Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-07-10
The Laws Nus! be Maintained.


Mobs and snarchy are the deadly foes of
labor and capital and of all that society holds
valuable and sacred. Those who array the
men of skill and industry against the men
of enterprise and business responsibilities,
are the enemies of mankind. Debs, the
boss striker, and those acting with him in
mob violence against life and property, are
doing more injury to the cause Of labor
than the worst monopolists in the lan1. 1t
is another illustration of the axiom that
an unwise friend is often more to
be dreaded then an avowed enemy
that a fool will do a good cause
more harm than knave. Honest labor is
sure to have just public sentiment on its
| side, if cracked-brained advocates Of its
cause do not represent it and attemp. to
lead it in unlawful ways. As the anarchist
in the European world in the past hundred
years often has played into the hands of the
monarchist, 80 those in this country who
resort to mob violence in the name of the
people play into the hands Of monopolists
and those who become rich by oppres-
sive trusts and watered stocks. Debs
and his kind discard and throw
to the winds all the advantages which
the laws give to just cause, for anarchy
and mobs are tigers and hyenas against
which every level-head and patriotic arm
must act and with which there can be no
compromise. No true American, no man
fit to be citizen in this country, should
ever forget that this is GOVERNMENT OF
LAWS AND NOT OF MEN. Whoever is on the
side of the laws must be sustained Who
ever by mob violence is opposing the laws,
must be resisted as public enemy.
The boss striker, Debs when he says
nine-tenths of the people are on the side of
the car burners and railroad wreckers,
plainly convicts himself and his fellow con-
spirators of offences as foolish as they are
wicked. If nine-tenths of the people are
with the rioters, why resort to incendiarism,
to murder, to war against women and chill
dren, to outrage on the travelling public?
In this country the people make the laws
and elect the agents to enforce them. In
8 prompt and peaceful way nine-tenths,
or even majority, of the people
can make the laws and the execution
of them conform to their wishes. Those
who follow Debs and hot-brained fools like
him give the trust monopolists the handle
of the sword while they clutch their naked
hands around the sharp, two-edged blade.
Mob violence will be, must be, stamped out,
at whatever cost. When valuable
building is on fire, regardless of creed or
party, men unite to extinguish the flames.
At this time there is one in the executive
chair of the Nation who has said and done
many foolish things, for which he has
already been severely condemned by ju st
public opinion, and for which he is sure
to be sternly judged at the bar of history.
Some of his wild, demagoglcal talk has
served to stir up antagonism and strife be-
tween labor and capital. But it is not as
Grover Cleveland that we are now called to
stand by him in supporting the laws. He
is the President of the United States, and
80 far as it appears, he is resolved that
the laws of the Nation shall be enforced.
1t is the duty of all good citizens to
strengthen his hands to the utmost in
using his constitutional power to crush out
anarchy, in protecting all citizens in their
honest labor and avocations. The lawful
and established ways of commerce and
transit through the different states of the
Union must be kept open unmolested, even
if it requires the entire army of the Nation.
To interrupt, rob, or destroy the ships of
transit and trade on the high seas is piracy,
punishable with the utmost severity of the
laws. Can it be LEES criminal to wreck,
burn, and destroy the agencies and vehicles
of commerce and travel on the land?
Shall not the railway train and its prec-
ious freight of human lives and property
have the same protection as the ship and
outrage on land less wicked and destructive
than piracy and outrage on the water? 1t
is certain, that while this Republican gov
eminent may be less prompt than
imperial government in dealing with
unlawful combinations and mobs, in the
end it is sure to crush them out with re-
morseless energy and success and in this
it is certain to be sustained by an aroused
and irresistible patriotic national sentiment