The record-union., 1894-07-04

every laborer and every producer party
to a controversy which originated in the
shops of the Pullman Car Company. In
conceivable as this statement may ap-
pear, it is strictly true. There is no man
among the late employees Of the Southern
Pacific Company in this city or elsewhere
who will deny this truth. Each must ad-
NIT that difficulty between Mr.. Pullman
and his employees is made the occasion for
the arrest Of the inland commerce of the
United States.
It is not germsne to this controversy to
say that the railroads could have run
trains without Pullman cars. That con-
alteration is irrelevant as well as super
fetal. If q mercantile agency, engaged
in the sale of Stetson's hats, had been or
dered not to sell consignment on hand
because of strike among the employees
of the hat factory, the case would have
been analogous.
This raises question surprising one OF
policy, and reaching the realm OF princi-
pie. No dispute of any kind exists
between the railroads of the country and
their employees. In all cases the relation
between the companies and their men is
harmonious. The dispute originated
with difficulty in the shops of George
NJ. Pullman. The railroads of the United
States are running Pullman cars, not be-
cause they belong to Pullman, not be-
cause they are manufactured at his shops,
but as an indispensable part of an equip
ment.
The case would not be different if a
strike had occurred in the mandatory of
Westinghouse brakes. The brakes are
necessary to the safety, and therefore to
the comfort of the public who patronizes
the railroads. The railroads were run
before the Westinghouse brakes were in
vented. They could be run without
them, but the question confronting de-
msnd for their discontinuance would be:
What offense has this particular railroad
committed that itself and its employees
should be made parties to a controversy
in the settlement of which 1t has
no voice2 It must be admitted
by all that the policy inaugurated by the
American Railway Union is new to this
extent, that it proposes that the harmo-
nious relation between the employer and
the employed, in all the vocations of life,
shall be disturbed as a weaponry of set
tlemert of any difficulty which may arise
between any employer and the men en-
ployed by him anywhere in the country.
There is plausibility in the contention
that Pullman derives revenue from the
operation of his cars. and it is that plaus-
ibility which is concealing the logic of the
existing situation. Labor has rights. No
man is so foolish as not to concede this.
Organization into effective cooperative
relation is one of these rights. But labor
possesses no divine right to do wrong.
Labor organizations are amenable to the
law of reasonableness. When 'sA," as
an employer, and "B;" as an employs,
have amicable relations, they should not
be made parties to dispute between &C, !"
as an employer. and 3d." as an employe
The contention that the relation be-
tween the employer and the employed, in
each individual case. shall stand upon its
own merit and shall not be disturbed
- se <van
which the people of this country cannot
afford to abandon.
The American Railway Union is at
tempting too much. The unreasonable
ness of the demand will necessarily fail.
Railroad employees are citizens of the
country. They are men endowed with
reason, with conscience and with civil
lized disposition to do exact justice.
Every contention must eventually reach
the period of justification. There is a
tribunal IN the consciences of all men,
and cool reason is its Presiding Judge.
When tried before that tribunal the rea-
sonable Limitation it will decree viii be
in accordance with the doctrine that each
employer has right to be judged by his
own treatment of his employees. To deny
this right is an eneroachment upon nat
ural right, which sooner or later will
overthrow all liberty. The employed
class cannot afford to do injustice to the
employer any more than the employer
can afford any act of injustice to the men
employed.
The last thing the employed class can
afford TO do is TO make their own employ
ment improbable. There is complete
partnership between capital and labor.
That partnership grows out of the intro
active relation which they must sustain
to each other. Labor organizations are
valuable in resisting the rapacity and
greed of capital. Every unreasonable
demand emsnating from them is con-
spiracy against their usefulness. There
is 8 majesty in truth and justice more
potent for good than any temporary sd-
vantage which may be gained by wrong
and injustice.
The whole nation to-day is threatened
with disaster by the attempt TO establish
q principle that employers, free of all
offense against their employees. sl1all be
made parties to the settlement of diff
oulty between a single corporation and
its employees. To say that all employers
of lsi,or shall have the harmonious re-