Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-06-08
UNION LABOR.

when INuOdul tlOluIlu Iluuc lltT cN.
so Liberty! Liberty! how
many crimes are committed i'll thy
name!'she uttered a truth even though
it might have sounded heretical. So
we might now say "Union Labor! what
crimes are committed in thy name!!"
Generally speaking, Labor has a per
feet right to unite for mutual protec.
ton, but when it assumes such powers
as it has in recent years the time has
come when the government should step
in, control it and say 'thus far and no
farther The strike nowi in progress
in st. Louis is a good example of pres.
ent methods of Union Labor, just as
was the Debs instruction in Chicago
six years ago.
In the present strike more than 5000
employees of the st. Louis Traction
company are out of employment, and
nearly 100000 patrons of that company
dependent upon it for transportation,
are Inconvenience as the result of a
strike inagurated by the union con-
ductors and motormen. To add to
the Generalization there has been
bloodshed and destruction of property
while the conduct of all lines of bust
ness has been hampered.
The cause of this undesirable state
of affairs, is not a difference between
employers and employees as to wages.
This matter was settled in st. Louis in
tract with the company agreeing upon
hours and compensation. Thepresent
trouble was p%recipitated by the de-
mand of the unions that the company
should employ only members of the
Amalgamated Association of Street
Railway Employees of America. 1t
appears that there aretwo organizations
of street railway employees i'll st. Louis
only one of which is affiliated with the
amalgamated association. This one
has now insisted that t~hetraction COM
pany shall discharge employees not
connected with the national organiza.
ton, and refuse to hire any but men,
bers of that organization in the future.
In order to do this the contract enter
ed into in March has been abrogated
and u strike inaugurated.
The strike was inaugurated because
the company refused to accede to a
demand that would make the amalga.
mated association the determining
influence as to what employees il
should hire. If the only question al
issue we're as to the fultllment of the
contract, arbitration might easily Offer
q method of settling the difference
AS it is, the management of the com
pany insist upon its right to deal witt
its own employees directly and no
through a national organization, ant
it certainly has or ought to have thi
right. But the modern UNIONS. gener
ally speaking, are dominated by a elias
of dead-beat agitators, who are to-
lazy to work with anything but thei
mouth and too incompetent to hold
position in any shop or Office onl
for their connection with the union
So when a strike is inaugurated almos
invariably intimidation and force j
resorted to to carry their point. A
an evidence of this, we clip the follow
ing from the st. Paul Pioneer Press:
"Christine Their, eighteen years o
age, was set upon by u crowd of abou
1000 men simply because she had rid
den on a car OF the st. Louis Transi
company. She was on the way to spen,
the day with her mother. She was
servant. The distance was too far t
walk and get back to her employer
By night. She took a street car. Whel
she alighted at Ninth street and Geye
avenue at 5 p. m. from a Cherokee ca
she was approached by a young mar