The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-04-06
THE RIOTS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

| The strikes I'm Pennsylvania are merely
another symptom of the disease from
which the country is suffering. They are
another form Of the fermentation which Is
exhibited In gatherings Of the unemployed.
and in the marches of industrial armies.
The depression Of business has diminished
the demand for labor. and some OF those
who are thrown out of employment think
they can better their condition by threat
ening demonstrations. This always hap
pens In times of business dizziness, but 1t
aim ost always aggrayates the evil 1t is in
tended to cure.
1t is impossible to consider the case Of
the army of the unemployed at Oakland
without feeling sympathy for the poor
fellows. They are suffering. ana no man
of humanity can aelp wishing be could re-
lfeve them. But they have aggravated
the natural hardship of their condition b y
collecting together in a large body. " hich
is a menace in itself. If they were scat
tered and distributed over large area Of
country il would be easier for the machin-
cry OF benevolence to relieve them than it
is when they are collected together in a
crowd. Such q crowd. marshaled in CON-
PahloSs uuoCl COmpau1 OlACoioy SuSscotS
an appeal to force, and compels the con-
stituted authorities to form plans to resist
such an appeal. Thus an aniagonism is
aroused which was unnecessary.
Many of the strikers in Pennsylvania
were pro bably imported contract laborers.
The responsibility for current events
partly rests on those who brought this ele-
ment into the country. 1t is sad to thin
of poor fellows being driven by want and
hunger to such straits that they break out
in riot; for riots always end in the same
way. Violence, arson and murder are
always punished, and the innocent suffer
for and with the guilty. Many child at
Homestead has gone barefoot since the
strike; many family has gone hungry to
bed. So it will be in the C0nnellsvills re-
eion. The mill-owners will not miss from
their millions the money which the DAM
age. save to their properly. will COST; it is
the w0rkmen and their families who will
have to pay the piper. There will be
long spells Of idleness, during which chill
dren will have to depend on charity for
food; there will be marked men among
the work men who will never get employ
ment again in Pennsylvania: there may
be promising young mechanics who have
all the world before them and who now
will terminate their career Of usefulness
behind the bars of prison.
Poverty and privation are hard to bear.
But it is better to bear them than to rebel
against what cannot be avoided. There is
nothing in tumultuous gatherings of exas-
perated men which is unfamiliar. Officers
charged with the preservation OF the peace
know exactly how to deal with them. And
the denouement is always the same, how
ever the threads Of the plot may vary.
This is lesson, however, which Is seldom
learned except by experience. There used
to be an adage in Paris that every genera
tion made or tried to make revolution,
but no generation tried TO make two.
Those who had participated in the first
had learned how hard bullet hits. 1t is
to be feared that some of the strikers in
the Connellsyille region will now learn
lesson which will keep them quiet for
the rest of their lives.