Little Falls weekly transcript., 1894-09-21

16AN0Gn1IslS A4IlLE tALJ
munity Il is q pleasure to be able to
record that the Chicago Times gained in
circulation during the strike moro than
an average of 1900 daily. With the
exception of The Times and The News-
Record, the course pursued by the Chi
cago dailies was SO infamous that it
stirred the indignation Of the newsboys
up to the pitch that about 1000 Of these
little merchants refused to handle anv
but the two papers mentioned The
printers employed on one Of the pluto
cratic sheets adopted resolutions denun-
ciatory of the editorial utterances of
that paper and demanded their insertion
in it's columns. They were printed next
morning. The New York Sun stands
at the top of the vile heap. In it's serv-
ice of mammon it went so far as to lick
the shoes of Grover Cleveland, whom it
denounces when the labor question isn't
on tap as the arch traitor, fend and
anarchist combined It is said that the
room in which the New York Suns edi-
torials are written has padded walls and
barred windows.
Now as to my point Of view in de-
claring the A. R. u. strike the greatest
the country has ever known. view it
from hope that labor will at some fu-
ture day unity it's ranks and make an
effort through the means at it's COM
mand to secure it's rights, and all of it's
rights From that standpoint the strike
was of incalculable benefit, and future
historians may write George M. Pull
man down as one Of the benefactors of
his race. You have heard of the colored
member of congress who voted aye on
the bill to allow Jefferson Davis, ex~
president of the southern confederacy,
pension out of the governments treas
ury. When asked by northern member
how it was that he, an ex-slave, could
vote for such measure, he said that
Jefferson Davis did more than any other
man toward giving the slave his free
dom, and he wanted to show his graft
tude. apologize to the south for using
the name of Jefferson Davis to point a
possible moral in which such creature
as George M. Pullman figures. The
Pullman strike and the boycott which
followed it made perfectly plain the me-
cessity for complete union of all the
labor forces not only for the purpose of
carrying out strikes and boycotts when
they are necessary, but for more SEN
sible and farreaching reason.
The course which wisdom dictates
that labor should now take is that which
leads to the supremacy of labor in the
making and administering of law. l
know this is not new idea, but there
is additional proof just at hand that it
is sound. Pass by for the time the claim
that the railroads should be owned and
operated by the government-wh
must be the final solution of the ques-
tion-why cannot labor say: We accept
we admit the right of the government
to take hand in the management and
operation of railways, as quasipublic
institutions, under certain circum-
stances. Now we purpose, by the force
Of our votes, to have a voice in saying
how that right shall be applied. It shall
no longer be the rule that railway cor
porations may claim the assistance
of the government on the plea that they
need help in moving the mails and then
insist upon extending that assistance to
their whole service and by befogging
the situation succeed in turning the guns
Of the army upon vags or women and
children, and thus prejudicing the pub
lie against a reasonable demand of the
railway employees.
The laws relating to business cor
porations sadly need amending, it is true;
but, bad as they are, if they were ad-
ministered by those who have strong
enough sympathy with the common peo-
pie to Withstand the pressure which is
brought to bear by plutocracy when a
be less Objectionable than they now ap-
pear. In this railway strike it was not
so much the law that did the wrong as
the constructions which were put upon
it by men whose interests and afilia-
tions are all against the railway work
ingmen, and whom we may always ex-
pect to go the way these did when the
supreme test comes. The tendency of all
our machinery of state is to pull with
the plutocratic side. The workingmen of
the country, who are in the majority
overwhelmingly, are to blame that this
is SO, and the politicians who serve plu-
tocracy laugh in their sleeves and say,
"D-n the workingman! He isn't
entitled to sympathy" and they see
that he doesn't get justice. All working
men should learn a lesson for election
day from the big railway strike of 1894,
and those who were already half awake
and said, 1--WE must throw our votes for
the candidate who will support our
measures - shOuld now be able to see