Great Falls weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1894-1???, 1895-02-08
SAUCE TOR THE GANDER,

SAUCE FOR THE GANDER.
The Brooklyn trolley car fight is no
ended. 1t promises to be one of thos'
victories for the companies that ar
worse than a defeat-a sort of a. Bunke
Hill for corporation interest in the grea
battle between organized labor and or
ganized capital in the the form of a biz
corporation. The trolley companies
which have made their s%tockholderl
m%illionaires, concluded that they coule
not, or would not, accede to the demand!
of organized labor and a strike ensuee
over the attempt to enforce a reduction
in the salaries If their employees. The
sympathizers with the striking employees
made the mistake of resortlng to VIC
lence in their attempt to prevent the
trolley companies from operating theil
lines with scab labor. The companies
called on the city and state for protection
and received it in ample form. Large
bodies of police were called out to pre-.
serve the peace, and these proving in
sufficient the state militia were called
out to assist. The lawless element were
suppressed and overpowered after a few
had lost their lives and a few more been
arrested, the companies ran their cars
through the heart of the strikers
districts un%disturbed. and it was
given out that the cause of the
strikers was lost and the trolley
companies victorious. There was
nothing new in all this, 1t was simply
history repeating itself. The law had
been broken by the strikers or their
symp athizers and the law must be vindi-
Gated. Such was the stereotyped com
ment of the corporation press and the
sleek, respectable capitalist and his echo
in society. But suddenly a new discov-
cry is made. A New York judge has
laid down the principlet that what is sauce
for the goose is sauce for the gander,
and that punishment awaits tbs orpora-
ton who violates the law as we'll as the
w~orkingman, and most extraordinary as
the doctrine will seem to millionaires
and magnates who manage corporations,
the first duty of railroad corporations is
to the public and their purpose of filling
the pockets of the stockholders is only
second to this duty to the public. In
other words, if the company cannot find
men willing to work for the wages they
offer they must pay more, and that the
fact that their employees have refused to
work or struck will not excuse them for
even one hour in failure of their duty to
the public. Justice Gaynor of the su-
preme court of New York has rendered
this decision and as a result the Brook
Ign board Of aldermen have by a vote Of
10 to 8 repealed the franchises of trolley
lines that, in order to wiring a few more
dollars from the pockets of The employees
practically left the public without service
for two weeks or more.
To make things still more unpleasant
for the companies, President Benjamin
Norton of the Atlantic Railroad COM
pany, Il of the corporations which was
principally to blame for the strike, has
been arrested and brought before the
Urited States commissioner at Brooklyn
charged with q violation Of the United
States statutes, ia displaying United
States mail signs on trolley cars that
were not carrying mail, thus using Uncle
Sam as a sort of stalking horse under
which TO accomplish their purpose.
Altogether it would appear that n few
more victories of this kind for the cor
porations would prove their ruin. 1t is
time that the rights of the public were
indicated and Judge Gaynor's righteous
decision, il sustained, will put an end to
such experiences as befel this section last
year when the traffic of half a dozen
states was suspended because a railroad
was unwilling to pay its men a living
schedule Of wages and could find no one
willing to take their places.