The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-07-11
THE SITUATION.


Today Is the critical day Of the strike.
The boycott will be beaten ultimately. be-
cause il deserves 10 be. Intelligent public
opinion IN America Is against il, because
the action Of the American Railway Union
is utterly irrational, and it cannot expect
to win. TIE Pullman car workmen de-
msnded thai their wages be continued At
the standard Of prosperous times when
the company we're making no profit what
ever and In most OF their contracts were
suffering serious loss. When Mr.. Full
man clearly explained the impossibility OF
| meeting their demands four-hiths Of the
workmen struck, and thus forced Mr..
Pullman 10 close his doors. Then Debs.
of the American Railway Union. ordered
the transportation companies to stop haul
ing Pullman cars on penalty of q tie-up
on every line refusing 10 obey. The rail-
way managers refused to yield 10 this de-
mand. In justice to the public they could
not do otherwise, for Debs' demand was as
brutal and unjust q blow a. the common
veal as II the whole International Typo
graphical Union in America should
strike" because they learned that Lord &
Taylor, of New York city. were having
disagreement with their shop girls as TO
wages.
We have said that this boycott will
surely be broken because the present
strike Is not in sympathy with the en-
ployes of any railroad employer, but of a
company engaged in constructing and
operating palace" cars. If il should be
allowed to succeed in cutting of Pullman
cars, "a railway union" might decide TO
boycott some builder of common passen-
ger cars or freight cars or of locomotive
engines. or even some manufacturer of
steel rails, and ''tie-up" the railroad sys-
tenn of the country until the products of
the obnoxious concern we're ''cut out"
The New York Times (Dem) recites
these obvious facts and says:
"The question already Is whether the
corporations chartered to operate railroads
and furnishing the capital for the purpose,
shall direct their operation subject TO the
obligations of Law or subject 20 the dicta-
ton Of an organization OF their employees"
II all the railroad companies should
succumb TO the strikers and Join the
American Railway Union in its attempt to
coerce the Pullman Company they could
not compel the company to resume work,
for the company has already declared its
uuwillingness TO work at the wages de-
manded by its former employees by shut
ting up its shops. The railways must
fight this demand to the death, because
neither they nor the commercial public
can afford TO be subject to pa
ralysis at any time at the word
OF a few officers OF labor unions
here and there; the whole commercial
world cannot afford to be at the mercy OF
the whims of n trades union. The rail-
ways cannot afford to surrender or accept
temporary peace for the present at the
cost OF endless trouble for the future.
The railroads cannot afford TO be exposed
to the danger of transportation paralysis
at the orders of few labor autocrats en-
gagged in righting some remote and unre-
lated wrong done to q small body of labor
The railroad managers will be sure to
stand firm, as they are in no wise respon-
sibie for the grievances over which the
strlke mas peen started, ana cannot with
any safety to their own or the public in
terest yield the point demanded.
The Pullman car strike is neither more
nor less than a gigantic conspiracy set in
motion to destroy the value of their prop
erty all over the country by preventing
the railroad companies which have been
using Its cars from continuing that use
under penalty Of having all its other bust
ness stopped. The strikers, by not resort
ing TO the courts of law. acknowledge that
they have no reason for expecting success
through the agency Of the law; they,
therefore. adopt unlawful measures and
seek to carry their point by brute force. by
intimidation, ard by attacks upon every
body and everything that opposes them.