The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-07-13
A NIadmen's Dream.


. and the city government of Chicago to col
slider whether there was anything to arb
trate was not the conduct of men consciol
0 of right and is not the way men proceed
this world who want only what is right. A
Q that outsiders know of the situation tends
discredit the company's attitude We don
and can't know whether 1t is true us the
claim that they had taken work in order
keep their men employed at less than the cos
oflabor and material and so had to cut wage
that were already reduced to Il very low poin
but we do know that the claim which the
make in the same breath that they have no
realized per cent. in the last two years
false; for their own official report for the las
full fiscal year they have had ending July 81
1893, showed that they made more money IL
that year than they ever had before, and be
sides paying a DIVIDEND of s per cent. OF
stock watered three times over they had
surplus of 81, OO6 AS and $756,0OO larger thar
the previous year. Out of an income of 81 /,
1886, 500 their Cooperating expenses" were onl.
$685. $40 and other expenses 81 ,03S sos
more than half was clear profit and $2,520,
went to dividends on stock and the $4 ,096, Az
to surplus.
But however righteous the cause may be
against this company, it furnishes no
ground for making war on society at large
for that is what it amounts to when the
American Railway Union and all the other
unions and orders that have followed it, UNI
dertake to carry their point by stopping bust
ness on all the railroads that use Pullman ears,
and then ordering "sympathetic' strikes in
trades and industries that have not the re-
ethics are precisely those of the fellow who
says 81 will poison your well if you buy milk
of this fellow who has cheated me on horse
trade,' and then II won't let any dry goods
store or organ factory run in town until he
has returned my horse"
Tuesday:
'Where is Debs' patent of right to say to
the city of Chicago that it shall not be fed--to
say to the people of the northwest that they
shall not leave their homes or shall not be able
to get back to them if they are away! This
Aladdin of day, drunk with power, has UNI
loosed agencies which he cannot chain, and
set at work destructive forces which he can
not recall. 1t is a notorious fact that this VIC
lent action has drawn from the caves and
dens of Chicago the vilest criminals the idle
and the vicious. the anarchists. everybody
who is conspiring to put down modern civili-
cation is now moving under the mask of this
strike, and is taking life and destroying prop
erty in its name"
The logic of it would be ludicrous if the re-
suits hadn't been so bloody and destructive.
The idea of the strike was that it was in some
far fetched way going to bring pressure on
The Pullmans to settle with their men, but it
Jurns out that a large share of the roads
against which it was directed and which 1t
vas sought to prevent doing business didn't
Use Pullman cars at all but those of the oppO-
tion company, the Wagners! The strike
eaders have protested that the violence and
awlessness was not the work of the strikers
It all, but of criminal elements taking advan-
age of the situation, and hired or encouraged
~ the companies themselves; then in the
SAME breath these same leaders have howled
hat in ordering troops to repress
his lawlessness the government was
taking the side of the companies and
labor, They think somehow to
unish capital and the railroads by setting afire
II the property they can reach. The city and
he state will have TO pay for this destruction
5 they did at Pittsburg, Oh the ground, held
, be valid by the supreme court, that the city
nd state, after collecting taxes for the pro-
on of property, can be held responsible to
lrnish it, and the millions of damages paid
ill the bulk of them come out of labor, as all
Xes finally do, in the way of rents and living ,
rices.
President Cleveland's action in forwarding I
oops was primarily for the purpose of pro- !
citing the mails and inter state commerce,
titles of the Federal government whose per-
FINANCE was paralyzed by the mobs in de- i
NICE of the injuctions of federal courts. The $
,tion was not only unobjectionable, it was ]
,soutely necessary. Ourpeople are natural i
and properly very jealous of the employ '
ent of troops, and it is delicate business that f
ust be carefully handled. They should never
brought to any scene to deal with any ordi-
Try disorders when the civil or local author !;
Y is competent and willing to cope with the
fiiculty. as it was not here but in such cases
ter the issuing of Il proclamation the right =,
the federal army to strike is unquestion-
'le The authority is expressly conferred =
the Revised Statutes. Similar proclama-
ms have been issued by Presidents Wash :
gton, Tyler, Taylor. Fillmore, Grant and !
ayes. Hayes issued three with reference to
e strike troubles of 1877. Grants was about
e rioting over the election dispute in Arkan-
5. Filmore's was about the mob in Boston =,
at rescued fugitive slave from marshal =,
Boston.
But back of the whole affair looms another =
oblem of government. This duty ofprotect- =
: the Transmission of the mails and the con-
ct of inter state commerce, of preventing ;.
structions of the the very arteries of our =
tional life, has a long train of correlated :,
ties. We have only gone so far in -
is case as to prevent strikers or :,
ybody else from interfering with the mails
commerce. But some of our courts have =
ne so far AS to say that men engaged in =,
'rying on these important functions have .,
right to strike or suddenly quit work in =.
1y because it would stop or disarrange their -
ty. This seems like pretty extreme doc n, ~,
ne for this country and if necessity finally g,
npels its adoption, it must be accompanied
an arbitration system to guard the rights :,
employees, giving the adjustment of wages =,
the interstate commission and having that
ly stand between the roads and employees -
ii now does between the roads and the -
bile. 1t will probably have to come to that =.
The end. -
fo
HERE is for some reason decided inn q,
in the fire loss record. The losses a.