The oasis., 1894-11-22
HIS BRoTHER's KEEPER.

dent Cleveland to investigate the strike of last summer comes accounts of the proceedings of congress called in Chicago by the Civic Federation to consider the mutual relation of udpi- tai and labor and their joint relation to society and civilization. This gath ering comprised some of the most noted students of sociology in Amer ica-eminent divines jurists and lit- erateurs-seyeral noted labor leaders and number of men truly represent ative of some of the great manufactur ing interests of the country. All dis cussion was in the line of the relation between employer and employed, the duty of both to so adjust their inter- dependent relations that the public welfare shall not suffer by their fric- tion, and the duty of organized society to regulate those relations whenever friction becomes inevitable.
 While the report of the strike com mission has aroused the ire of those who believe that it is the prerogatiye of capital to do as it pleases with it's own, and that labor has no right to question that prerOgative, no matter what the effect upon the laborer, the proceedings of the congress and it's conclusions are ofa nature to still fur there arouse the ire of that very large and very inconsiderate class of people.
 The report of the strike commission laid down, among other propositions, the vital one that the general man. agers' association" is an illegal and dangerous organization of twenty-four different railway corporations, repre- senting over two billions of dollars of capital, banded together to bear the labor market, overriding the natural law of supply and demand, throwing all the weight and influence of all that vast aggregation of capital whenever and wherever necessary against the employees of any one road in the com bine, or against any individual em- ploye, and asking and receiving the aid of the military arm of the govern ment when their men had effected counter combination which was prov ing more powerful and potent. When l the strike commission pointed out this palpable condition all apOlogists for corporate greedoat once cried out ''have not employers the right to com bine as well as employed?" That de- bends entirely upon who are employ CTS. With interpretations no such rights exsist unless set forth in their articles of association. The corporate indi- vidual enjoys only such rights as are enumerated in the fundamental law of it's existence-its charter. As no railway corporation comprised in the general managers association was ever chartered with power for such com bination, the association was plainly an illegal body and had no right to exist. The report of the strike com mission in so characterizing it is em- inently true.
 Those who are always ready to ap- plaud corporate aggression upon labor some of them are very loud in denun- citation when such aggression is upon other capital-e. z. the regular outcry against railway transportation rates) will gather cold comfort from the pro ceedings of the recent congress at Chicago. All through the discussion these propositions were laid down and generally accepted: That the capital st is but a trustee and responsiblelto public opinion for his trusteeship: that he owes society the duty of so conducting his operations that the