Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-07-19
Was It Worth While {.

So, Debs, it's over. Well, it's sooner by
few hours than we expected. We
counted too much on the permanence of
your cure of neurasthenia. 1t was obvious
several days ago that the backbone of
the strike was affected by neurasthenia,
but we did not look SO soon for the col
lapse of your own. The language you
were engaged in throwing off led great
many persons unfamiliar with the phe-
nomena OF your malady to believe that
your spinal column was the stiffest thing
on the continent. Some Of them, we pre-
sumo, are disappointed. They were In
hopes that you would continue to assert
your superiority to the government of the
United States until you compelled it to
back down. They were curious to see
what you would do with it when you
once got it subjugated; what limita-
tons you would place upon it. or
whether you would abolish it altogether.
Their confidence in your spinal col
umu was increased when they OBJ
served that =ou had been reinforced by
Sovereign For they know Sovereign as
n cham ion of labor who carries between
his nose and chin the capacity for keep
ing all the Industries of the country
going, when coal, steam, water power and
natural gas fail, by simple wind. And
now some OF them are thinking that, in
stead OF helping you with his wind, he
blew your backbone over.
But now that it Is over, and you are
willing to let the government of the
United States continue business at the
old stand for a while at least, The Tr-
bune would like to ask If, when you
calmly review your career, you think it
was really worth whiief You've been
very lucky, Debs. They hanged a man
yesterday in Chicago for committing only
one murder. He knew less than you do
He sinned against less light. There's a
dead ENGINEER, Debs, lying under his
locomotive in the ooze of river bottom,
away yonder on the Pacific coast, who
wouldn't have been there but for you.
And he never did you harm. There was
nothing the matter with his back bone
lie was trying to do his duty as he under
stood It, and he didn't weaken u1der
threats. So the men whom you enlisted,
whom you guided, and whose willing
obedience you commanded, stealthily
and murderously entrapped him to his
death. There's a good deal of signif-
conce as well as pathos. Debs, In that
dead engineer lying there In the ooze
with his hand on the throttle. Means "A
great deal more. Debs, for the dignity OF
labor; for its honor; for the trust that can
be- reposed in it; for its knightly char
ncter and heroic courage-the dead hand
OIL the throttle does-than all the sound
ing proclamations that have gone out
under your hand during the last fort
night.
Others are lying dead over the whole
stretch OF country on which your inhu-
ence has burned its track who would have
been living but for you. Thousands are
idle who but for you would have been
reaping the fruits of industry in content
ment. Thousands Of families are in dis
tress and misery who fortnight ago
were comfortable and happy, and might
have continued so had you not ordered
the bread. winners to throws down their
tools and walk out into vagrancy and
vagabondage. Through your orders bust
ness has been suspended, trade and COM
merce brought to standstill and all
productive industry discontinued through
whole neigh borhoods and over a wide ex.
tent of country. No man ever did so
much mischief, ever brewed such trou-
bile, spread abroad such distress and
misery, ever caused such sacrifice of
life and made so many families wretched
with so little personal inconvenience or
loss and 80 little personal peril For
through 1t all your salary has gone right
on. Gone on just as though 1t were not
wrung from your victims
And what have you got for it, Debs?
Your picture haS been printed In a great
many newspapers. Your proclamations
ind pronuncamentos in great many
more. You are known by name today
wherever the English language is spoken
It's wide notoriety Don't mistake it
for fame, Debs. For 1t isn't 1t is an I'M
wholesome, nauseating notoriety. You
have had a stomachful Of 1t. And now
that you are about to pass out of it into
the obscurity from which you should
never have emerged, we ask you in all
candor. Was 1t worth whilei-[New York
Tribune,