The herald., 1894-07-22
Mr. B|ERCE AND THE STRIKE,
Arthur Johnson Discusses Some
Recent Utterances.
The Right of the Employer to Con-
duct His Own Business.
Tha First Strike on Record in TIL ebos.
The Wisdom and Honesty of Ar
bitratioa - Tho sympa-
thetio Strike.

"In this quarrel the railroads cause is
that OF law, justice and reason. Am
broee Bierce in the San Francisco Ex-
aminer.
When great Jove thunders, it be-
hooves the little tin gods to BIZ silent and
hide their diminished heads, lest worse
thing befall them. While fuily alive to
the fact that it is superlative presump.
ton in go small a cynic to attempt to
utsnarl great Aristarch us--yet do ven
ture.
In the last two issues OF the Examiner
Mr.. Bierce has devoted most OF the space
occupied by his "Pratts" to consid-
GRAFTON Of the railroad strike, and the
lessons which it teaches.
In this, as always. he takes decided
stand-he asserts unequivocably that
the railroads cause is the cause of JUS
tice. What that cause is is clearly in
dictated when he says, "rhe principle
involved is fundamental, vital. That
the employer, not the employee, has
the right to cay how the business shall
be conducted is a proposition that APP
pears 80 obviously right, 40 essential,
30 necessary to success, 30 accredited by
immemorial and universal usage, that
it fila one with astonishment to hear it
gravely questioned by any one having
somewhat more than the popular capa.
city of thought"
This, then, is the cause that Mr..
Bierce is championing-the right of the
employer to say how his business shall
be conducted. Mr.. Bierce does not in
form US how this right has been &C
CURED, or whether it has always existed.
Neither doea he stop to tell US whether
it has any limitations-for instance,
whether If it should happen that in the
exercise of this right, the rights of
others should be infringed upon, that
would act as an eHtoppel-but he does
tell US that it is sustained by law,
justice and reason. He also tells us
that it is accredited by immemorial and
universal usage. So, for that matter, iH
highway robbery, yet Mr.. Bierce would
scarcely be titled with astonishment"
to hear the right of the pickpocket to
say how his business snail be conducted,
'gravely questioned by any one having
somewhat more than the popular capa-
city OF thought"
Veneration for vested rights" is in
berent in the minds of the mass of man
kind. With them the aphorism what
n-A- j. ;---;ohtn annlias ia la~a.-and
customs as we'll as the cosmos. Mr..
Bierce, who, as everyone knows, has
very much more than the popular capac-
lty OF thought, seems also to be under
this influence.
He reprobstea the strike because it
Qd tno i'll
vert custom sanctioned by immemorial
usage. Had he lived in old Thebss dur
ing the period OF the first great labor
agitation that the world wots of-whch,
by the way, like every other that has
since occurred, eliminated in riot and
outrage-to be consistent he should
have held that the right of Pharaoh to
compel the Hebrews to make bricks and
provide their own straw was "a propo-
sitiOn obviously right, and accredited bv
immemorial and universal usage" and
therefore worthy to bs perpetuated
throughout all time.
What is right now must have been
right then. Thirty centuries cannot alb.
rogate q principle of ethics.
But Mr.. Bierce savs that this "right"
ia necessary to success. How does he
know this? H. as he says, it has had
the sanction of immemorial and univer-
sal usage, it follows that no other method
has ever been tried, and therefore he
must be without data to prove his az.
sertion.
But suppoaing it be necessary to sue
GEES. The success of whom? The en-
ployer? The question then may be
asked, Would his success or failure re-.
suit in good or evil to the people gener.
ally, who, it 10 whispered, have been
known to so hungry in spite of the sue.
cess of employers2 Tho fact ia
evident that the success to which
Mr. Bierce alludes is merely the
triumph OF one employer over
another, and has no connection
with the welfare of the employed. For
example, what difference does it make
to Dir. Armour's employees whether
that great hog-sticker lays by 81, OOO, 900
or $1,000, 900 each year as result of his
sticking hogs? 1t may be said, how
ever, that if Mr.. Armour diu not find
hog.sticking profitable he would refrain
from sticking hogs, and IS a result hia
employees would be out of work; but it
seems evident that the TACT of Mr..
Armour declining to stick them would
not decrease the normal demand for
stuck hogs, and consequently come other
hog-sticker would ieel called upon to
stick them, and thus the demand would
be supplied and the laborsr would have
his hire.
An immense amount OF balderdssh is
periodically written about the benefit
conferred upon community by the |
building up OF large industries, or rather
the consolidation of industries under
single head, individual or corporate.
1t may be safely asserted that in gen.
eral such consolidation ie an unmiti-
gated evil; taking the food from the
mouth OF the email trader or master
workman to pile il on the already over
burdened larder shelves of the million
aire. When, for instance, Mr.. Letter of
Chicago conceived the idea that
the cause OF humanity would ad-
vanced by the adding OF stock
of iewelry to the other commodities in
his emporium, to make the venture a
success he found it necessary first 10
destroy the business OF scores of small
retailers. The same thing happened
when Mr.. Stewart built up his immense
dry goods business in New York. 1t is
o we'll known fact that this man was for
a long time attended by body-guard to
protect him from tho attacks OF broken
down tradesmen, whom he had ruined.
[t must be confirmed optimist who can
ice any good in this.
dho,,II tb;c atat RI ~ a ffes con fsnva - |