New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-07-11
MANIFESTO FROM DEBs.
Debs and Sovereign State Their Case to
the President.
They Criticlse Him for Calling Out the
Federal Troops.
A Dissertation on the Pullman Car and
the Mail Train.

|
Cleveland, President of the United States,
Washington-Dear Sir: Through long
period of depression, enforced idleness
and low wages, resulting in widespread
poverty and in many cases actual starva-
ton, the working people have been pat
riotic and law abiding, and not until
the iron heel of corporate tyranny
was applied with the intention to subju-
gate the working people to the will of
arrogant monopolies did they make an
effort to stay their oppressors.
The Pullman strike was not declared
until the employees Of the Pullman COM
pany were driven to the verge of starva-
ton, their entreaties spurned with con-
tempt and their grievances denied hear
ing. No refusal to handle Pullman cars
was declared by any railway employe
until all propositions looking towards
arbitration and cancellation were rejected
by the Pullman company. Notwith-
standing the facts set forth above were
known to the public and to the national
authorities you have seen fit, under the
guise of protecting the mails and federal
property, to invoke the service of the
United States army, whose very presence
is used to coerce and intimidate peaceable
working people into humiliating obe-
dience to the will of their oppressors.
Your act, in 80 far as you have sup
planted civil and state authorities with
federal military power. has created
spirit of unrest and distrust which has
so far been augmented that deep seated
conviction is fast becoming prevalent
that this government is soon to be de-
clared a military despotism. The trans
mission of United States mails is not IN
terrupted by the striking employees of
any railway company but by the railway
companies themselves, who refuse to
haul the mails on trains to which Pull
man cars we're attached. If it is Grim
inal interference with the United States
mails for the employees of railroad COM
pany to detach from mail train a
Pullman palace car contrary to the will
of the company, then it Is true that it is
the same criminal interference whenever
Pullman palace car is detached from a
mail train in accordance with the will
OF railway company while said mail
train is in transit. The line of Grim
inality in such cases should not be drawn
at the willingness or unwillingness of
railway employees, but at the act itself.
and 1nasmuch as it has been the common
practice of railway corporations to at
tach and detach from mail trains Pull
man palace cars at will while said trains
are in transit and carrying the mails of
the United States, it would seem an act
Of discrimination against the employees
of the railway corporation to declare
such acts unlawful interference with the
Transmission of the mails when done by
employees with or without the consent
of their employers. ~
In view Of these facts we look upon
the far reaching decision of Attorney
General Olney, the sweeping un-Amenc-
an injunctions against railway employees
and the movements of the regular army
as employing the powers of the general
government for the support and protec-
ton of the railway corporations in their
determination to degrade and oppress
their employees. The present railway
strike was precipitated by the uneasy
| desire of the corporations to destroy the
organization of theiremployes and make
the working people more subservlent to
the will of their employers; and as all
students of government agree that free
institutions depend for their perpetuitY
upon the freedom and prosperity of the
common people, it would seem more in
In consonance with the spirit of demo-
cratic government if federal authority
was exercised in defense of the rights
OF the toiiing masses to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. But, on the
contrary, there IS not an instance on re-
cord where in any conflict between the
corporations and the people, the strong
arm Of the military power has been en-
IploYed to protect the working people
and the industrial masses from the ravage
and persecution Of corporate greed. But
the measure of character has been N the
line Of declaring the corporations always
good and in the right. and the working
lpeeple always bad and in the wrong.