The Washington times., 1894-07-08

praise were published and uttered in favor OF
the men who employed the governmental
authority to run railroad trains with Pullman
cars attached.
Warm-hearted, broad-minded sympathy
demands that both sides Of strike contro-
versy be considered. Justice. humanity, and
charity unite in seconding that demand.
Wage-earners are often but not always wrong:
Employers are sometimes but not always
right, and it is but just that each be accorded
q hearing before deciding which is entitled to
support.
And, finally. as humane proposition, de-
void OF the sophistry of commonplace argu-
ment, is 1t not more in keeping with the prin-
ciple OF exact justice to listen to the COM
plants Of the weak before deciding in favor
of the strong2 For that is the relation of
labor and capital With the influence Of
courts, Congress, Federal. state, and local
authority practically against them. wage
earners are weak as compared to the strength
of the forces opposed to them.
-4o
BLo0DsHED, RI0TINGAND DESTRUCTION.
The Debs strike has passed out Of the
hands Of the American Railway Union and
has assumed the proportions of an ungovern-
able, destructive, mob-riot. and no one is
more at fault for its fury, violence, and mad
ness than Attorney General Olney and the
President OF the United States.
Men become desperate when they sec the
power of q great government invoked to
defeat them. and they turn in despair and
frenzy to that last resort OF infuriated beings
nc violence. In rage and with passions in
famed they destroy and seek vengeance with
out regard for consequences.
The situation is serious, alarming. Human
life, property. and all that is dear to man.
kind is cast in the balance against defeat.
Strikers and wage-earners generally feel that
in future strikes will be settled by Federal
authority, and guided by that feeling they
seem determined to make their defeat costly
to railroad ct operations.
Since the Presidents order the strike is an
insurrection against Federal authority, and
Federal soldiers and Federal courts are alone
the arbters. Every hand raised against a
railroad is blow at the government, and the
next move of the administration will probably
be declaration OF martial law.
Calmly, coolly. candidy, was 1t necessary
to send Federal soldiers to assist railroads in
running Pullman cars? Why was the order
not given to cut the Pullman cars from the
mail trains before the strike passed ont Of the
hands of the railroad employees? Had that
been done. the matter would have ended then
and there, and arbitration would have settled
the Pullman controversy.
Had the administration taken that view Of
the situation and ordered mail and passen-
ger trains run without Pullman cars, ali this
bloodshed and violence would have been pre-
vented. The board of railroad managers IN
sisted upon running Pullman cars or stop
ping their trains, and the administration, in
stead of adopting a conciliatory policy,
backed up the determination of the managers
by sending Federal soldiers to coerce the
strikers.
1t is plainly the duty of the President to en-
force the law, but it is clearly wrong for him
to take sides in strike contest. First of all.
he should have insisted that the railroads
should carry the mails rs per contract, and
the suppression of violence should have been
left TO local authority. This failing, the use
of Federal soldiers might have been resorted
to, but only as a last resort.
IT was stated last night that Secretary
h.l afs " h 20. ,,