The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-07-03
The Railway Strike-More Open
Treason.

The Railway Strike-More Open
Treason.
Bad as the anarchist armed with
dagger or bomb is, he is no worse
than the man who organizes an as
sault on society sueh as the present
strike prevailing in the West upon
the railroads of the country. Nor
ally. is pretty nearly as bad as
the other. Practically, the striker is
the more dangerous. The worst of
dynamite explosions is limited in its
effects, andthe assassination even of
the President of a republic has but an
infinitessimal effect on the current OF
human life or the average of human
happiness. Indeed, Isolated acts of
horror such as the anarchist deals in.
by the reaction which they cause, are
not without their tonic effects upon
the cause of law and order.
But the organizers of a widespread
revolt such as that of the railway
ODcTallN0S dEe hllStkCIIoto oh o0eS
and more destructive scale. They
strike not at the accidental and tent
porary instruments of government,
but at the very vitals of society,
They are to the body polite as are to
the body physical those poisons
which paralyze the heart and CONCEAL
a.. h11o1 IN tho orfariac Tho rail.
roads of q modern land are its
arteries and veins. Its III is
its life's blood, and the never ceasing
backward and forward flow of wealth
is as essential to its nutrition as is the
puisation of the heart and the con-
slant circulation of the blood to the
continued life of the individual. So
the action of the constituencies wretch
who paralyzes the movements of trade
is as frantic in its character as would
be that of the man who hanged him
self to cur a toothache.
1t is nearly time that something
were done TO suppress the breed of
agitator of which the man Debs is a
monumental example. This business
ought not to end with the mere sup
preston of the strike. We have had
too much demagoguery and too much
violence in this country Of late. There
is need of an example. Debs and his
immediate associates in the leadership
of this strike should be made furnish
it. They should be subjected to the
severest penalties attached to the
crimes incidental TO the strike. Con-
spiracy, arson, riot and, if it come TO
that. murder represented in their per-
sons should be punished with the ut
most severity of the law.
In his splendid telegram to the Min
nesota strikers, in which he refuses to
support the atrocious Kyle resolution,
Senator G. K. Davis uses a couple of
pregnant phrases to describe the po-
sition of these banded outlaws. You
are rapidly approaching the overt act
of levying war against the United
States, and you will find the defini-
ton of that act in the Constitution"
Treason" is the word the Senator
has in mind, and treason is the only
word that fully describes this abomin-
able crime of attacking, by the
of open war, tine life centres
of the Nation. 1t is the duty of the
Government to crush this treason
with no less severity than it did that
other outbreak which sought the dis
1nemberment Of the Union. The
lesson should be overwhelming. 1t
should be such that not9in a genera
ton again will a~1sIInifar uprising be
planned by any demagogues, however
rash. or undertaken by any dupes,
however blind.
+ra T----7y-T yT7T bfEa~
THE West Side sewer is to cost $780,
900. In five years it ought to add
half a million to the real and taxed
values of the property it is to drain.
Mr.. JOHN r. PpRTELL alleges that
two members. Of the police force have
been swindHng business men by sell
ing them advertising space in a fake
programme of an excursion to be
given by the association of which lie
is STANDARD bearer" With mistaken
leniency, he intirnates that If these
men return the money it Svill be "ail
ripht.n Otherwise he will take steps
EE
to prosecute them.
This is a bad way to look at it. Ii
there are two such policemen on this
force. it is the duty of Mr.. Purtell and
every other decent man to drive them
not only into private life but into
State Prison. We direct the attention
of the Grand Jury to Mr.. Pur'ells
allegation, as reported in THE NEWS
of Yesterday. Mr.. Purtell should be
subpmnaed at once and compelled to
disclose the names of the policemen
and the names of their victims, so that
indictments may be found against the
scoundrels.
DIR. SCUDDER has n genial char
acteristic. He is easily pleased.
THE clergymen who lay much OF