The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-18

ground down to the dust the honor and man.
hood OF our land. Before the golden calf OF
the corporations our judiciary is on its knees
willing and waiting to do whatever it is hidden
to do.
Why is G. P. Huntington above the law? Be-
cause he is better than you or l? Not at all. II
pie shows the spirit of capital. BY reason OF
the limitations of labor wealth has slowly come
into possession of the power, until to-day the
United States Government is simply the mouth
piece OF corporate interest.
/ If Huntington went into Federal court to-
morrow and asked for an injunction restrain
Ing you and me from kissing our own children,
honestly believe it would be granted. Debbs
is doing good service in the cause of labor and
patriotism. He is better man now than ever
before. The seed that he is sowing will bios
som into the flower of concentrated effort on
the part of labor and then the battle is won
Concentration. Here is the secret of success
This is the weapon of capital, why should il
not be also used by labor? One thing is GER
tain, labor must either combine or submit to
the slavery which wealth is preparing for it.
Attorney George w. Monteith then re-
viewed the great A. R. q. strike. In part
he said:
On June %, 1894 the American Railway
Union on this coast by unanimous vote of its
members refused to handle Pullman cars, for
reasons well known and unnecessary to recite
On June 20 five members of the American
Railway Union were discharged for refusing to
handle Pullman ears, and on the same day q
strike was ordered by the union, i. e. cessa-
ton of labor to remain in force until the rein
statement of those five men.
On the same day the Southern Pacific Com
pany issued an order shutting down all its
works; the mails and the movement of the COM
modities of commerce were thereby stopped.
The American Railway Ulion offered &c fur
n1sh men to move the mails, which offer was
fatty refused by the railroads. The public,
therefore, was unable to carry on its ordinary
commercial transactions.
Owing to the strike in this part of Cali
fornia, from five to six thousand railroad en-
ployes were idle, and every opportunity pres
ent for deeds of violence if they were SO dis
posed.
During the entire strike not $40 worth of
actual damage was inflicted by members OF
the union, a fact stated by me in terms of
broadest challenge in the argument of the
Mayne and Cassiday case, for the entire 5000
pages OF testimony covering the whole trial
fails to disclose the contrary.
1t was plain contest in which the employees
would not work on the employers terms and
the employers would not allow them to do
otherwise.
AS the railroad could not be run without
competent men, unless it could ill the places
OF the strikers, it must either abandon the bust
ness or re-employ the men on their own terms.
But there was no necessity for q complete
abandonment of its business, for the men vol
UNFAIRLY and without pay offered to transport
the mails
The company would not do this; 1t firmly
made up its mind to force the men to come to
its terms, and how could it be done? Simply
by making the stoppage of traffic SO complete
that the public would suffer, would cry out
and condemn the cause of the interruption.
There is one great obstacle in the way-pub-
lie opinion-the sympathy of the vast majority
was with the men; unless 1t could be turned
against them the railroad must lose.
Then 1t was that the crafty octopus began to
lay its plans First tried threats of the black
list; failing then tried to stir the public by the
cry of riot. The men stood firm, maintained
wonderful order and discipline and committed
no act of violence.
The company called on the officers of the law
to protect 1t. The Sheriff enrolled extra depu-
ties and went to the scene of supposed danger.
They found no violence, no lawlessness, simply
secured their rights Arrest them Imprison
them! howled the octopus, but the cautious of
hcer knew that he had no right to imprison free
men simply to aid their oppressor to strengthen
the chains OF their slavery and refused to do SO
until an act OF violence was done, and that act
never came.
The octopus grew desperate; its army of
spies and detectives were told TO do all they
could to discover something, some hook to
hang even hair on, but they failed.
at last plan was hit upon. 1t was wildly
heralded an attempt would be made to
move train, if the strikers did not interfere, -
on July 3. The .'spies" and spoilers of the
octopus were busily engaged In infaming the
men and the people about the disastrous
ehects OF moving that train during the strike.
1t was openly announced when the sattempt''
would be made, tor it was to be nothing more
than an attempt" and the whole population