming prev.
alent that this government is soon to be de-
clared a military despotiSm. The transmits
sion of the United States mails is not inter-
rupted by the striking employees of any rail-
way company, but by the railway companies
themselves, who refuse to haul the mails on
trains to which Pullman cars were not at
tached. II It is a criminal interference
with the United States mails for the en-
ployes of a railway company to detach from q
mail train Pullman palace ear contrary to
the will OF the company, then IL holds true
that it is the same criminal interference when
ever Pullman palace car is detached from
mail train in accordance with the will of rail-
way company, while said mail train is in
transit The line of crlminality in such case
should not be drawn at the Willingness or un-
willingness of railway employees, but at the act
itself, and. inasmuch as it has been the COM
mon practice of railway corporations to attach
and dctach from mail trains Pullman palace
cars at will, while said trains in transit
and carrying the mails of the United States,
it would seem an act of discrimination against
the employees of the railway corporations to
declare such acts unlawful interference with
the transmission of the mails, when done by
employees, with or without the consent of their
employers.
In view of these facts we look upon the far
fetched decision of Attorney-General Olney,
the un American injunctions against railway
an MI ~
| army employing the powers of the general
| government for the support and protection Of
the railway corporations in their dcterInina-
tion to degrade and oppress their employees.
| The present railway strike urecipitatcd
by the desire of the railway corporations to dc.
| stray the organizations of their employees and
make the working people more subservient to
the will of their employers; and as all students
| of government agree that free institutions de-
pend for their perpetuity upon the freedom
and prosperity of the common people, it would
seem more in conSonance with the spirit OF
democratic government If federal authority was
exercised in defense of the rights OF the toll
ing masses to life, kberty and the pursuit OF
happiness. But, on the contrary, there is not
an instance on record where in any conflict be-
tween the corporations and the people, the
strong of the military power has been en-
ployed to protect the working people and the
industrial masses from the ravages and perse-
cution Of corporate greed, But the measure Of
corporations always good and in the right, and
the working people always bad and in the
wrong.
Now, sir, we pledge to you the power Of our
respective organizations individually and col
lectively for the maintenance Of peace and
good order, and the preservation OF life and
property and will aid In the arrest and pun
is!ment of ali violators Of the civil and crlmi-
nal laws of the state or naefon.
In the present contest between labor and
railway corporations we shall use every peace
able and honorable means at our command
consistent with the law and our constitutional
rights to secure for the working people just
compensation for labor done and respect
full consideration in accordance with the
inh erent rights of all men and the
spirit of republican government. In doing 50
we appeal to all the liberty-loving people OF
the nation to aid and support US in this most
just and righteous cause.
THE AMERICAN RAILWAY UNION,
BY Eugene v. Debs, President.
ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR,
j. r. Sovereign. General Master Workman.