The record-union., 1894-07-26
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MOTIVE
OF THE LATE STRIKE.

The striking railway workmen of Cali
fornia were intensely angered when,
during the early days of the late ''strike,"
they were told that the movement in
which they were engaged was not
strike properly, but was the body and
motive of well defined anarchial as
sault nRon free institutions.
We are willing to concede that the great
mass of these men of California were sim
cere in denying that they were in the
drift of anarchy. It is undoubtedly true
that the great mass of them were una
ware of the uses to which they were
being put.
Now that the Eastern papers are at
hand. we discover that almost the entire
loyal press of the country east of the
Missouri River treated the whole Debs
movement from the beginning as
anarchial, and with scarcely an excep-
ton so pronounced it; also that the lead
ing spirits of the anarchist societies of
the cities of the East so treated, consid-
cred and proclaimed the movement.
That is to say, the weight of opinion at
the East was and still is, that it was not a
movement against railways SO much as
it was against society at large.
It was, in the judgment not only of the
press, but of leading sociologists, the
army officers, the educational institu-
tons, and the national authorities, and
the thoughtful of the people, movement
to seize the Government, set up a Die
tator and declare new system in force.
The impudent and remarkable letter of
Debs and Sovereign to the President, in
which they arraigned him as criminal,
usurper and an enemy OF the people,
was, and is throughout the East treated
as the immediate precursor of an in
tended proclamation of Dictatorship.
Those of our friends in California who
thought the RECoRD-UNIoN in error at
the time in so interpreting the letter, will
now find that such Interpretation was
precisely parallel with the best and
largest judgment of the great East
That the President and Congress so con-
strued it is also clear from the fact that no
response was made to it. except that of
military assertion of determination to
crush the scheme.
So, then, the effort was one to monop-
olize all labor and project It's force against
society, by enforcing universal idleness,
and depriving the entire community of
the United States of supplies absolutely
necessary to its orderly existence
It was not merely the assertion of the
right of every man to cease to labor for
another. but it went to the anarchial ex-
tent of declaring that no man shall work
for anyone or for himself without the
consent of despotic power unknown to
the law and foreign to our social aud
political system.
It's strength, says an Eastern journal
of first prominence, lay largely in the
moral sense of it's supporters, that, by
grotesque inversion of the definitions
which right and wrong have always
borne, this monopoly (of labor pre-
suaded not only its members, but multi
tudes of unreasoning sympathizers, and
even of its victims, that ruthless oppres
sion and wanton cruelty are virtues in its
service. 1t was this monopoly which
conspired to destroy trade, paralyze in
dustry, stop the mails, starve cities and
confound organized society, in order to
make its agents dictators in place of the
lawful authorities, to decide upon its own
claims and demands"
It is to be observed that it was not
question of trade unionism. On the con-
trary, it was distinct assault upon trade
unions, because they are important
factors IN the social organization. While
some unions have been at all times cursed
with reckless leaders, and men who con-
ceive organization to have no higher pur-
pose than to assert power for oppression
and to decree at pleasure. under penalties
severe and sweeping, that work shall or
ahan not be done. regardless of the law,
set. as q well-informed and clear-seeing
critic has observed. wiser and more
moderate views havo never been wnnting