The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-07-19
THE RAILROAD STRIKE.
The ArgOnaut Comments on the
Great Boycott.

ampled in its range IL - perhaps ue9-
tined to be the decisive battle between
capital and labor. 1t involves the
business of corporations "a far apart as
the Michigan Central and the South
ern Pacific. The issue at stake goes 10
the root of the question whether there
is any such thing az property In thls
country, and whether those who think
they own property really do so or
are mere Joint tenants thereof with
labor unions, in which the real own
ership rests.
The facts lie in a nutshell Last
winter the Pullman Car Company
found that the prevailing business de-
preston had destroyed the profits of
its business. About seventy per cent
of that business consisted Of making
ord nary passenger. baggage, box, re-
frigeratOr, and street cars, and OF these
the price had declined twenty-four
per cent; fifteen per cent was the
manufacture of sleeping cars for Wnlch
the demand had declined so that -FOUR
hundred new cars were lying III the
shops awaiting purchaser. III was a
running them at a reduced cost TOT
labor, interest and profits. The Conn
panv elected the latter alternative,
and the men went to work In appar-
ent acuuiescence On May lOtn, aiter
a meeting which was addressed by
labor agitators, they changed their
minds, and 300 out of 300 w rk-
men struck. The Company closed the
works, and refused to submit the case
to arbitration, holding that there was
nothing to arbItrate. In June, the
Pullman strikers enlisted II their
cause a new labor organization known
as the American Railway Union,
which was flushed with victory over
jim HIPS Northern road. In order
to coerce the Pullman Company, this
union forbade it's members from
working OH Pullman car or on a
train to which Pullman cars were at
tached. The Southern Pacific runs
Pullman cars for the accommodation
of its passengers, the cars being
owned Jointly 10y the Pullman Com
pany and the railroad company In
the proportion of one fourth for the
former and three-fOurths for the
latter. The officers of the American
Railway Union demanded that the
Southern Pacific cease to haul Pull
man cars; the demand heing refused,
the men struck on the whole South
ern Pacific system, and railroad ana
postal communication was severed be-
tween this city and the environs, and
likewise between this city and the
East.
To Justify the strike, the California
strikers must show tnat they were
individually or collectively injured
by the running of Pullman cars. That
they can not do. The strike was
purely a sympathetic strike. No one
in this State had anything TO DO with
the disputes between Pullman and
his men. No Californian was Injured
to the extent of dollar by the reduc-
ton of Pullman wages. The mem
beers of the American Railway Union
who strickland thereby paralyZed
business, stopped the mails, 1ncon-
venienced the public, and took the
bread out of the mouths of thousands
of daily wage earners-had not the
faintest shadow of "a direct excuse for
the conduct thy pursued. The only
possible explanation of their behavior
is that they wanted to show the power
of the union to which Z ey belonged
and to demonstrate that is arm was
long enough to- strike at its enemies,
even on the extreme western edge of
the continent.
But il is said that the railroad COM
pany might have stopped the strike
BY dropping the Pullman cars. This
would have been cOnceding To an ire
sponsible body in Il distant State the
rig Int of debating how the company's
trains should be rum To throw oil the
Pullman cars would have been a small
thing 1t would have Inconvenience
travellers, without injuring the COM
pany to the extent of a thousand dol
lars. But it would have been the sur
render of principle which 1t was
worth millions to defend. 1t would
have been admitting that the opera
ton of the Southern Pacific system
was controlled, not by the owners of
the property, but by distant, lrrespon-
sible strangers, who had no interest |
in it. These distant and irresponsible |
strangers now objected to Pullmans |
other strangers, equally ir- |
might have objected to !
box cars, or freight cars, or refrigera- |
tor cars. or air brakes, or locomotives, |
on the ground that their makers had |
fallen out with their employees. The !
naked question presented to the South /
ern Pacific directory was, whether |
they would run the property of their |
according to their own |
best Judgment, or whether they would |
allow u laOOr union 10 dictate now lt |
should he run To such a question |
there could be but one answer.
In taking the stand that they would |
discharge the trust which |
their stockholders had conferred upon |
them, the directors of the Southern |
Pacific are really fighting the battle of |
all employers of labor and all owners !
of property. The demand which the |
American Railway Union made upon |
them may be made by similar unions |
upon every employer in the United
States. If the American Railway
Union NAV dictate what kind of cars
the Southern Pacific may haul and
what kind 1T may not, another equally
union may dictate to
every maker OF homework, or textiles,
or any finished product, what ma
chinefy he may use in his shops. 1t
may call out the printers from every