The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-09-16
ANARCHY I'M cLRYELAND.
Some Serious Reflections on the Reign
OfDisorder IN That City.

Some Serious Reflections on the Reign
OfDisorier IN That City.
Washington Post: Does 1t not occur
to the authorities of the city of cleve-
land, Ohio, that they are in a fair way
Of presiding over anarchy?
During the earlier stages of the great
street car strike public opinion
throughout the country was disposed to
take a lenient view. Everyone knows
that the average municipal machinery
is not prepared to cope with an upris-
ing in which thousands of determined
and reckless men are engaged. Our
form of government does not contem-
plate such emergencies, because We
live under popular institutions, and It
is supposed that the people who control
everything will not undertake to de-
stroy their own creation. It follows.
therefore, that, Just at first, the local
officials may be surprised, and, tempo
rarily, incompetent. This was uni
versally understood, and the country
awaited, with such patience as 1t could
summon, the restoration Of law and or
uEI III AleNGlhllus N4GAl ia hGAAGA Va
that sacred privilege guaranteed them
by the constitution-the right to earn
their livelihood by honest toil-were
cruelty beaten and MANNED. sometimes
killed outright, In the pursuit Of their
undeniable prerogatives. Passengers in
the street cars were subjected to peril,
often to actual injury, because they
sought to enjoy a privilege theoretic-
ally open to them at all times. All this
at first. Violence held high carnival in
Cleveland. Riot, destruction. and hom-
icide. or attempted homicide, were the
order OF the day. The city was given
over to barbarism. Organized society
was trOdden under foot, and license, In
It's bloOdlest and most ruthless form,
usurped the throne of Christian clvili-
cation. All this at first.
But has not the time arrived at which
law and order may be reinstated? Is 1t
possible that a great city like Cleve-
land. In the state Of Ohio. and existing
under the protection Of this enlightened
natIon-is 1t possible. we ask, that
Cleveland must be held indefinitely in a
condition Of unbridled savagery? Only
a few days ago car, running to some
suburban point and practically loaded
with women, was blown up by dyna-
mite, and only few days before sim
liar infamy was perpetrated, with
frIghttul and abhorrent consequences.
Has Cleveland. has Ohio. no power to
arrest this regime of brutality? Surely
the men engaged in these astounding
barbarities cannot be American work.
ingmen. So far as we can gather from
the police and hospital reports, they are
TehakowskIs, and Babinskys, an6 the
llke-aliens. seml-savages, imported
desperadOeg They are not of our peo-
pie. They might as well be Fills. or
2ulus or Cambodians. And yet, 1t
seems Incredible that these benighted
heather can. without some powerful
and mysterious backing, lay waste the
civilization of Cleveland, unless that
city be unfit for self-government
What are the facts, then? Why is II
that this horrible regime Of savagery
cannot be oblIterated in one OF the lar
gest and most prosperous communities
in a nation so boRstful Of its enlighten-
ment and strength? Is popular govern
ment failure?