The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-05-30
YALE "STRIkE BREAKERS"
Yale students are disgracing them

Yale students are disgracing them
lives by acting as strike breakers
by doing work that teamsters refuse
to do at wages offered. Many disrep-
utable acts have happened at our
great institutions of learning. "Haz
ing" exploits that left the victim
manned for life, drunken orgies by
which the college towns have been
terrorized and cane" rushes and
other class forms of class rivalry that
were nothing less than riots, have
become so common as to scarcely
cause comment These things in the
absence of any more logical reason,
may be excused on the score Of being
an excess of animal spirits or as
Outbreaks of bOyish deviltry." BUT
when students deliberately forsake
their studies and take the places of
men who are striking either for a
principle or for wages, they do a Sc
rious thing. The young fellows who
dOnned Overalls last week in New
Haven, in order to break strike of
teamsters, would feel insulted if
asked to do the same work as a
means of livelihood. They would con-
slider it an afront to- their feelings
as gentlemen; they would disdain
to do manual labor, as being beneath
their position in society,"" and re-
fuse it on the lofty ground that it
might faint their family honor Still
these Yale boys have actually put on
the clothing and performed the func-
tons of laborers. If this be the act
| of gentlemen" then indeed is the
e Il inc md
| become a title which Prospecting
mel will scOrn to be known by.
| Wage earning as means of liveli-
| hood is beneath" these young men.
And then they accept the places of
men who are On strike to obtain
wages to buy bread for their families!
| No act could be meaner than that of
these mel. who don't have to work.
! in taking the places of those who do.
| Such men would take a bone away
from a starving dog and laugh at its
| hunger spasms. Any act beneath"
such men is so low that the devil
would turn away from it in shame
! These Yale students will suffer moth
ling for their disreputabble acts. They
| will continue to eat goose liver and
drink champagne. though the men
| whose jobs they sGOk may become
! cramps and their wives washerWomen.
| The old man" will look out for these
! .oung disreputabl5s while he lives.
/ and when he dies will leave them suf-
! ficiert wealth 60 sustain the Family
! honor" till they Gissipate themselves
| into their graves. Bat what does
the American public thiHk Of such
acts? Does il sop in its mad com
mercial race to think what such things
| pOrtend? The perpeCuity Of this re
! public depends upon the prosperity
| of its IabOrers. Apathy in public at
j fairs and misgOyernment has created
| a condition where W0rN1gmen are
! arraEed against WOrFingmeH in
continuous struggle for existence.
This is nor just-it is not natural;
| it is condition that should not exist
! But American workingmen are con-
! seryatiye beings; they realize that
| ties have themselves to blame for
/ this condition. Thev know thoir DO
IiticaI shortcomings have created the
capitalisJ-w whose son "don't have to
work" and who goes to Yale TO be
come a strike breaker" Realizing
that their remisness has brought
/
they are the chief sufferers. they are
seeking 10 better those conditions;
seeking to do so praceably and with
out disrupdng the government. In
the evolution Of this attempt has
come the labor union as the most fea-
sible way Of attaining their desired
end-industrial equality. The labor
union antagCniZcs the WOrkingman
that does not belong to il only until
such WOrNngman understands its
purposes and benefits; then he be
comes part Of it. Ia the process of
bringing the non-uniOnist to this
point there is friction, contention by
word and sometimes a display of
force; but it is a struggle between
WOrkngmen. If they were left to
fight it out among themselves they
would eventually become of one
mind. 1t is deplorable that working
men should thus nave to fight each
other 10 establish a right which is
n2tural. but the fight should not be
made the more bitter and lasting by
the intermeddling Of men who are
not WaSe-earners. Ii is this inter
meddling that keeps the Labor Ques-
ton unsOlyed 1t is the employer as
Stunning to have voice in the price
OF labor that prevents the men who
labor from agreeing upon that price.