New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-03-12

garding hours and wages, but the matter babe
fair to be adjusted when Eugene " Debs presi-
dent of the American Railway Union, came to
Chicago from the Northwest. where he had won
a victory for the employees of the Great Northern
Railroad by tying the line up in the middle.
The managers of the road gave in, peace was
declared. and Debs came to Chicago prepared to
measure swords with the railway lines running
out of here. Apparently the time ripe for
the panic of the previous year had left most of
the roads in bad shape and Debs thought they
would meet the demands made upon them rather
than suffer the losses inevitable upon the stop
page of traffic. Using the Pullman trouble as
starter, the workmen there were called out just
as the controversy about to be adjusted,
having been previously enrolled as members of
the American Railway Union, and within
week. the managers Of the various railroad lines
having refused most emphatically TO agree 70
the rules laid down by the Debs organization,
not car wheel was turning within hundreds of
miles of Chicago.
FLOCKING TO DEBS'S STANDARD.
craze for joining the American Railway
Union apparently possessed the railway men of
the United States and they fiocked to the Debs
standard by the thousand every day: rioting and
incendiarism were incessant here. millions Of
dollars worth of property were destroyed by the
torch many lives lost in collisions with
Federal and State troops, business was abso-
lutely suspended in various lines. all the manu-
featuring establishments in the Central West
were idle the streets filed with starving
men, women and children; the lives Of citizens
out Of employment took to the highway with
sandbags for the purpose OF making a living.
Chicago and many other western cities were
terrorized, because the turbulent classes had
full sway, and revolution seemed to be at hand.
Suddenly the energy of the strike was para
lyZed; the employees realized that the railroads
would never give in, and they deserted the Debs
organization in droves; within a week after the
breakup began Debs was left alone with a few
fellow officers of his union, and not long after
ward was arrested by the Federal authorities
and sent to jail; his dream of a labor organiza-
lon hat 6i0JI
country vanished, and the American Railway
Union was heard of no more.
A REVIVAL OF STRIKE ACTIVITY.
Since 1894 labor unions have not encouraged
strikes. particularly sympathetic ones, which
the most dangerous and harmful of all; but
the beginning of the present year has witnessed
the starting of a struggle between organized
labor and organized capital, represented by
various classes of employers, that may result
in greater losses than even the mighty walkout
of six years ago, although it may not include
many spread over wide a ter
ritory
Until the present time employers have never
followed the example of their and bound
themselves together in councils and unions,
but they now declare that they have been
driven to it a matter of self-protection;
they say they were compelled to do something
TO resist the exactions of the labor unions,
which so tyrannized over them that they We're
Wellnigh driven to desperation and dangerously
near bankruptcy; that they have been afraid to
make contracts for fear their men would strike
at a critical period and compel Submission to
the rules of the union; that in short, they could
never rely upon their Workmen, and lived in
fear and trembling whenever they mad an I'M
portant work of any description on hand; that
the labor unions would bind themselves to do
certain things and then deliberately refuse to
live up to the terms agreed upon; that they
have been compelled to pay for full day on
the Saturday half-hoday, and paid extortion-
ately for extra or over time: that Worknen
often compelled by their unions to refuse
to do extra work or TO work overtime, Tor the
reason that the union leaders desired the work
to last as long as possible and give employment
TO as many men as could be put upon II, IN
spite of the fact that this delay often resulted
in great monetary loss to the employer because
the job could not be completed within the time
specified in the contract; and, finally, that the
labor organizations were arbitrary that they
practically took charge Of the employers affairs
and permitted them to have little voice in
the management OF their business, in which, as
often the case. hundreds of thousands of
dollars were invested.
MANUFACTURING FRIGHTENED AWAY.
1t is a fact that the constant labor agtations
here have prevented the location of many man
ufacturing establishments in Chicago
which would have given employment to many
thousands Of men, and that the strikes and
lockouts so far this year have already resulted
In losses TO workmen, contractors, factorymen,
merchants and men in many other lines of bust
ness which mount up into the millions; but one
can see the end of the trouble, which appears to
have settled down to a test of endurance The
worknen say if they lose their unions will be
broken up and they will be forever at the mercy
of employers, who will grind them down in every
possible way; the employers say If the work
men win they will be compelled to go out of
business entirely, giving the whole field to their
employees, who will undoubtedly miss. as one
contractor put 1t, the little envelope that's got
the weeks pay in it..