The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-10-18
Christian Kuhner and Polly McGraiI.

Christian Runner ana FOLLY McGra1l.
The signs multiply that the labor" dema-
gogue and criminal has fallen into hard
way In this city and neighborhood. and
that very robust public opinion has
been formed Of his vicious character.
1t has not always been so. At one time the
idea really obtained currency that labor
agitators did good work, that trades
unions invariably deserved public support,
and that the mere fact that a workingman
was non-union man was sufficient to con-
denim him. Few persons honestly and
thoroughly believed this, but GER
tain sort OF politicians, newspaper
owners wanting circulation" and the
hypocrite class in the community generally
pretended to believe It, So the open
breaking OF laws by strikers was winked at,
and oven new laws were enacted robblng
taxpayers and hampering the management
OF State affairs in an effort to catch strikers
votes. Such are the eight-hour law and the
prevailing rate Of wages" law, which are
costing our city alone millions Of wasted
dollars, serving to facilitate the grossest
frauds and swndles, and making the
proper administration Of more than ono
State department, notably that Of canals.
impossible.
Yet while labor agltators and politicians
will always continue more orless in alliance,
the people are looking askanco at the com
bination as never before. The change oc-
Cured when Judge SPRING handed down
his memorable decision in Buffalo last
year, not merely holding that boycotting,
in all its direct and indirect approaches,
was illegal and punishable civlly and
criminally, but tracing the anarchy Of
its parentage and dispassionately DEM
onstrating its harm to the business and
social world. Boycotters are now usually
kicked into the street by merchants as
soon as their odious business Is known.
The statute and the common law protecting
employers Is enforced; and the tribe of
boycotters, spreaders OF false and injurious
information, and assailants OF men and
women who are honestly trying to earn
living for themselves, have found police
clubs, prison bars and a vigorously
adverse public sentiment taking an early
and an active hand in their game.
We are moved to these reflections by two
Incidents which have recently been told Of
In print. One Is the way in which the new
order has dawned upon the mind Of JACOB
HANNEFAUTH, baker Of Morrsania, who
seems to have held to the belief in the pub
lie tolerance of the right Of strikers to COM
nit whatever crimes they chose with q
singular perversty and strenuousness.
There Is in Morrisania boss baker, CHRIS
TAN KUHNER by name, who Is one OF those
extraordinary men occasionally found con-
Quoting a business successfully without
consultation with labor union. Many
OF RUNNERS men were non-union men,
some were not. KUHNER did not care
whether they were union or nom
union, but paid them according to their
several abilities and paid them all well. Last
spring the Bakers Union demanded that
KrHNER should employ only union men.
The usual struggle ensued. Tho union
men struck KUHNER did his baking with
non-union men, and all the power Of
"labor" in the city was exerted to destroy
him. He endured the trouble uncomplan-
ingly until pacards in German and English
were mailed to his customers and scattered
over the territory in which his business
was located, calling him obscene names
and declaring that he beat his wife so that
she had fed from his home.
Then Mr. KUHNER caused the arrest OF
HANNEFAUTH, who had been distributing
the slanderous notices near RUNNERS bake
shop with the same profusion and open
ness as he would the handbills OF an auction
sale. In the police court HANNEFAUTH
looked surprised and injured when the
Magistrate told him that what he had done
was not allowed in this country, and held
him for the Grand Jury. The Grand Jury
has since indicted HANNEFAUTH and it is
evident that nothing but Executive elem
ency can save him from jailbird's clothes.
Different rs n pigsty is from nook Of
woodland violcts Is the tale OF HANNEFAUTH
and his filthy circulars from the story OF
Polly MCGRAIL. Polly McGRAIL is not
her real name but Mrs. EDWARD N SAMP-
son; yet 1t was MS Polly McGRAIL that she
was born and brought no and is known In
Paterson, N. j., and as Polly MCGRAIL
that the whole city and State ought to
cherish her as a brave and noble heroine.
She had been married only year and
half when her husband fell sick
with consumption. His support and
that of an eleven-months-old baby
rested with her alone. She had never
worked any to speak Of, but a chance
offered few weeks ago in the silk mill OF
JOHN HAND & Son, where the annual
strike was on over the union WACO sched-
ule. The wages seemed high to POLLY
MCGRAGL, and she applied for place in
the factory and got it. To the strikers who
besought her to leave the mill she said
simply that she had to work to support
her husband and baby and that she could
not leave. Then the same old cowardly
weapons of boycott, wordy abuse and
finally actual violence came into play.
Practically the whole Paterson suburb
OF Lnkeview turned out to fight this one
woman. Every afternoon when she left
the mill crowds of strikers and hoodlums
followed her to her home. their unclean
mouths filed with yells OF "scab" and still
viler epithets. They blew horns before her
cottage at night and hung posters covered
with ill-spelled insults upon her door. She
kept the posters from her dying husbands