Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-08-04

The JOURNAL commends to the
attention of thoughtful workingmen
the following passages from the de-
cision of judge Baker of the United
States Circuit Court for Indiana in
the case of the Lake Erie and Western
railroad company Us. Bailey.
They comprehend the most exact
statement of the rights of workingmen
and the loftier rights of society that
the recent labor troubles evoked:
Society cannot exist unless the right of
every man to labor and to enjoy the fruit of
his labor is protected and upheld. If society
were overthrown and men turned back into
conditions of anarchy as they were IN large
measure during the dark ages, when power
and force made right the condition of the
laboring man would not be bettered. If
such were the condition of society the man
or the men with great intellectual power and
great wealth would become the masters of
the laboring classes as in the dark ages, and
the laborer would be little better than
slave.
ted by members of labor organization is
just as much violation of law, both human
and divine, as one committed by single in.
dividual against traveller on the highway.
If they compel submission, it is robbery, be-
cause whoever compels me, by force or
terrorism, to give up one dime of my money,
or one dimes worth of my property, or
one dimes worth of my wages, is equally
guilty, whether it be the man who meets me
on the street corner IN the night time or an
organized band of strikers who take pos
session of my property and deprive me of
its use.
During the trouble in this region
considerable disappointment was felt
by many citizens at what was thought
to be a dangerously indulgent measure
ment by the Circuit Court of the
culpability Of those who taught and
exemplitied open disregard of the
court and undisguised contempt of
fundamental law. In this connection
also it is we'll to quote judge Baker.
Still speaking of labor organizations
he says:
They make people think that human rights
are Of no value. They teach the fantastic
and monstrous doctrine that a man who is
hired to labor and is paid for his work has
some sort of equitable right in the property
of his employer, together with a right to
perpetual employment. 1t has been said on
the floor of the United States Senate that the
laborer has sort of equitable lien on the
property of the man for whom he works,
whose money bought the property, together
with the right of perpetual employment. 1t
may do for men that are reckless of the well
fare of human society-who care nothing for
its peace and good order-to imperil life,
property, and liberty, and the perpetuity of
our institutions by teaching such doctrines,
but the judge who tolerates it ought to be
stripped Of his gown and driven from the
sacred temple of justice.
The JOURNAL has often observed the
hold which this idea of proprietary
right to employment has upon the "or-
ganization" mind. "Once employed,
always employed" is the theory in
crystal. One day an humble applicant
for employment next day and there
after feoffee, law giver and dictator.
1t is out of this notion that the
enormity of the blacklist fancy is de-
rived; likewise the invariable effort
after every strike to make odious an
employers incontestable right to en-
ploy, or re-employ, or not, whomso-
ever he pleases.
When, therefore, Organization
repudiates and discards the very policy
which provoked revolt against the
people and crown of England, it will
become useful-never before.
On the other hand, as long as it
tries to force its way roughshod over
the wills of the free and the necessities
of the poor. it must fail.