The record-union., 1894-07-21
The Real Issue in the Strike.
(The Outlook of July 9TH = Successor to
Christian Union, New York.

CThe Outlook OF July 9TH Successor to
Christian Union, New York.
The issue is not whether the Pullman
Car Company ought to have submitted to
arbitration the question what wages it
should pay to it's employees. 1t is whether
the American Railway Union shall de-
termine when, under what conditions. on
what railroads, and in what sort OF cars
the people of the United States may
travel. The Pullman Car Company de-
cided that they could not afford to pay the
former rate of wages to their employees.
Their employees decided that they would
not work for less. Thereupon the Pull
man Car Company decided that it would
cease work for the present. For this
ayowed reason, and for no other, the
American Railway Union. an organ
ization Of switchmen, brakemen, firemen,
and q few engineers and conductors, has
decided that no railroad shall carry any
Pullman car on its trains until the Pull
man Car Company reopens its works
and re-employs its workmen. We re-
peat that the issue now is not between
the Pullman Car Company and It's en-
ployes; it is not even between the great
railroads and their employees; it is be-
tween the American Railway Union and
the American people.
The issue has only to be stated IN an
other form to be perfectly clear.
Suppose the railroad employees had
asked Congress to pass law prohibit
all use of Pullman cars on interstate
commerce lines until the Pullman Car
Company reopened its works and re-
employed its workmen, with what de-
rision would the proposition nave been
received! But what they would have
then attempted to do by lawful means
they are now attempting TO do by unlaw-
ful means; that is the whole difference.
-. T@l. Il
to use the highways of the Nation is
settled, all other questions should stand
to one side. Tariff, income tax, silver
question. woman suffrage are insignifi-
cant compared with the question, Are we
a free people? The railway corporations
will have the sympathy and support OF
substantially the entire Nation in this
issue until it is settled, and settled Alright
1t would be better To ride in common
cars, freight cars, cattle cars, platform
cars, or not ride at all, than TO live under
a social system which leaves the question
whether we may ride, and when and how
we may ride, to be determined by an lr-
responsible organization, formulating its
DEGREES by secret committee and entorc-
ing them by mob violence. We can live
without railroads, as our fathers did be-
fore US, but we will not live without
liberty.
1t is the paramount duty of every rail-
road official to stand for the right of an
unimpeded traffic on his railroad line
He is standing for the rights of the Amer
ican people. 1t is the duty OF every
stockholder and bondholder to submit to
any possible diminution ofprofits. Bank
ruptcy is better than despotism, and the
word despotIsn is that which masque-
rades under the guise Of democracy. 1t
is the duty of every Mayor, police officer,
Sheriff, Governor, and, if necessary. OF
the President OF the United States, to
protect with all the powers at their COM
mand the right OF the American people
to freedom to travel on their own high
ways. And it is the duty OF the public to
submit to any and every Inconvenience
rather than yield for an instant to the
doctrine that our freedom OF traffic is de-
pendent upon the pleasure of the Ameri-
can Railway Union.
This is the Outiook's Fourth of July
orations