The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-08-02
TRAITORS AND TRAITORS.

AHlOHS H Illuminated banners carried IN
the procession of the American Railway
Union in this city on Tuesday night was
one inscribed "a traitor to his country is
bad, but a traitor to the cause of labor is
and was probably regarded by the person
who devised it as a happy expression Of a
great truth, but really it is a false and
vicious declaration.
What constitutes treason TO the cause of
labor? 1t has not been long since Eugene
V. Debs. chief engineer OF the recent
strike, denounced as a "scab' Mr.. Arthur,
chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive En-
gineers, because the latter would not order
a sympathetic strike to sustain the Amer
lean Railway Union. Was Mr.. Arthur, then,
a traitor to the cause of labor because he
declined to order the engineers out in fur
therance of Debs's scheme? And how about
"scabs'' themselves? Is it treason to the
cause of labor for a workingman to say,
81 think too much of my wife and family
and Of my own independence to put myself
in a position where 1 may be ordered out
on a strike against my better judgment by
a numerical majority, many of whom have
nobody dependent on them and no stake in
the preservation of law and order?' From
the organized labor point of view that
makes a workingman a scab. and therefore
a traitor to the cause, but, really, is that a
fair or honest view of the case? No man
who respects honest labor, much less one
who earns his bread by it, should be called
a traitor TO the cause because he does not
belong to a labor union. A man may be a
good citizen without belonging to any po-
litical party and a good Christian without
belonging to any church. Is he a traitor
to the cause of labor because he does not
belong to the union?
There are a great many persons in This
country. constituting, in fact, a large ma
jority of all the people. who do not believe
in the wisdom or efficacy of strikes and
boycotts, and who regard ii as an outrage
that strikers should attempt by force and
violence to prevent other laborers from TAX
ing places they have voluntarily vacated.
and should resort to the destruction of prop
erty and the tying up of railroad traffic to
carry their points. Are persons who hold
these views traitors to the cause of labor?
In the opinion of the Journal. the real
traitors to the cause of labor are those who
make their living out of it by organizing
strikes, by preaching hostility to capital.
and by fomenting discord between employ
ers and employees. Types of this class are
Eugene V. Debs and James r. Sovereign.
neither of whom has done an honest days
work for years. and who receive good sal
aries for stirring up strife and organizing
strikes. These men have not sense enough
to know that when they boycott the rail-
roads they boycott labor itself. a recently
published statement of the total annual ex-
penses of ten Of the principal railroads of
the country. including the New York Cen
trail, the Pennsylvania Central. the Erie. the
c.. B. & @. and other extensive systems,
shows that more than so per cent. Of their
total expenses are for labor. The ten rail-
roads named in the list distribute among
their employees $liS.0 coo. 900 a year. War on
the railroads is war on labor, and those who
order 1t or lead in 1t are traitors to the
cause OF labor. AS for the American Rail-
way Union. it's prime object was TO make
war against the old labor organizations.
and to this end it admitted to membership