The Sunday globe., 1901-05-05
A LABOR STRIKE.
Which the Honest TOilerS of Ohio
Still Remember.
A LETTER TO THE EDITOR,
Which Compensates while L Recalls His Sue
csssfuI Efforts Against The Columbus
Consolidated Street Railway
COmpany-An Attempt 10
BHbe Fails and Friend
ship Severed
The following letter was received by
the editor of this paper yesterday:

| Ine eultof Ol Jnls paper yesterudy'
FLINT, OHIO, April &c. 1901.
Comrade W. j, ELLIOTT,
Washington, ID, c.
DEAR SIR / saw a short time ago notice
in the Columbus Daily citizen that you was
going TO start Sunday paper ln Washington,
d. O., May 5, 1901. AS have met you often
In Mccoy Post, in Wolcott and in Jones
Han, and | was always n subscriber TO your
paper as long as It was published and al
ways admired your way Of running a paper
and the stand you took in the latter eighties,
when the street car companies bought up all
the Columbus papers, but the Capital was not
for sale. Your paper I always thought did
more 70 end that strike In favor Of the men
than anything else. have worked in Co
lumbus for twenty years and am an iron
molder. January l, 1891, bought me a little
home twelve miles north Of Columbus and
have resided there ever since.
Please send me your FIRST two issues of the
Sunday Morning Globe, May 8 and y, and
oblige
Yours in f. c., and L.,
A. IL. BRELsFoRD,
Flint, Franklin County, Ohio.
! Postofice box 50.
Enclosed flnd 20 cents for same.
| If / can be Of any service to you here by
getting you a few subscribers / will be glad to
do so.
This honest, brawny son OF toll is the
! typical American working man. There
are millions Of him in this broad COnti-
nent fit to rule in senate or lead an army,
as well as pour the molten iron in the
molds prepared by his labor and handi-
craft,
1t Is ten years since the last issue OF
the ewspaper Mr.. Brelsiord refers to-,
yet the memory OF it has not faded
among the toilers, the poor aud the OPP
pressed, whom it champioued and tor
whose cause we electvely preferred the
social ostracism Of the aristocrat and
parvenue or the patronage. of the rich in
exchange for the qualification of princi-
pie and conviction,
Friends and even relatives have added
to the gaiety of our position while suffer-
ing the penalty the law enforced for its
justitiablo violation, in the tragedy re-
terred TO i'm our salutatory, 10y asking:
"Where now are the masses whom you
championed against the classes2 Why
do thSy not come to your aid and assist
you-the classes have. secured your
But even in the darkest hour we never
lost isith in nor despaired OF thoir sym.
pSthy, and that was all we could expect,
as aid was Out of the question when the
classes were the iailers and their victinl
the man who bad fearlessly Sssailed cor
rUptiOn atsd tho assumed privilege %
caste and fortune, The letter above
quoted is more precious 20 us than tn,
recognition of Vanderbilt, Morgan Oi
Rock fielder. 1t springs spontaneously
from he graceful end menly heart of un
sophisticated good ness aud uncOrIW ptibl'
integrity. Utopians, Feformers, Attire
I reans and their class seeking the idea
i'm virtue, enanhood, and exalted human
att tbutes have their heads So high il
, the air that they mtss seeing the very
material required for the foundation 0
their idealisttc society in such humbl,
} tOilers' rs the writer of the letter above
The Intellectual, tho refined, the gifted
} aud the wealthy reside only in the alti
tudes where the idealists VISION il
focused Tor ais adherents in "the father
: lIhood of God and the brotherhood o
man" heEce the failures in the well
y meaning et1orts T. found "Nthe paFliamen
: ofDHan, the federation of4the world." All
viHue springs fgOm the humble in spiri
and the honest IN heart and in the ranki
of the tsilers the BrelstOrd type is mill
ions OF aimes enultiplied IN every lsnC
faHd in every people.
The street car strike of hich referenc,
~ made by Mr.. Brelsford, was one o
the n0bed labor protests of the country
) THE men were ground down TO such al
| l"extent that even putlic indignation wa
. EarouSs1 10y che Sunday Caputal) and th,
Colutn bus Consolidated Street Railway
| was signal y.defeated. The writer fOunS
cases where the employees had toddler'
: whOOn they never heard speak or cal
i papa" innsmuch as the babes were
| aglaafn A han fhn taffltara rafnrnaH
their eighteen hOuT stretchOf work aRC
the Hen hGd to be at their posts la tn,
! morning before thsGhildren were awake e
Meals had to be e2ten on tBe street carr
whibe on the trip, and this condition o
! affairs existed in the capital city of OhiC
until the sunday Capital assailed tn,
management aud compelled the com.
! pany to treat their employees as human
+ beings,
! Every newspaper in the city assailed
! the Capital and defended, the company
One of the directors OF the company
Mr.. Robert Sheldon (the present head o.
the Columbus Traction Company, Wal
a personal friend of the editor Of the
Capital, and vainly endeavored to use
his valued friendship to change or mod.
lily our assaults. Ike visited every news.
paper office in the city on a Saturday
evening and paid each paper its price tol
an article condemuing the strike and
the editor Of the Capital and informed
him in the presence OF mutual friends oi
what he had done, and he then offered tC
pay the Capital a sum equal to what he
had paid the other newspapers COM
bined and multiplied by two for our
silence.
We severed our friendship on the spot.
ana published the next morning his Of
fer OF the bride and the fact that he had
successfully corrupted the entire press
Of the city. We also published in par
allel columns two atttdavits by the olfi-
Gals Of the company, made ten days
apart, in one of which they swore 10
Seligman Il Co., New York bankers, that
their rolling stock and property were
worth certain amount, and in the other,
which was the tax return blank, they
sWO to "A sum not One-siXth as large.
The affidavit for the Seligmans was to
secure loan on a mortgage, the affidavit
10 the county auditor was 10 esca pc their
proper share of taxation. one or the
other of the allidavits was perjury, and
the fact did not escape public notice that
perjury was committed and that the re-
turn To the auditor for taxation was false
as well as periured.
When the Sunday Capital laid all these
facts before the public on that memoir
able Sunday morning the capital city Of
/ ONO slZZled with excitement, and the
town became exceedingly sultry for the
company. To prevent proceedings the
next day for the revocation Of their
charter the great and powerful Consoli-
dated Street Railway Company, which
refused an interview to a committee of
| its employees few days previous, ig-
nominiously struck its flag, and on
Monday noon the company's cars, de-
corated with American flags and manned
by the triumphant strikers debouched
from the car barns at either end of the
city and made their first trip through
streets lined with cheering people.
The working hours were reduced one
third. The pay was increased twenty
five cents on the dollar, and the company