St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-22
TALK TO 4 BIG CROWD. |
OFSs AHD HOWARD p0UR OUT HOT
SHOT.
BIG mass MEETING.

Railway Union Appears to Be
Very Much In Favor The
Strike Is Sanctioned by Rail-
way Men in Minneapolis.
Over a thousand men gathered In
Century hall last night and listened to
addresses 10y President Debs and Vice
President Howard, of the American
Railway union. The hall seats about
800 people. so that over 100 were obliged
to stand. The speakers were at their
best and entertained the audience well.
Mr.. Howard was the first speaker. His
effort was q fiery one. and during his
discourse he demonstrated lie un.
derstood fully every point of
railroad work OH which he touched.
He said there is but one hope for rail-
road man unless he expects to become
pauper and a county charge when the
critical time of life comes around.
That hope is to save enough money dur
ing his prime of life to live OH the inter-
est of the savings when he is no longer
fit for duty. Then he went on to show
that the average length of life, or
rather usefulness of railroad man. is
but ten years, which demonstrated that
the hope he had referred to was an
absurd and forlorn one.
Mr.. Howard then continued: "You
will say to me: whats railroad man
10 do them" 1 will answer: Stay where
you are; you are not fit for anything
else.' Then you will say: What's
fellow to do when they want to fire you
all the time% | will answer this by
saying: Get together and form union
SO they can't fire you except for willful-
neglect, incompetency or injury to your
employers goods and chattels."
Mr.. Howard maintained that mas.
much as the railroad men were effected
just as much as the corporations, they
should have voice in the shaping of
the conditions of business. The work.
ing classes were still under form OF
slavery. White men in the North at
the present time are treated worse than
were the slaves Oh Southern plantations
during the days of slavery. This state
ment can be proven by going into the,
offices of the Great Northern road
| in st. Paul. where the en-
| ployes are treated far worse than
were slaves in the South When
| they are at work i'm the Office they dare
not say their souls are their own. They
walk about and talk in whispers,
obliged to fawn and cringe and lick
! the boot that kicks them The speaker
| said he had seen it, and knew that the
unfortunate clerks were afraid to look
around for fear OF being discharged.
There was scarcely man in the au-
dience, he said. but had the courage to
shoulder his musket and fight for the
freedom of his country. Why. then,
shouldn't he be brave enough to fight
| for his individual rights and his eman-
| cipatiou in labor and life.?
Haven't we sense enough" contin-
ued Mr.. Howard, ITO emulate the ex-
amples the corporations set for US?
Can't we see that they, by organizing
and Joining together, are able to per-
form more than alone and singly? Then
why don't we do the same thing if we
can better ourselves and our condition."
He took rap at the courts and the
| Judges, referring especially TO Judge
Sanborn. who. he said, was travelling on
passes. and received royal treatment at
the hands of the railroad corporations.
The judges under such happy condi-
tions could afford to protect the rail-
roads in everything they did and de-
sired to do.
1--WE are in this fight to win, and we
are going to win. We have got the
only key to the combination, and no.
body else can undo it. The only thing
| part of the brotherhood men, but we
don't think there is any danger in that
quarter. We know the engineers will
not work with 'scabs,' and we know the
firemen will not do it either. SO think
we have got them"
Mr.. Howard then proceeded to score
the Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis
Tribune. He said they had treated the
the union aud the strikers i'll scandal
| Gus manner, and they were doing all in
their power to cheat the people out of
their rights. He advised them to boy
colt the papers. fot without their pat
ronage they could not live. The owner
of the Tribune, he said, was expected
| to return to The city in few days, and
ne (Howardt would see that he was ac-
Qualnted of all the facts in the case.
He intimated that he would raise the
dickens with that sacred Office or know
the reason why.
President Debs followed his eloquent
and fiery colleague In an interesting
discourse on sociology that was really
all epit0me sermon. He referred to
COXey's army as due to the present So
cial system, and in the army of common
wealersat Council Bluffs, he saw an
ineipient revolution. What was needed
TO bring about a betterment of present
affairs was more honesty In labor, less
duplicity and hypocrisy and thorough
organization. He went into an
explanation of the objects of the
American Railway union, and said
that it did not intend to level down
wages, but to level them up. There were
no railroad men in the country who
were being paid more than they earned,
but there were multiplied thousands
who were being paid considerably less.
All this was brought about and made
possible because of imperfect organlZa-
ton. So far as the speaker was con-
cerned, he would like to see an organi-
cation which took in every laboring
man in the world. The American Rail-
way unions object was to embrace
every railroad man in the country.
The various branches of rail-
separately, but they were all
amenable to the same laws and were all
banded together, with but one object in
view, that of protection to every man in
their ranks. In business houses when
the managers wanted to retrench and
cut down expenses they did not begin
at the bottom and cut the wages of the
men who were beieg paid the least, but
made it universal cut. IT there was to
be any Partially shown. it would be to
those who were at the bottom. The
railroad companies just reversed this
order of things.
The Great Western railway had con-
templated to make reduction of wages
the 18th of this month, Mr.. Debs said,
There was no doubt in his mind but the
Great Northern strike would terminate
in favor of the men. he hoped there
would be no extension of trouble. but in
the event it was necessary TO do so
second appeal would be made and the
men of the Twin Cities wnnld he or.