Birmingham age-herald., 1894-07-10
BIRMINGHAM AND THE STRIKE.

l There is no middle ground. We are for
 law and order, or we are against it. The l people of Birmingham, by losing their heads and yielding a single inch to the
 clamor against the precautions and meas-
 ures of the authorities, would diggrace 1 themselves before their fellow citizens and commit wrong to themselves from which 1 they never would recover. This clamor is | loud and long continued, and much of it is | provoked by the studied efforts of those
 who would make political capital out of it 1 If they could. Let no man be deceived or l vince. Governor Jones is right. Know l ing that. he will go straight forward with | his purposes, protectproperty, shield labor
 in it's right to labor, and enforce the law.
 He has 5000 armed troops and the whole | public opinion of Alabama at his back | Whether the strikers at Birmingham know 1t or not, there is a keen sense of growing resentment all over this great State against them | for going to the aid of strike in distant States that has already cost the people of | Alabama much in money and more in dep- rlvatlon. They do not take it kindly that
 n small portion of the people of Rirming- ham, without shadow of grievance, should still further increase their losses and dis tress. Photographic offers of volunteers are coming in from the exasperated people in all quarters of Alabama, and at word the Governor could pour 20 coo of these voun- teers into Birmingham befUre sundoWn ta- day.
 Fortunately, there will be need of ex- treme measures. The law offcres and the good citizens of Birmingham are with the State authorities. They want peace and order and the reign of law. They don't want trains interfered with. They don't l want assemblies of men gathered about to boot and hiss the men at work to open and 1 keep open the highways of commerce and l travel. The presence of the troops tempo | rarily increased the excitement. It always l does. But it has dispersed the crowds, l and crowds of excited men are not to be trusted 10 uphold law and order. The mill itary are keeping the peace and protecting the property and trains and employees of the railroads from interference. That is what they are here for. And their orders are strict and positive.
 There is general and widespread ignor- ance of what is law breaking in times like
 this. Some people suppose that there must be riotous outbreak, a burning of cars or tearing up of tracks, or some violence like that. A crowd that hoots or misses or de- rides man at work, or cuts loose car, or
 gets in the way of men engaged in their
 business, is breaking the law, and the
 companies have right to the utmost
 power of the State to protect them from
 such interference.
 Governor Jones was never more abso-
 lntey right than when he says the excite
 ment of time like this and the constant gathering of people in crowds, and the mi
 Tor acts of lawlessness in the beginning,
 inevitably end in violence. He believes In
 preventing violence by nipping it in it's
 bud. He is right. What good would it do
 railroad company, after it's cars had been
 overturned or is trGias di3uis nlbered tn nave a sheriff's posse or a squad of police
 men to come up and disperse the mob? We
 have heard great deal of that sort of pro-
 tection to property at the hands of an ass
 by the name of Altgeld up in Illinois.
 Every day he has written a letter, in- dieted an interview or shot off his mouth to the effect that the local authorities were amply able to protect all property and ham, dle all mobs. But the inobs have gone on just the same and destroyed property by the millions. We don want any of that down here. We prefer Governor Jones and his policy of prevention.
 Up in Chicago Debs and his fellow com mitteemen have been declaring vocferously for law and order and against mobism
 What good has it done? Here the local committee makes the same declaration. What good would they do if the contagion of excitement should spread from hood- lums and riffraff to the better men who in- sist on making part of every crowd? TLe strong hand of power is the only thing that keeps the wheels of govern ment and com merce in motion in times like these.
 The situation has just one little glint of the humorous in it. Birmingham is, after all, only small portion of very big State and we've got to behave ourselves whether we want to or moi. A little band of 1900 men in one town don't make public senti- ment for l, ,500, GOO people, whose interests they are just now engaged in fighting.
 
 The Governors proclamation in another column details at length the laws of Ala bama which pertain to the situation, pres- ent and prospective, in Birmingham. All | the people should read it and heed it. The Governor talks very plainly and positively, SO that no man may misunderstood his meaning or his purpose. Nor does he leave any man room to doubt that he is after the guilty and not the innocent. Break the law and you will likely suffer. Don't, and you won't be hurt.
 The closing of the saloons at Birming- ham, Bessemer and Pratt City was a wise