St. Paul daily globe., 1894-07-16
of property has been greater than it has

of property has been greater than 1t has
been further east.
Tie strike in the West has not been
wholly OF the sympathetic order. While
the Pullman lockout was used as pre-
text. the employees of the railways had
grievances of their own which they
were desirous of avenging or setting
right. The employees of the transporta-
ton lines, more especially Of the South
ern Pacific company, have long been
compelled to endure a system of petty
tyranny that has been almost unendur-
able. The slightest pretexts have been
the occasion for docking their wages.
Their hours of labor have been unneces-
sarily long and their duties excessively
arduous. They were subjected to a
rigid espionage. and their every act,
either While on or off duty, has been re-
ported to the management. One in
stance will Illustrate: A conductor on
the Southern Pacific had for passengers
poor woman and her child. The
woman had barely enough money to
pay her fare. The conductor, touched
with compassion for her condition. ac-
cepted less than the customary fare and
made up the balance out of his own
pocket. A ''spotter" was witness of
the transaction and 1t was reported to
the managers, and the conductor was
dismissed from the service. 1t was use
less for him to protest that the company
had suffered no loss; 1t was useless to
prove, as he did, that he had paid the
woman's fare out of bis private purse.
The rules OF the company had been vio-
lated,and he was compelled to suffer the
loss OF his position, and the stigma of
dishonesty was affixed to him simply
because he had shown himself to be
humane and charitable man.
Under the plea of enforcing discipline
the slightest infraction of the rules of
the corporatlons-many of them imprac-
tlcable and impossible of enforcement
IN fairness-has been visited with the
most serious penalties. There have
been times when the salary allowed an
employe was insufficient to pay the
hnes imposed upon him. Recourse to
legal proceedings was useless, for the
corporations own the courts and the
legislatures, and therefore redress was
impossible. 1t became eventually nec-
essary that something should be done.
The Pullman strike furnished the
preteXt, and strike with all the en-
suing acts of violence followed. Here
is where the employees made their mis-
take. They could have enjoyed public
sympathy and support if they had quit
work OH account of their own griev-
ances and had refrained from the wan
ton destruction of property and the TAX
ing of human life. But their indigna.
ton got better of their judgrent.a
the hot-headS among them complicated
the situation by their lawlessness and
incendiarism. The public revolted. and
today the Western strikers are looked
upon as murderers and public enemies.
They have outlawed themselves and
destroyed every chance of success they
may have had. We cannot withhold
from them certain measure of SYM
pathy, while condemning as utterly in
defensible the methods they have em-
ployed.
Labor leaders must disassociate them
selves from anarchy and lawlessness be-
fore they can expect that support from
the general public which is essential to
the success of their endeavors.