Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-07-11
IN THE SENATE.
Mr.. PETER Makes Speech in Behalf Of tie
Strikers.


WAsHIxGroN, July l0.-In the Senate,
the Indian appropriation bill was reported
and placed on the calendar. The resoiu-
ton offered, yesterday, by PETER, as to the
government control of railroads and other
kindred matters, was laid before the Senate.
In speech advocating the resolution, PET
| fer referred to the situation tn which the
country now found itself, and said 1t only
seemed necessary to ascertain the causes
and apply remedy.
man named Debs, the official head OF
a great organization, had made written
statement of the condition of business.
From that statement PETER rehearsed some
assertions as to the ill-treatment of Pull
man employees leading up to the great
strike. '.Now," he said, 1.-THE trouble is, at
hand, that the leader of the great corpora
ton is at the seashore, or lakes. or islands,
or somewhere, refusing to entertain even a
new spaper man, except to say that he has
nothing to say. Hear,less. soulless, con-
scienceless is this tyranny of tyrants."
| PETER spoke of the attempts made before
the strike to have arbitration with the Pull
man Company, and said that when they
failed the strike came. There was gen.
eral leaving of employ ment and letting rail-
road companies go ahead without their EN-
ployes if they could The object was, he
said. to have the Pullman cars dropped.
The men of the American Rsilway Union
| would not handle them and boycott was
declared. It was not his purpose, he said,
to argue whether the act was right or wrong.
The situation confronts the Senate, and it
was its duty to deal with it. The railroad
| hx,t lfy,,o
| let the results be what they might.
| PETER spoke enthusiastically of the grand
spectacle that would be presented when all
the woikmen of the country stopped work ;
when all the life of the communities would
be at an absolute standstill; when every
thing would be parslyzed and inert.
That was, he said, what this thing meant
to American people. The time had come
for employers to learn how to handle the
situation by fair treatment of their men and
if they could not do that it is time for the
people, in their sovereign capacity, to inter-
fere and say the thing has gone far enough
He spoke of the modern tendency to teach
the use of arms in colleges, public schools,
and even, he said, in Sunday schools, and
exclaimed passionately,
at is time this militarism should cease,
If am asked what we are going to dc
when disputes arise between employers and
employees would say: Keep your hands
off, They will settle this thing themselves
without bloodshed, without using the torch,
without getting angry. They will do i,
justly, safely, wisely and promptly. The
instant you begin to call out the military to
protect one side and send the other to op-
preston, just SO soon you arouse the
spirit of luminosity which cannot be quelled
by force"
PETER besought the senators to treat his
resolution in conservative, statesmanlike
way that would throw out to the people
some intimation that the Senate would not
turn its back upon them.
Davis [Rep.) of Minnesota, replied to
PETER in terms Of severe patriotic indigna-
ton. He said he supposed by common con-
sent the subject was to be avoided. At a
time when in the second city of the United
States, the fourth or fifth city of the civil
lied world, order was suspended, law was
powerless, violence was supreme, life was
in danger, and property in the very arms of
destruction, he was amazed to hear the
trumpet of sedition blown in the Senate
chamber to marshal the hosts of nisrule and
further destruction.
He charged PETER with advocating the
Acknowledgement of the government by the
abolition of its legislative aud executive
departments. That senator, he said, affect
ed to speak for the American people, but
spoke really for the mob which had OBJ
tanned control of n great strategic point.
That senator, he said, had not word of
reproof or reproach for the bloodshed in
Chicago, for the millions of property de-
stroyed. The red light of arson against
the sky called from the senator no word
of disapprobation. That senator would
annihilate the legislative and executive de-
partments of the government and have the
public affairs administered by commit
tee of public safety" as in the "days of
terror" of the first French revolution.
Senator Gordon (Dem.) of Georgia fol-
lowed Davis in an equally patriotic speech
in denunciation of anarchy and those who
give it countenance. He declared that men
of all parties would be found in this great
conflict standing shoulder to shoulder for
the peace Of the country, for the enforce
ment of its laws, for the support Of its dig
nifty, for the perpetutty of the
liberties of the people. He denounced the
depriving of men (by Debs or any
one else) of the right to sell labor
| rs tue inauguration OF system OF slavery
never known in the past history of the re-
public; and it was so utterly abhorrent to
every thought of his as to make it impossi-
BILE for him to treat it with any considera-
ton whatever. He declared that the men
who wore the grey from 1861 to 1865 would
be found side by side with those who wore
the blue, following the same flag and up
holding the dignity of the republic over
Which it floated, and every law upon its
statute be oks.
A substitute for the PETER r: solution was
offered by Daniel (Dem) of Va, endors-
ing the prompt and vigorous measures
adopted by the President of the United
States and members of the administration
in repelling and depressing by military force
the Interference of lawless men with the
due process of the laws. with the transpor-
tstion of mails, with commerce among the
states, declaring that the action of the
President and administration had the full
sympathy and support Of the law abiding
masses of the people Of the United States
| The resolutions and substitute went over
without action till tomorrow and the Senate
proceeded to the consideration of the post
In -