The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-07-10
PROTEST OF LA Dor
Workmen's Side of Strike Pre-
scented at the ArmOry.
pEBs THE HERO or THE HOUR.
Strikers and Their Friends Hear Pas-
sfcnate Decentralization of Pullman
and Capital.

about dozen women. gathered 10 near
presentation of the workingmen's side OF
the great railroad strike. W. G. Arm
strong. delegate to the Pacific Coast FEEDER
alton OF Labor. presided, and there were
with him on the platform, besides the
speakers, about a score OF the most
prominent labor union leaders in the city
| The First Regiment band played selections
before the meeting and between the
speeches. Outside OF the chairman's ad-
dress there was hardly any attempt 10
detail the origin and progress of the strike.
and he gave but an outline of the inn
mediate reasons. All the speakers dwelt
| principally upon the tyranny OF
| capital, the degradation of laoorers
and subjects foreign to that
| upon which the public mind is concen-
irated. The audience was an enthusiastic
| but orderly one. and the chief effort on the
part of the speakers seemed to be. not to
| show that the strike and the boycott were
| justifiable. but that the strikers were not
| responsible for the anarchy prevailing in
| the East.
| Mr.. Armstrong reviewed the condition
| of laboring men throughout the country
| in general, and gave brief sketch of the
! origin of the strike and of the rise OF the
| American Railway Union. which he said
| was intended TO bring into one homo
| geneous body men having common in
| terest, bat who were separated into several
| organizations. without any connecting
| link to bind them together. He said that
! Pullman, and not Debs, was responsible
| for the strike. At the mention of
| Debs' name there was immense applause.
| He described the abject condition of the
| Pullman employees and said that man
was fined for sitting on his front porch in
his shirt sleeves or for letting his children
play in the back yard. The laboring men
were endeavoring to bring wages back to
| the standard of ten or fifteen years ago,
which had been gradually pulled down by
the capitalists. He alluded TO the resou-
tons adopted by the Chamber of Com
merce denouncing the strike and said that
| the American Railway Union was as law
abiding an organization as the Chamber
of Commerce which had never condemned
Willard nor Huntington for their rascal
ties nor the Grant street electric road for
ignoring the city ordinance requiring two
men on each car and endangering the
lives of the passengers. He denounced as
iniquitous the attempt to make the men
who wear the white ribbon respon-
SlDlS IOT tue At Ia
coma last week He said that
violence was not countenanced by labor
unions, and that there was even clause
in the by-laws of the American Railway
Union expelling men from the order for
resorting TO violence during a strike. and
that the union had offered to guard the
property of the railroads, the same as they
did in the strike on the Great Northern
| road. In conclusion, he said it was fight
to a finish, but that it was a peaceable
fight SO far as the labor unions were con-
cernsd.
AG. Siebert, president of the Brick
layers Union, was the next speaker and
described the ignoble conditions under
which the Pullman employees were allowed
10 work and dwell on the estate of this
great American lord, saying that they
were not permitted TO buy the necessaries
Of life anywhere but from the Pullman
stores. In fact the speaker said that
Pullman gave his laborers as little as
he could and then took back from them
all that he could get, while the
men were handicapped and deprived of
their freedom in an economic sense. But
| Pullman had met his match in beds. APP
plause.l He accused the Democrats of
servility TO the money power and Mayor
| Phelps of breaking his campaign pledges.
| The only weapons labor had to redress its
| wrongs and secure its rights were the
strike and the boycott. and they are the
weapons of civilization as opposed TO the
barbarous tyranny of greedy wealth. He
| then apotheosiZed Debs, styling him a
genius. liberaior and the greatest labor
| leader that had ever arisen in this country.
Mr.. Armstrong said that Mr.. Debs had
requested all persons in sympathy with
the railroad strike TO wear the white rib
bon, which was the emblem of peace, and
| IL not 10 wear the tri-coior, the emblem of
| union.
I. X. Holmes, president OF the Tacoma
branch of the American Railway Union,
read very eloquent speech which he had
| prepared beforehand. liz was replete with
| poetic figures, lofty sentiments and bril-
| liant periods. lie praised Debs in glowing
terms and was loudly applauded.
| lie declared that the action of the
/ California state militia in refusing
to dispense the strikers was a noble
| deed and he called for three cheers for
them, which were given heartily. lie de-
/ nouneed the bank wreekers, stock jobners,
| gold barons, trust lords and legislative
| corruptionists, aad said even the president
Z OF TIE country CHOSEN oY tne woes OF the
/ masses, stands as the servant of the
| classes, lie roasted Pullman for oppres-
sing his workmen and giving the
| profits in charity, and said this
| present movement. if the masses
/ be goaded too far. may grow
until it shall eclipse the French revo!u-
I tion lin terror The workingmsn of the
! United States are combining in one vast
/ brotherhood. and they ask only fair
( share of the product OF the machinery
that the genius of workingmen has
created. profound sensation was
created by the speakers closing remarks,
which were enthusiastically applaaded.
Chairman Armstrong then read tsle-
/ gram 20 President Blonde, Of the local
! branch Of the American Railway Unioo,
/ from Debs. saying that various industrial
I organizations had resolved TO strike
on Wednesday; that many new points
IN Texas and Ohio had resolved to
strike, while al the old ones
were loyal, and advising the strikers here
TO stand solid. As good news was coming
IN from al over the country. Mr.. Arm
strong also said that President Gompers,
Of the American Federation OF Labor, vas
on la 6Ay from New YORK 20 take in the