The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-03-16
THE WRONG COURSE.


| human nature, who does not know that
the opposite effect will follow. The des-
truction of life or property, whether by
mob violence under direction of organ
| lied labor, or otherwise, is lamentable
and will be condemned by all honorable
citizens. Under the present cOnstitu-
ton of society every community
throughout the civilized world clamors
for peace and harmony. But conditions
that will insure peace and good order
is question that must command the
craftsmanship of the entire country.
We may place whole districts under
martial law, extensive sections of the
country may glisten with the bayonets
of the federal troops, and labor organ
izations may be placed under the sever
est prescription, but all those by no
means furnish a solution to the pro-
blem. The way to insure peace is to
insure justice That labor is entitled to
a fair share of the wealth that it pro-
That capital deserves protection is
equally true. But guarantee to la
Dor that it will receive fair remunera-
ton and fair recognition will insure
life and property against violence so
for as labor organizations are concern
ed. In every country and in every age
wherever and whenever this remedy
has been applied, it has proven effect
ual and an era of peace and security
has followed. Wherever the opposite
course has been pursued there followed
riot and instruction. Force that re-
quires the sacrifice either of life or
property is a disgraceful remedy for
either party in the controversy between
capital and labor to resort to.
But what is wanted is government
that will give labor equal protection
with capital and punish the crimes of
both capital and labor with equal
capital in the whole country will not
deny that it was the duty of the Bunk
err Hill company to have joined the
other mine operators of the district and
unified the rate of wages and other la
Dor conditions, and if that had been
done there would have been no destruc-
ton of either life or property. 1t is al
so true that the failure of theBunker
Hill company to make this nominal con
pie without a remedy under the opera
tions of the government. The only
peaceful remedy known to the law was
the submission of the question at issue
to the state board Of arbitration. This
the company fatty refused to do even
when so advised by the governor of the
state. The Bunker Hill company
spurned every entreaty to a peaceable
settlement of the difficulty and courted
war, and got it. 1t is unfair to place
all responsibility for forceful demon
STATIONS on the shoulders of labor until
the laws grant to labor equal protection
with the organized capital of the
country.
When capital few years ago sent it's
hired thugs into Jersey City and shot
down innocent school children, the I'm
tied States army was sent there to pro-
tect the people. When hired assassins
murdered and plundered the innocent
people of Buffalo there was no army
sent to protect them. When Jay Gould
went into Omaha with his hired thugs
and climbed the poles of the American
Telegraph company and cut the wires
and transferred them to the Western
Union, and thereby committed peni-
tertiary offense, there was no army
called out. In fact he stole the whole
Erie railroad and forged a check and
drew a million dollars out of a Cleve-
land, Ohio, bank that belonged to 9TH
to1 hx,
on lonely sidetrack in his private car
for the act.
When Sheriff Martin, with his band
Of deputies, shot down twenty unarmed
and defenseless miners in Pennsylva-
MIA two years ago he flew to the army
for protection, and for two weeks the
civil authorities were met at the guard
lines with WincheSters and denied the
right to serve a civil summons, and
when finally he was arrested the min
ing corporations made a farce of the
trial and he was given his liberty and
a public reception.
All these and hundreds of other acts
of violence and murder on the part OF
| organized capital are fresh in the minds
| of the people, and in all them there has
been notable absence of protection tt
labor. The placing of the Occur d'Alent
| district under martial law, the inter
vention of the federal soldiers, thu
| wholesale arrest of miners and Other
wOrkmen, and the refusal to let any
| mine operator hire members of organ
| lied labor may for a time mollify con
ditiOns, but they cannot reach beyont
temporary expedient. What the goot
people want is settlement of existing
| differences between capital and labor
not by placing an armed guard at tn,
door of. every workingman, not by pau
periZing ten thousand men to make on,
millionaire, not by giving labor tn
right to work for any wages capita
may offer and necessity compels tn
| poor to accept, hut the right of all la
boring men to work in the field of pro
ductive enterprise for what his labor i
worth in the world. Any other solu
ton will prove a lamentable failure
| Armies may be called into action
Whole sections of the country may b.
placed under martial law, labor organ
izations destroyed and a thousand mel
sent to the prison cell, but in the lon,
run they will only intensity the situa
ton and exaSnerate tho nnh1io min.