Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-04-19
M|uEAN. NNk|N I CO.
1888, 114Od 1142 MiRKET ST.

| grades and elements in it. There is the
rich man; there is the man who has
comfortable living; there is the man who
! is struggling for existence, and there is
| the man who can never make both ends
| meet Now, whose fault is it? This is
| free country. No man IS compelled to
wSrk except to save himself and his FAM
| lily from starvation. There is no law, ex-
cept the law of the Almighty, that
| COMPELS A MAN TO WORK.
| BY the sweat of your brow you shall
earn what you possess. No railroad COM
pany, no corporation or co-partnership
| of any character, and no citizen can
compel other people to work for them.
| You. who are engaged in obstructing
| the running of cars on this railway are
destroying the rights of the people who
| constructed a road quite as much for your
| convenience and benefit as for their own
! profit. Without this railway running
through streets from Bridgeport and Mar
| tins Ferry in Ohio, to Benwood IN our
own State, what inconvenience would you
'0e subject to? Think moment what a
| matter of public benefit this street rail-
way is to you. Suppose the railroad
! should be obliterated and you had moth
| ing but the trucks and express wagons
| that are now passing over your Streets
| for the accommodation of the public
what would be the effect upon your city?
| You would be retrograding from the con-
dftion of an electric street railway back
| to the old omnibus instead of progressing
| from the omnibus and old morse car line
| to the electric railway, and from the
| electric railway to the next advanced
means of transportation that may happen
| in the future.
| This country is a country of progress;
| it is a country in which all citizens
ENJOY EQHJAL RIGHTS;
| it is a country where every man haS a
| right to labor for himself and be pro-
tected in the acquisitions that result from
| his labor. Now, think of that! No man
is compelled to work. He may starve if
he chooses to. Neither is any man COM
PEELED to work for inadequate wages. But
in connection with that there Is another
thing to consider: If you cannot get what
you think is right and fair for your SER
vices, stop-quit-and let your neighbor
come in who is willing to work for the
same compensation. He has right to do
it. Why should you interfere with men
who are engaged by this company and
who are willing to work for wages that
you do not wish to labor for? You should
not interfere with them.
81 am not here, gentlemen, TO
SYMPATHIZE WITH EITHER SIDE.
| in this matter. L am here to enforce the
| law. 1t may be that the railroad COM
pany is paying more compensation for
| labor now than the revenues of the roa
| justify. The railway company certainly
| is the judge of that. 1t may be that the
| laborer who is employed is rot getting
what he thinks he ought to receive. He
| is the judge of that. If the railway COM
pany says: We are paying too much and
shall have to reduce your wages you
have a right to quit. They cannot compel
| you to work. Ii the laborer says to the
| railway company, You are not paying me
enough. you ought to give me more and
they refuse to do it, you have a right
| to quit. Nobody interferes with you. That
| is your r.ght-your inalienable right-un-
| der our institutions. But there the thing
stops. You have no right to organize a
communistic club or a conmunistic soci-
| ETY. for the purpose of enforcing that
| which, under the law, you are not entitled
| to enforce.
THE law does not
GIVE YOU ANY RIGHT
| to go into the courts of the country and
say to this railway company. We are
| working to-day for sixteen cents an hour,
but you must give us twenty cents You
| cannot make them do it. The law does
not give the railway company any right
| to go into the courts of the country and
say TO the laborer, We have been paying
you sixteen cents an hour, but you must
come down to twelve and force them to
do it, The courts cannot do that. Now,
| there is the whole thing in nutshell.
| IF any of the men engaged in this
! strike are within the sound of the court 5
voice (and 1 have no feeling IN this matter
except the feeling that / always have fer
| those who feel that they are oppressed,
l want to ask you to weigh well what I
! have said to you here to-day This is the
same character of talk that made upon
former occasion in reference to strike
on this road. l have made it for the ben
eft of the community.
| What are the results CT strikes? They
| DEMoRALIZE LABOR.
| What else do they do? They interfere
with values. The property of a city may
! have a value to-day, and the property of
railroad company may have a value
to-day. but repeated strikes by labor or
| CARNATIONS or communistic associations,
/ or by people who have anarchistic views,
| reduces Wharf.-The value of property.
And when you reduce the value of prop
erty you reduce the ability OF those who
| own property and those engaged in bus
iness to pay fair. remunerative price
| for labor.
Labor and capital must
GO HAND IN HAND
together. Capital should not be too ex-
| acting, nor should labor be too exacting
| Capital and labor should deal with each
| other in q spirit of fairness. but neither
should claim the right TO dictate terms
| to the other, You go to your grocery
man and YOU ask him what tea is worth,
or what coffee is worth, and he tells you.
Well you say, I win so to another
place; think l can do better That gro
ceryman 70 whom you went cannot compel
| you to take his tea or his coffee at the
prices he fixed. but you go TO the other
! man. thinking you can do better, and you
/ buy OF him. Now. that is the underiy-
! ing principle between man and man ia
All the negotiations o. Iife Ton - !