The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-20
QUARREL At SEATTLE,
Presidents DebS and
Egan Denounce
Each Other.
FIGHT AT LONG RANGE.
A Charge That the A. r. u.
Leader Is Working for
Private Gain.
FIGHT AT LONG RANGE.
QUESTIONING HIS MOTIVES.
Branding Of the Railroad Manager
as "CoWard" and a
"Thief."

SEATTLE, Wash, March 19.-The sim
ultaneous appearance in this city of E. V.
Debs, president of the American Railway
Union, and John NJ. Egan, president of the
General Managers Association, which con-
Quoted the great railroad strike, has re-
| suited in their becoming involved in
wordy war. While Mr.. Debs spoke quite
kindly of Egan in an interview on Monday
Egan said ofDebs to CPLL correspondent:
ut is unnecessary for me to discuss Mr..
Debs in the newspapers. He has already
been discussed and the people know him
pretty well. pity the poor devils who go
and spend so cents to hear him.
1.-The only advice they will get is to or
ganize and strike again, and the last great
| tie-up, for which Mr.. Debs was response
BILE, plainly shows what success he made
OF 1t. The American Railway Union will
never flourish again, and the only men
who nowadays talk of having another
strike are those who figured in the last
one, lost their positions and are now anx-
lous that another shall occur in order that
they will be able to secure the positions of
those who would be foolish enough to 90
out.
''There are hundreds of such men in the
country to-day-men, some of whom have
been in the railroad business for from ten
to twenty years, and who were Competent
IN every way. They had worked along
and received good wages until Mr. Debs
organized his union, told them that they
were slaves, and that if they would only
strike the companies would be compelled
| the result they well know. They will
never be able to get back their old posi-
tions and they must suffer. Many of them
will go hungry, but not so Mr. Debs.
Il think if you make little inquiry YOU
will find that Mr.. Debs never went to bed
hungry. He has drawn a nice big salary
| and is now travelling about the country at
| the expense of the workingmen. The A.
R. q. may get up good membership once
again, but you will find that many of the
new members are those who figured in the
last strike, and who now want to encour-
age others to go out in order to make some
new berths in which they may hope to
drop.
'Mr. Debs, 1 suppose, appeared on the
platform tonight dressed as we'll and
probably great deal better than many of
the members of the General Managers
Association, and he lives Just as well as
any of them. | do not care to discuss the
matter, except to say that Mr.. Debs never
won strike and I don't believe ever will"
After reading this interview Debs ad-
dressed mass-meeting this morning at
which he said:
Mr.. Egan is dishonest man and a
ruffian. He is a thief and he knows that
he is, and he knows that know that he is.
He could not hold a position as flagman on
any road running out of Chicago and he
knows that l know why. He has been
connected with many railroads and he has
robbed every road and every corporation
that he has ever had anything to do with
He is a corrupt, low, dishonest man, and
cannot conceive of any man having suf-
ficient manhood to push aside bribes and
remain true to his convictions.
"He does not like me, because he could
not corrupt me, and he has no use for any
man he cannot corrupt 1 could have
been in financial clover to-day if I had
cared to become traitor to the interests
of the laboring men and the American
Railway Union. l could have life pass
over all the railroads in this country.
think of man to his face, and that is
more than Mr.. Egan can say. He would
not tell me to my face what he had to
say in that interview which was pub
| lished in the paper this morning He will
never meet me in private or in public and
discuss who are the conspirators, for he
knows who they are, and what would be
the result That man is coward, and I
only wish I was where I could tell him so,
and venture to say he would not attempt
to deny it. Why, 400 yoke of oxen could
not pull MIN on the same platform with
me.
"I have friends enough to raise a thou.
| sand dollars cash to any charitable organi-
zation in the land, and 1 want here to
make public challenge. / will agree to
give a thousand dollars to any charitable
organization in the land if he will meet me
on the public platform and discuss the his
| tory and causes of the late strike, both to
speak from the record. The record will
tell and no one knows it better than Mr..
Egan.
"It was at the instance of the General
Managers Association that the trial came
to such sudden termination in Chicago a
few days ago. They do not want it tried.
They don't want the truth to be known,
and the trial was continued until May 1,
and when that date comes around they
will want it continued again and so on
until the whole matter is dropped. But
we, the accused, are endeavoring to compel
the accusers to try us, and if guilty we
want to be punished and if innocent want
| the world to know it,
DEBS At TACOMA.
Takes n Hopef,I V7esc of the A. r. U,s