The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-10
The st. Louis Strike.

more disgraceful spectacle than the
St. Louis strike situation presents to the
country and to the world could not be be-
lieved possible. 1t is even more disgrace
full because the State of Missouri is under
Democratic administration, and a Dem
ocratic Governor is responsible for and
able to enforce order in the metropolis OF
the Commonwealth. If he were not SO.
then government by the party Of the peo-
pie would come to be regarded a fall
ure.
The Democratic Governor OF Missouri,
Stephens by name, for weeks has known
that condition Of anarchy has existed in
ST. Louis which the local authorities were
either unwilling or unable to suppress. In
view of the situation il was his duty from
the start TO invoke the military power OF
the State and not TO play contemplate pol
itics as he has been doing. He ought to
have occupied the streets with battalions
Of troops and machine guns three weeks
ago. The murders and dynamite outrages
that have occurred are chargeable TO his
official cowardice He cannot escape the
charge. When respectable women are
stripped and beaten in public thorough
fares in an American city in broad day
light by rioters the time for fusillsd es and
slaughter has certainly arrived. Yet Gov
ernor Stephens has permitted such out
RACES to happen and has held his hand.
He Is disgrace to his party and his coun-
try.
The trouble in St. Louis did not arise in
any way to excite public sympathy for
those who caused it. The tramway COM
panies of the place were held up by a COM
bination demanding things which were alb
solutely uniustifiaple. The street car
unions demanded that the employing cor
porations should be restrained from dis
charging an employe for incompetency
unless the question Of incompetency was
1T& referred to the union, with power to
decide. 1t was insisted that no man should
be employed unless he was a member of
the union. and not even then without con-
sent Of the union. And all questions af-
fecting the relations Of the companies to
the union were to be submitted to arbtra-
ton, practically controlled by the union
The Times is radically opposed to all
trusts which Cypress the people either
through combinations of capital in res'ra mt
Of trade, or other sorts of combinations In
restraint Of liberty and good order. The
terms offered by the ST. Louis Street Car
Union undoubtedly come within the latter
category. That four thousand persons, in
visiting upon uneconomic and socially de-
structive concessions, should be able 10 ter
rorize community of seven hundred thou
sand people for whole month simply
amounts TO horror.
We are glad to believe that Democratic
sentiment in Missouri has at last driven
the coward Democratic Governor of the
State to take action; just as Democratic
sentiment in the country at large In 1898
compelled the Hanna Administration to
make war upon Spain to free Cuba. But
action comes too late not TO leave a bad
Stephens taste in the mouths of the Amer |
lean people. The whole business is in !
striking contrast TO the bravery Of New |
York Democrats, who have not hesitated |
to crush another kind of trust, because 1t |
was in the hands and operated for the ben
Eft of Tammany leaders