The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-08-17
Viewed From the WorAingman's Stand

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Mr.. Eugene V. Debs, president of
the American Railway Union, in a
speech recently delivered in Chicago,
presented the "workingman's siden of
the facts leading up to the late Chica-
go disturbance and the lessons to be
drawn therefrom. The speech is
quite lengthy. The following is only
an extract:
We are not unmindful of the les
sons which the struggle has taught.
Ii the workingmen would be free they
must strike at the ballot box. A few
DAYS ago | called your attention to the
fact that the bondholders of the Santa
Fe road had instituted an investiga-
ton into the books of the company
and had found that $7,000,OOO had
been stolen from the small shippers by
rebates to the large ones. Now it is
found that s., 100000 of this amount
cannot even be accounted for, showing
that it must have been stolen by the
managers of the road. Do YOU find
such papers as the Tribune and Inter-
Ocean paving up the earth about it,?
Is either saying anything about the
fact that, because of its stealing, the
road is now from two to four months
III arrears i'll the payment of wages on
some of the divisions? Yet, Ii these
men who can't get the money they
have already earned organize, they're
a mob. 1t they become demonstra-
tive it's a riot. Ii they quit work it's
insurrection. If they protest it's con-
tempt of court, and if they criticise
they are put in Jail. | want to ask
why are not the managers of the San
ia Fe prosecuted? Why are those CO.
lossal criminals not punished? Gov.
Waite, OF Colorado, was obliged to
exert his official influence to get the
federal authorities, under whose direc-
ton the road is now being run, to
make partial payment to some of
these employees to keep them from
starving. Why don'C the legal prose-
cutors take judicial notice of this?
The Santa Fe has q big array of coun-
sci to prosecute the workingmen.
They talk constantly to the court
about enforcing the law, when they
represent the greatest law breakers in
the land. There isn't an interstate
railway in the land that has not con-
tlnuously and persistently violated
the interstate law and which hasn't
boasted Of doing it.
oh, the roaring farce of the whole
thing! Whoever dreamed that the
interstate and antitrust laws were de-
signed TO put workingmen in Jail :?
Both laws were treated as huge Jokes
by the railroads until it was discov-
cred we were the monopolists, the
bloated bondholders, the men who
forestalled the market and run corners
in food products.
IF this state of affairs does not
arouse the American conscience. does
not fire the workingman to a deter
miliation to have and maintain his
rights, he ought TO be reduced to the
dead line of degradation. One thing
ought to be impressed on you, and
that is this, that whenever you do
strike in such q way that you have a
show 70 win, the whole power of the
United States goes into partnership
with the corporations. They have
pressed the button and the army has
done the ryst. Egan gave himself
| away five days after the strike began
when he said the railroads were not in
| it any more, It was matter between
the United States army and the Amer.
lean Railway union. Gen. Miles, two
days after he came here, said he had
broken the back bone of the strike i
| thought he came here to suppress riot.
What had he to do with breaking
backbOnes OF strikes? He had scarce.
J y got q Chicago when he went to the