The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-04-22
STUDENTS As =
STRIKE BREAKERS

Columbian students applied to the IN |
terborough Railway Company for pos
itions as strike breakers, and a num- !
Der Of them were at once put to work. |
Among these youths were the sons of
some of the wealthiest families in New !
York. TO quote the New York Herald: !
chalmers Wood Jr., leader in the
younger New York social set, who led
the last of the university cotillions, was
an applicant for a position as ticket
seller, and Seth Low Pierrepont ap- |
piled for appointment as ticket chopper. !
John Winslow, Hamlin Hatch, Henry |
M. Shevlin, Edward B. Close and r.
E. Evans were some Of the other men, |
bers Of prominent New York families
who were applicants for places as mot
ormen. Dick Whitwell, one Of Col |
umbia's football players, took a train
from City Hall to One Hundred and
Sixteenth street early in the day, and
then abandoned it to attend a lecture.
Later he was sent out as guard. S.
3. Jacobs, a senior in the School of
Mines, went to work early. The stu
dents in the upper two classes Of the
School of Electrical Engineering Jared
the best. Two of their number, H. c.
Dodge and L. F. Cohen, were put
through examinations for motormen
and were assigned to work at SO
day. Several other seniors and juniors
responded to the call for engineers in
the power-house. About a dozen New
York university men went to work as
motormen, guards and ticket agents
on the elevated railway. Several more
have applied for positions. Most OF
them are student sof engineering, and
rank as experienced hands,
Optimistic after-dinner orators are in
the habit of airily pooh-poohing the
idea Of the existence of a class strug-
gle in this country. Floods of POM
pous platitudes are let loose upon every
festive occasion, public and private, on
the utter absence of caste;;" 1.-The uni
versal spirit of democracy among our
"citizens,' etc. Still, every time there
is a strike Of any magnitude we find
the scions Of wealth and culture eager
to do what they can to help crush the
under dog in the struggle. While the
circumstances of poverty, ignorance
and hunger may perhaps be urged in
palliatioh Of the acts Of the ordinary
strike breaker, even the most charit-
able construction that can be put upon
the acts Of the sons Of multi-million-
aires who deliberately engage in strike
breaking can not purge them of the
stigma Of having been inspired by pet
ty-minde6 meanness. This position is
further strengthened when it is re-
membered that these men are students
of colleges, where, presumably, they
were sent to be grounded in those ethics
which form the base of education of
gentlemen. In view of all these adj
vantages of wealth., social position and
education, their department in taking
the places of striking workingmen is
that of contemplate cads, rather than
Of gentlemen -. 49,
Most of the students who went
strike-breaking in the New York Sub
way, and on the elevated railway, are
said to be "athletes,' as that term is
! understood in connection with college
sports. The fact is significant as tend
ing to substantiate the strong condem-
nation by President Elliot, Of Harvard,
of the game of football, as played by
! college students. President Eliot, 1t
will be remembered, charges that low,
cunning trickery and outright brutality,
rather than skill and fair play, are the
deciding factors in the winning of the
game, and that this has a most del
ecterious efefct on the formation of the
charters Of the players. This would
seem to be self-evident, and no doubt,
accounts for the disregard of the
ethics flair play exhibited by college
students who engage in the sport" of
Strike-breaking. WOrklngmen, OF
course, do not expect students to show
any particular partially for them; but
they have a right to expect that as
gentlemen, with the sense of honor and
fair play which clean sports clearly
conducted inculcate in the mind, the
students will keep their hands out Of
the fights between capital and labor.
When we consider that. the majority
Of the judges In our courts, the
preachers in our pulpits and the editors
of our great dailies, were football
playing college students in their youth,
how can we expect them to be .actu-
ated by sense of fair play and JUS
tice intheir dealings with class of
men with whoseambitions and striv-
ings theiy naturally do not sympathize?
As the twig Is bent, so the tree will
grow. and college education which
develops in youth the temperamental
traits Of cunning, trickery and brutali-
ty, is not likely to make Of him In aft
er years an upright Judge or sincere
preacher. This conclusion tallies with
the well-known fact that in practice
there is one law for the rich and an
other for the poor, and with the atti-
tude in general of the press and the
pulpit toward labor.-Seaman's Jour-
nal.
Oh, IT IS EASY.