Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-03-27
CAPITALS VICTORIES.
ARE LIKE THOSE OF PYRRHUs
OF OLD.
A Few More of Them and the Whole
Structure of Corporate Wealth Will
CrumbIe to Ruins-An Encouraging
Feature of the Labor Crisis.

When the great Pyrrhus went to war
with the Romans he learned what real
fighting was. He defeated one great
army but his own losses were SO great
that he exclaimed, Another such vic
tory and am ruined" The most bril-
liant of capitals victories nowadays are
Pyrrhic ones. An economic despotism
sustained by the military, which is the
form OF government we live under,
must, in the nature of things, go the
way of all other desoptisms. The pro-
cess is fastened with us by the seething
discomfort engendered by every recur-
ring dispute of the laborer with the
capitalist Every strike that fails
breeds enemies of our social system
The working classes are forced to see
how little there is for them in the insti-
buttons under which we live. The cler
gy prosper, the military prosper, the
capitalist prospers, and the toiler grows
hungrier. We may call out the sol
dlers as numerously as we please but
we cannot destroy the hatred inspired
by such an act. Glass hatred is the
germ of social revolution and if capital
Tor the development of class hatred they
could not be accomplishing the object
more effectively.
from one point of view, then, the
failure oil strike is positively good
tnlng. This fact does not justify an in
ference sympathy should not be ex-
tended to strikers Strikes are the
most encouraging symptoms of the in
dustrial situation. To be sure, some
shallow reasoners, even among the la
Dor leaders, are contending that it is
not advisable to strike, that they always
1all and that they are too costly. 1t is
trlfe odd that so many union work
lngmen are misled by this casuiStry.
The strike is the one instrument feared
by capital. The capitalist is always
contending that strikes are costly to
the Workingman and lose him bread,
butter and employment How very al
trulstic is the capitalist! He is inf1u-
enced solely by considerations for the
workingman's welfare in deprecating
strikes.
The great trouble with the strike is the
dflculty in leading it, There can be
no doubt that at some not distant day
the laborers will secure a competent
leader who, profting by the experience
Oh his predecessors, Will organize q bril-
hantly successful strike What the
capitalists fear is a strike organized
SIX months in advance, with preconcert-
ed plans to prevent the transportation
OF scabs to the scene of hostilities. In
other words, it is a principle of the art
OF war, that military science can only
DE met by military science The strike
OF the near future will be organized on
strictly military principles and led by
man who is capable of planning a
campaign on strategical principles
The coming man will be a tactician, in
short. Not that there will be pitched
battles. There are the courts to deal
with. The most gigantic strike could
be maintained for weeks without in
VolVIng any breach of the statutes
What has been said implies no reflec-
ton upon the brave, able and disinter-
ested men who have led the strikes of
the past. Theirs has been a hard lot
and they will not be forgotten. But it
is to be hoped that no workingman will
| permit himself to he convinced by the
capitalist that he should never go on a
strike. The strike is the coming power.
The Napoleon Of labor may be in his
cradle nOw.-AleXander Harvey in
! Twentieth Century.