New-York tribune., 1906-04-24
A LOGICAL BOYCOTT.

1t is a great thing to stand for principle and
to be courageousIy logical Most of us let our
sympathies, fears and affections draw us
from the straight and narrow path of duty to
the ideal. 1t takes a good deal Of heroism to
execute perfect Justice against those for whom
our heartStringS torn. The stern prob1ty OF
the magistrate who sentenced his own son to
death won respect rather than emulation. 1t is
rare that anything occurs among us suggesting
the same high austerity. We glad, therefore,
TO give due appreciation TO one incident growing
out of the San Francisco disaster.
Most of the people are falling
other in their anxiety to help the victims of the
earthquake, regardless of red tape. We have
not heard the professional mourners for the
Constitution complaining because the Secretary
of War has spent money which was not appro-
priated. Nor have the guardians of liberty
arisen to denounce the 'usurpatiOn" involved in
ordering United States troops to keep order in
San Francisco without an antecedent formal
call of the Legislature of California of the
Executive. if the Legislature could not be con-
vened-though they did this at the time of the
Baltimore fire. great deal has been heard of
late about the crime of bank and business
corporation directors who gave their stockhold-
ers money to political committees. The COM
plaint has not been merely that they violated
sound public policy in taking part as corpora
tiOnS in what the proper business of cit
iZens, but that they had committed a crime in
using corporation money for other than cor
pOratiOn purposes as defined in the charters.
Yet without murmur the officers of banks and
railroad companies and other stock corporations
are subscribing in the name of their corporations
to the relief fund. We most of us very
human. after all, and do not dwell long on the
empyrean heights of abstract logic when an ap-
peal is made to our feelings-unless are
labor uniOnsts with the principle of unionism to
maintain
According to dispatches from Minneapolis, the
labor unioniStS of that great milling centre are
no weak sentimentalsts, but are sternly true TO
their cause. Agreeing with General Sherman
that war is hell" they propose to carry on
their war against 'scabS'' and 'scab -four with
out any concession because it may involve suf
fering and death. Unionism must triumph,
though San Francisco go hungry. Therefore,
the secretary of the Building Trades Council has
protested TO the officers in charge Of the relief
work in Minneapolis against sending out flour
which has been boycotted by the local labor
unions The general secretary of the Inter
national Union of Flour and Cereal Mill En-
ployes has taken the same position. The San
Francisco people ought to starve rather than eat
non-union bread Charles Reade's lesson of the
wickedness of the miller who wantonly de-
strOyed grain which his workmen would not let
When the tables are turned and their principle
is at stake the food ought to be destroyed.
We are sorry to note that after having as
serted their austere principles these men weak
ened a little in the enervating atmosphere Of
universal good will toward the afflicted, and
mOdesty sought to hide their heroic stand. Hap
PLY they were not allowed to do so. The rare
quality of their devotion to principle undeterred
by human weakness was at once recognized and
indelibly recorded. They may feel uncomfor-
table in the white light of publicity and suffer
from the reprOach of sentimental public which
thinks only of relieving suffering. But they have
done good service. They have been logical, and as
true logic is a rule that works both ways we are
able to see in this conclusion of the bOycotters
doctrine his major premise, which is that state,
religion and humanity nothing compared
with his own interests. Rule or ruin is his
motto to be impartially applied in dealing with
a handful of rival workers or half million in
n0cent people in want.