The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1903-02-19
Question of Violence.

anything to say to the commission in
parting
Question of Violence.
Yesterday Mr. barrow took up the
question of violence. You can never
have a great strike excepting here
and there violence is done" he said.
land so it was in the coal fields, where
100000 persons are living very close
to life" He said is was no wonder
after the operators had insolently and
cruelty rejected the requests of the
men, that there was not more violence
among this population, which was re.
duced to condition bordering on star
vation. He paid a tribute to the for.
eigners in the coal regions, whom he
said were a warm-hearted, emotional,
sympathetic, religious people. 1t
comes with poor grace, he said for the
operators to say that the Poles and
Slavs, whose labor the operators have
taken for years, could not speak Eng,
lish. and therefore are not responsi.
BILE party with whom they could make
a contract. He spoke of the strict ad.
herence of the operators to the dead
letter of the law. and the moral law Of
.hUD.a2atal2ityJ and lalmarked that - "aacs
of the captains of industry would re.
spect their fellow man, the bitter war
just ended would not have occurred.
and those who lost their lives in that
struggle would be alive today"
Conflicts between capital and labor
will continue. he said. until these cap
tains of industry respect their fellow
men. 1t is idle, futile and useless To
talk of curing it in any other way he
said.
Mr.. DarrOw then took IN the lS evic.
tions on the MarklC property. and with
language that was extremely strong he
pictured the eviction OF sick wife
and of a blind woman 100 years old.
you may roll together all the cruelty
and violence committed in the anthra.
cite region he exclaimed "and you
cannot equal the fiendish cruelty of
John Markle when he turned these
helpless people into the street simply
to satisfy his hellish hate"
Turning to the boycott. Mr.. Darrow
said there was one illustrious example.
at least, in the United States of the
boycott and that was in the Ameri.
can Revolution. There Is not one spc.
cifc act that is charged to the mine
workers, he said, but what was charg.
ed to the Loyalists whom we teach our
children to love and venerate. "You
and may sit here and Judge men by
the dead letter of the law. We may say
that this act is right and that act is
wrong, but up there sits the living God.
and He Judges the acts of men by an
other standard than ours. Let me say
there is the legal side and the moral
side. The boycott is an ancient
weapon; it is respectable when the
operators use it, but not respectable
when we use it."
He told of the distinction between
the boycott that is criminal and the
boycott that is within the law, and
then spoke of the non-union men.
whom he termed "scabs," although he
remarked he did not like the word,
but used it because it Is commonly
used. These men, he said, have al.
ways been hated Sometimes thev are
good men, often they act from neces.
s!,v, but tGCy arc traitors T. choir
class. They are men, he continued.
who are used by the capitalists to de.
stroy the rights and aspirations and
hopes of the workingmen.
"As class" he said, "this BODY of
men, as they have in this case, have
always been ready to take the benefits
that flow from organized labor and
never been willing to fight to obtain It.
They have never been ready to face
starvation and hunger and abuse in
the common cause, and as a rule the |
scab is a man who has no abiding
place on the face of the earth. He is
a wandering tramp, ready to be used
by anybody who will pay the price to