Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-12-17

IF strike is not settled in IS hours, COM
plete paralysis will follow. Potatoes and
ice are out Of sight. Save your money
and buy gun.
"E. V. Debs. y
The people wondered what kind of man
this might be who assumed superiority
over courts of law, who recognized none
of the restrictions which law abiding
citizens had for generations willingly OBJ
served and found wholesome. Well,
they were not surprised, perhaps, when
they learned that DIR. Robertson, the New
York specialist who had treated Debs for
dipsomania, had sent him the following
telegram:
"As your friend and physician i'm
plore you to stop where you are. The
condition of your nervous system and the
great strain upon il. makes you irresponsi-
BILE for your own orders.
Yours in friendship.
(Signed 1T. S. R..
The fact that such man in SO short
time sprang to the head of semi-mob OF
men ramifying from Ohio to California,
was proof from the beginning that the at
tempt was doomed to failure. There was
evidently provocation for the feeling of
unrest among the railway employees, but 1T
is difficult to see wherein it could have
been provocative of such result. The
policy adopted at the first was illogical, the
course pursued was insurrectionary.
Smarting under wrongs, fancied OF real,
these men attempted the impossible, at
tempted to bring the business of over
sixty millions of people to standstill
until they, comparatively uninterested
parties, might dictate the wages that Mr..
Pullman should pay his car builders. 1t
would seem that they must have realized
the impossibility of it from the first. 1t
seems incredible that such a man as Mr.
Gompers, president of the Federation OF
Labor, at this late day, should place him
self in the light of one who regretted the
result which, had it been otherwise,
would have taken the country long way
on the road to anarchy. The sentence of
Debs to six months Imprisonment is a
light one, but it will serve to clear the
atmosphere. And in this connection 1t
may be well to repeat portion OF Judge
Grosscup's charge to the grand jury that
indicted Debs:
"No man in his individual right can
lawfully demand and insist upon conduct
by others which will lead to an injury to
! a third person lawful rights. The rail
roads carrying the mails and interstate
commerce have right to the service of
each of its employees until each lawfully
chooses to quit, and any concerted action
upon the part of Others to demand or In
sist under any effective penalty or threat
upon their quitting, TO the injury of the
mail service or the prompt transportation
of interstate commerce, is a conspiracy,
unless such demand or insistence is pur-
slant of lawful authority conferred upon
them by the men themselves, and is made
in good faith in the execution of such
authority. The demand and insistence,
under effective penalty or threat and in
| Jury to the transportation of the mails or
| interstate commerce being proven, the
burden falls upon those making the de-
mand or insistence to show lawful author
ity and good faith in its execution"
The term Mr. Debs is to serve will
doubtless strengthen the position he as
sumed Aug 1st, when he said: Il will
never again have any official connection
with strike. So long as strikes
are repugnant to society it is useless to
inaugurate them" There will be little
disagreement that the kind of strikes Mr..
Debs would be likely to inaugurate would
be repugnant to society.