The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-14
DEPEW ON H STRIKE
POPULIsTs AND LABOR AGITATORS
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TROUBLE.
President Dcbs's Scheme. and How
Ii was Carried Out-The Sup
preston of Disorder.

United States. The Times granted the AS
sociated Press correspondent permission
to cable the interview to the United
States:
The labor troubles i'm the United States
are due TO the lOng-continued industrial
depression. and this strike was caused by
the ambitious effort of Mr.. Debs, presi-
dent of the American Railway Union, to
absorb all organizations OF railway en-
ployes into one. The success of the disor-
der and the delay in suppressing it were
owing TO the heretofore underlined boun-
dairy between State and federal authority.
The financial crisis last year crippled
many enterprises, and the uncertainties of
tariff legislation which have followed pre-
vented recovery and closed the majority
of the mills and furnaces. This has made
the number Of unemployed greater than
we have ever known. The abrupt and per-
manent curtailment of production and con-
sumption has been felt in every depart
ment Of American activity. From the farm
10 the factory every business has proper
tionately suffered and the distress among
workingmen has been correspondingly Sc
we're. There is universal unrest and al
most frantic desire for anything in place
of present conditions.
THE Populist party found in this situa-
ton its opportunity, or rather the situa-
ton created the party. The idea which its
members gather from it's teaching is that
liberty means the right to violate law and
violently stop or seize railroads and indus
tries, providing the lawbreakers are poor
and are sufficiently strong to defeat or
overawe the ordinary peace establishment
of the community. In the States where
this party is in power, strikes. lockouts,
boycotts and suppressions of railway traffic
receive direct assistance or passive per-
mission from the authorities With these
unprecedented industrial conditions and the
anomalous political relations in a few
States. the elements were favorable for
what. in Latin countries, would be revolu-
ton. and with Anglo-Saxons riots. at first
successful. and then reason soon
asserts itself and firmly enforces
the law. The delay and disap-
pointments in tariff legislation at
Washington impaired the confidence OF the
country in the ability of this Congress to
provide measures of relief or to discover it's
incompetency and adjourn. An appeal to
the country would lead, as every one be-
lieves. TO an immediate and decisive re-
Spouse.
''Our railroads have about 10000 miles
of trackage and one million of employees.
Among the employees the locomotive en-
gineers, fremen. trainmen, switchmen and
others have each their organization or
brotheThoods. These labor organiza tons
have become conservative with time, and
their contracts with the companies are in
violable. The locomotive engineers are the
strongest and richest of American labor
unions, and their agreements. while not
enforceable at law, are adhered 10 with
scrupulous honor.
DEBS'S SCHEME.
Mr.. Debs was for many years a high
and popular official of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Firemen. and the editor of a
labor magazine of advanced socialistic and
somewhat anarchistic views. He conceived
the idea of breaking up the existing or
ganizations and gathering the railway
world into his order. His scheme was at
t~ractive. The initiation fees were only 81
and the annual dues % cents. The order was
TO control the and coerce their
managers. Debs was beginning with a mil
lion of dollars in his treasury and possess
ing an income of $3.50. 900. He made his first
appeal to the switchmen and selected the
Great Northern road for his attack. This
line had been built paralleling the North
ern Pacific, had forced the latter into bank
ruptcy and could not afford a tie-up. After
a few days the managers of that line sur
rendered. Debs's victory surprised himself
by its completeness and far-reaching con-
sequences. East of Chicago and in the older
and thickly settled States the old organiza-
lions stood firm against him. He must
again utillOilSlIdlt DONcI.
Finding no real or imaginary grievances
on any railway, he chose to make his fight
upon the trouble between the Pullman car
company and the mechanics in it's shops
over the construction of some hundreds of
freight cars for various railroads. Debs or
dered a boycott of the Pullman cars, and,
on the refusal OF the 10 break
their contracts with the Pullman company
and inflict nameless cruelties upon their
passengers, he ordered their lines closed.
Trains were stopped wherever kilograms
reached them, traffic ceased and business
was paralyZed over about two-thirds of the
area of the United States. The reliance of
the strikers was upon the impotence of the
State governments and the friendship Of
the local authorities. They could conf
IDENTIFY count upon the cooperation of rival
local politicians. The industrial and f1nan-
cial distress gave them general sympathy,
though their action intensified the suffer-
i'm a thousand fold.
The results proved how well Debs and
his associates understood the powerlessnes
of the States to control the situation. With
the exception of three transcontinental
lines, all our railroads are chartered by
the several States. State laws have per-
mitted consolidation of connecting roads,
so that many companies run through sew
management. but the portion of the line in
each State is still wholly subject TO its
charter i'm that State. The State govern
ments often controlled by opposite parties,
have no joint or common actlOn. Sympathy
with strikers in Illinois at one end. at Cali
fornia. two thousand miles off. at the other.
stops travel and traffic. State autonomy
reached its perilOus condition when the Gov
ernor Of Illinois gave great moral support
to the strike by rebuking President CleVe-
land and virtually ordering the United
States forces out of his territory. 1t reached
its ridiculous stage when the Governor of
California requested "A permit from the
strike leader TO visit his capital, which was
| contS mrtuoCsly refused.
AN ILLUSION DISPELLED.
The popular belief has always been that
the national government could not act in
depressing riots or disorders until requested
10 by the State authorities of a common
wealth which was unable to cope with the
insurrectlon. President Cleveland is slug
gish. but courageous. Legislation follow
government powers unused and forgotten.
Congress-. ir e~nacting the nterstats-com
merCs law. has assumed to regulate COM
merce between the states and unconscious
ly with IL the responsibility TO keep open
interstate lines as national highways. The
President having satisfied himself as 10
his IcWets did not hesitate in the perform
ance OF his duties. After President Cleve-
lands proclamation IL required a few days
for The general public and the strike lead
ers 10 grasp the idea that the President
was in earnest. and the army and navy in
motion when this gigantic conspiracy col
lapsed a. suddenly as II had organized.
THE losses occasioned by the strike arc
enormous. but il is destined to prove of in
calculable benefit TO the country. The ma.
tional idea has been strengthened and broad
ened. Safe anchorage has been found for
persons and property. One of the hopeful
features of the situation has been the un-
mistakable display of loyalty in the South
The so-caled rebel States unanimously de
map1aJ the intervention of the federal pou-