The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1903-05-15

The American utters our senti
ments precisely in the following
remarks on the strike:
The strike on the Mobile & Ohi(
Railroad ought to be speedily adjusted
There is no possible excuse for asassi
nation, murder, destruction Of prop
erty or any form of lawlessness. Jus
tice will not be avenged until the
punishment of the cowardly brute
who murdered the young man who
was exercising his rights as an
American citizen to earn an honest
living is accomplished. The relations
between the NJ. & o. road and its en-
ployes have long been amicable, and
and there should be no need ofthe en-
ployment of force of any kind in the
settlement of the present trouble,
which, it is to be hoped, is merely tenn
p jrary.
Of course the strikers disclaim
any connection with the murder,
Notwithstanding the young mans
cold blooded slayer has not yet
been suspected. Working people
should be fortified by law equal to
the capitalist, but there is no ex-
cuse nor justification in taking the
life of an individual, whose crime
is no more than the pursuit OF an
honest living, even though his
services came in competition with
another. There is a commendable
propriety in the rights of trades
men and professional men to form
themselves into societies or organ
izations for mutual protection and
the good of their brotherhood, and
they are also properly invested with
a RIGHT to ask or demand q fair ex
change of the fruits of labor or
talent, but when these means are
exhausted, there is no resource but
the law and the ballot box. 1t the
taws,are not just or the enforce
ment thereof, then, what makes
this country the greatest on earth,
the American sovereign has re-
course to the ballot box. We
don't believe our railroads are as
monopolistic in their operation as
some of the great manufacturing
institutions. For instance, the
great Merganthaler Linotype cor
poration, who build machines at
an aggregate cost of $3.50, embrac-
lng every item of expense to the !
and sell them as fast !
is they are made for 50, 200. This t
Is legal, but the law which protects !
It is unsound. 1t is theft, pure l
Ind simple, just as much so as the q
let of a bandit or horse thief in the a
performance of his practice. But I
5he railroads have not been doing c
his. For years and years until a
comparatively a few years since t
nearly all the railroads of this t
were poverty, stricken and g
lew of them were able to pay ex- t
oenses, saying nothing of divi- l
lends; and up to half dozen years t
Lgo there were not more than a /
lozen trunk lines making profit E
)ver cost of operation and repairs. l
Now, of course, there is a differ t
ence, but the employees have been |
very marked recognition
n the way of advanced salaries, {
whether or not fair compensation
;or their work we are not sutfi
,iently posted to say. We be
ieve, however, that the strikers
will have the respect and sympa-
,hy of the people as long as they
'efrain from the destruction of s
or lawlessness there is
10 call for the discussion of MUIR t
'er), but the minute they under
AXE to interfere with the Com {
oany's rights or property that mo- I
nent they lose their prestige and G
he proper respect of their claims. !