Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-07-12
Serve the Same Sauce to Ali.

A strike of itself is not an illegal act.
Men engaged in any line of business
have a perfect right to quit their en-
ployment in i body and request others
not to take their places. This is prop
perly a strike, and is strictly within
the limits of the law. If the employer
is able to find men to take their places,
there is no help for it. No man has
the right to say to another, ''you shall
not take my place." that is a matter
for the conscience of each individual
workingman. Whether he will take a
strikers place or not he must decide
for himself. II he decides to do so, he
must be protected. Men have no right
of property in any position. The rail-
roads have right to employ any man
that pleases them, or discharge any
man that displeases them. AS they
can discharge any or all of their en-
ployes without previous notice, if they
desire to do so. it follows that their
employees can quit their service singly
or in body, without notice. Any at
tempt made to enforce rights that are
not mutual will fail utterly. That
there is a growing tendency toward
lawlessness is deplorable fact that
should be met ut once and stamped out;
but where has it originated? We have
seen the law more than once set at de-
fiance by the very men who are now
bowling for Federal troops. The Pa
cific Railroads have secured many mil
lions of the governments cash which
they not only refuse to refund, but so
far have laughed to scorn all efforts OF
the government to compel them to do
so.
In this State the Gould system has
defiantly set at naught the provision OF
our constitution forbidding parallel and
competing lines of railroad from being
directly or indirectly controlled by the
same management. This provision OF
the constitution could not be more am
pie, but it has been ignored as contempt
uously as if their charter granted to
them the right to set aside any consti-
tutional provision that might be found
distasteful to them. For years and years
laws now existed on our statue books
to better protect the life and property
of the travelling public. They were dis
regarded and received attention only
after protracted legal struggle, and
| in some instances the authorities have
never been able to enforce them.
So arrogant has capital become that
people are asking themselves whether
| a revolution in this government has
not already become an accomplished
fact, and whether our courts have moi
become mere offices in which the de-
crees of the great corporations are
simply entered upon the record; wheth
err we are not now living under gov
eminent of the corporation, by thu
corporation and for the corporation
Corporations prefer the Federal courts
for the reason that their officers cal
never become directly amenable to tn
people. Accordingly, under one pre-
text or another, VIC find them shield
ing themselves under the coattails o
the irresponsible Federal judge. State
lines are dlsregarded. In the Ian
guage of Governor Stone, cit has come
to pretty pass if one citizen canno
say to another on the public street
that he is scab, or apply an offensive
epithet, without being arrested b.
United States Depaty Marshals ant
carried a hundred miles to answer be
} fore a United States Court" We sa.
to these gentlemen. who seem to thinl
there is no harm in wrenching the ma