The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-09-16


extent to which such collisions afflict Q
community. What begins as a difference
Of opinion about wages is allowed to run
Into scenes of passion, and bodily harm
and even death are the 1amentable result
1t Is not creditable to our people as a
whole that tragedy like that In Pennsyl-
vania is possible. question OF wages can
not by any line Of reasoning Justify the
bodily injury Of any one. Viewed from
either side or In any light the bloodshed at
Lattimer is blot upon methods In busi-
ness controversles.-St. Louis Globe Demo-
crat,
Twenty years ago the State of Pennsyl-
vania INDUCED in shooting down its citi-
zens very much after tho style Of yester.
days slaughter at Lattimer. Then it was
hot-headed militia captain who gave the
order to his company to fire; this time 1t
was q weak minded sheriff who led the
murderous assault by lot Of special dep
uty sheriffs. There rs certainly too much
gun business" among the different class
es Of the police powers. There are more
than 800 "watchmen' in Chicago legally
armed and thereby licensed to shoot whom
and when they may happen to deem it ex-
cusable, and these "watchmen" are not
responsible to any branch OF the city gov
ernment-Chicago News.
Cursing foreigners will not remedy the
evil as long as the republican party rules
in the interest of the trusts and monopo-
lies. The republican sheriff, with his re-
publican deputies, shooting down repub-
lican miners in violation of law, is les
son which fool might understand. Even
in monarchial England strikers are al
al ornh thSa htSrNx IN
meetings like any other law abiding ciu-
zens. ard to appeal to their fellow laborers
to join them. They are only restrained
from doing violence and from the destruc-
tion Of property, but in this Boosted land
of the free they are shot down like dogs
for marching along the public highways in
the effort 10 call out their fellow miners.
Such violence as this will surely bring a
day OF reckoning. and 1t will be bloody
reckoning. Dispatch.
And 1t is perfectly apparent that this liz
the logical and inevitable outcome Of gov
eminent by Injunction. If you can enjoin
men from violating the law. and punish
them without legal trial for alleged vio-
lation of the injunction, you can assume
that they are about to violate the law and
prevent them-even by killing-from any
attempt to violate II. This vicious and
unconstitutional system began with the
adoption of the antitrust law as basis
for injunction. That law. which was never
contemplated by any one as applying to Ia
Dor organizations and which has never
been enforced against the trusts and COM
bines at which ii was aimed-those law
defying organizations which flaunt their
lawlessness daily in the faces of the people.
without let or hindrance from officials
was made the agency OF overthrowing con-
stitutional right, and the opening thus
made has been broadened and deepened
until today the whole injunction system
has become stencil in the nostrils of The
people and is commonly recognized as
threatening the very existence Of the Ma
tion.-Sunday Sentinel.
1t would not be fair to either side 10 pass
final judgment on the responsibility for
this shocking slaughter until all the facts
have been made clear on tho one side it
is claimed that men were merely going to
use moral suasion" en- the miners who
were at work; that they were unarmed
that they were on the common highway
and had committed no unlawful act up TO
the time they were fired upon and that
they then made no resistance, but broke
and ran in a panic away from the murd.r-
GUS fire On the other hand it is admit ID
the strikers We're on the highway and had
not trespassed on the mine property, but
evidently intended to do so; that the riot
act was read to them and they paid no
attention to 1t or to the warnings that fol-
lowed the reading; that they attempted to
force their way through the line Of depu-
ties that some of them were armed and
that 1t was only when they had beaten the
sherlif and he was in danger OF being
Killed the order was given to fire: that
shots fired over the heads of the mob only
iniuriated them and that to prevent them
charging on the deputies direct volley
was fired with the deadly effect shown by
the number OF killed and wounded. Where
the truth lies can only be found by rigid
stigation.-Cleveland Plain Dealer.