The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-26
THE DANGER AHEAD.


to Washington, without danger from
1.-THE national or local authorities But
as soon as any of them begin to defy
the law and try to effect by violence
that which they fail to accomplish by
their petitions and their presence, they
will suffer, and in the end be sure to
get the worst of it. Their only safety
is in peaceful submission to the law.
The sham seizure of trains which
has been permitted in several instances.
has had the effect of emboldening some
of their number to try their hands at
real raid on the railroads. Blood
shed. on small scale, has been the
result. What the outcome will bring
is not yet perceptible. But railroad
companies have rights and usually
they are able to maintain them. They
are facts" and no one who under
stands them will deny that they are
stubborn things
A great cutlery has been made
against the announced determination
OF one prominent railroad authority to
ditch the train rather than have the
rights of the company trodden down
by mob. That was an extreme. 70.
mark, perhaps, but when the right Of
property is invaded in the way pro-
posed by some of the uncontroIlables
in the Industrial ranks, extreme
measures will doubtless be resorted to
and the responsibility will rest upon
those who precipitated the conflict.
We hope the course pursued by
General Kelly in regard to the law
will be continued, so that there may
be no reason for the calling out of
police or military forces to suppress
violence. If a collision comes. under
any pretext, the consequences will be
such that humane people will naturally
shrink from their contemplation.
The notion that the crowds of men
who intend to mass themselves at the
capital of the nation are the people.
that their demands ere the voice of
the people, that laws must be enacted
at the dictation of such a multitude
is altogether wrong and at variance
with the methods by which legislation
is to be effected. They are not the
people of the United States. but form
only faction. No matter how loudly
they may shout, theirs is not the
popular voice. And if laws are to be
passed whenever mob gathers around
the halls of Congress, as the crowd
may dictate, then we may bid fare
well to constitutional government and
to our national existence.
The people of the United States are
the whole population. Their voice is
expressed at the polls The Congress
elected by their ballots is the only or
ganization that can formulate the
wishes of the people, and it must be
done in the way which the whole peo-
pie have provided. The attempt to
overawe the body elected by the people
and compel the enactment of some
thing different to that which the coun-
try has required, is to be condemned bv
every patriotic citizen regardless of
party affiliations. It is revolutionary.
dangerous and un-American.
The right of petition is sacred. The
people, or any part of them. NAV
peaceably assemble to express their
views. No sane person will dispute
these constitutional guarantees. But
there are proper means by which peti-
tons may be framed and presented.
and the movement which is being en-
couraged by some Republican and Pom
ulist demagogues is not a proper way.
for it is intended as a menace, and is
being used for party ends regardless
of the dangers which attend it or the
consequences that may ensue.
The sufferings Of the unemployed are
great. Something ought to be devised
in every state to alleviate them. AL
though among the "industrials" there
are thousands of tramps and bummers,
there are hosts of men who cannot be
classed in such ranks, and their cause
is just so far as their complaints go
But the means they have been pre-
vailed upon to adopt to obtain relief
are wrong, and founded upon falIacies
as TO the powers of the government.
and this ought to have been impressed
upon them instead of their receiving
encouragement in their egregious err
rors.
The serious part of their experience
will be when they find their mission
an utter failure, and they are stranded
at the end of their journey. without
means of support and in such numbers
that the people in the neighborhood
cannot supply their needs. When the
discipline under which most of them
are now cur6ed into order is with
drawn, and the army is disbanded.
and the sham Generals no longer
disport themselves at their head, then
will come time of confusion and trou-
bic which no one can contemplate
without feeling of sorrow if not of
dread. Let us hope the first blood in
this campaign viii prove to be the last.
Submission to law is the common
wealers' only safety.
AN ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE.