The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-08
THE STRIKERS, LAW AND ORDER

employer have been since the dawn of
history and will continue to be until
the last syllable of recorded time, large
ly divergent. Should absolute equity
prevail then interests would be identi-
cal, but human nature and human in
stitutions are of the earth earthly, and
therefore the contest between servant
and master is the effort to acquire OPP
posed by the effort to maintain.
Capital, through a greater cohesive
ness resulting from fewness of numbers
and a thorough superiority in execu-
tive ability and resource, has unques-
tionably absorbed an undue proportion
of the proceeds of combined capital and
labor. The Iaboring man has sought
to remedy the injustice. He has APP
preciated that the proper and logical
remdy was to organize into unions and
put those unions aginst the trusts and
combinations Of capital. The union,
therefore has become the workingmen's
weapon; the strike, his method of us
ing it. So far, good.
Civilization is THE triumph of law and
order. Barbarism is the supremacy of
brute force and lawlessness. All that
we hold dear in social way is the gift
of civilization, is secured to us in the
triumph of law and order
1t is far better that individuals or
groups of individuals should temporar-
arily suffer and suffer severely from
unhappy social or political conditions,
than that they should ameliorate their
condition at the sacrifice of established
law. This is particularly so in these
United States, where the people hold
their own happiness in their own hands;
where not only the laws are made by
the representatives of the people, but
where the people may make, unmake
and amend constitutions practically
without limitation in the furtherance of
their own desires.
To strike is therefore a lawful and
legitimate means of promoting the in
terests of labor, provided, however,
that the strike is not to violate the law
or disrupt the peace. The right is in
herent in every man to work when,
where and so long as opportunity af-
fords and his desires dictate. He may
quit work when he pleases, so long as
ne does not violate any lawful or, as
might occasionally happen, any NOR
al, contract. He may organize unions,
and persuade any and all men to join
and adhere to them, so long as he con-
ducts his PROSECUTING without trespass-
ing upon the right of property of others.
He may decide to strike and may per-
suade others in any lawful manner to
join him. But he may not prevent
others, whom he does not succeed in
the same right to work where, when or
as long as they can and wish. To do
this is to make freedom a mockery; it
is to say that in this grand American
republic others must not do as they
wish and as their interests suggest, but
must knuckle down to our desires and
serve our welfare whether they wish
to or not Such a conception of our
government is unworthy any man who
either by birth or adoption claims the
honor and the blessing of American citi-
zenship.
Workingmen are infinitely more con-
cerned in maintaining prosperity than
is capital The existence of the la
borer and his family must be largely
from hand to mouth; that of the capt.
alist may be from reserved capital.
When the wheels stop turning, it is the
workman who stops eating, not the
capitalist
The laboring man should, therefore,
wisely abstain from unnecessarily dis
turbfng the commercial interests of the
country.
He should think twice before he
strikes once.
Our own humble opinion is that the
Of the worllingmen lies
in their taking an intelligent part in
the politics of the country. Let them
first carefully decide what they desire
in the way of political reforms; let those
reforms be reasonable and above all
things just; and then let them elect
men to represent them in legislative
halls who will do their bidding.
1t was not our intention to have said
in this connection of a po-
litical character, but we are reminded
of the statement made by Judge Zane
(who seems to be developing into
demagogue) at a meeting held in this
city Friday evening last, in effect that
the Republican party is the party of the
workingman. To this statement we
wish merely to reply that the Republic
an party is the party of Hamilton, who
said that only the rich and the we'll
born were fit to rule; that the Demo-
cratic party is the party of jefferson,
who said that the people had both the
honesty and the ability to govern them
selves; further that these have ever
been and still are the actuating prin-
ciples of these two parties.