The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-11-05
American Federation Of Labor.

The other day | happened to see in a
paper meant only for the eyes of en-
ployers an interesting story of war. 1t
was a reprint of the annual report of
the Chicago Great Western railroad, in
which it gives an account of how it
broke a strike. 1t says it "resorted to
professional strike breakers who are
willing to work during excitement and
danger, but refuse to work after the ex-
element and danger is over
They are poor mechanics" the re-
port says, and always demand high
pay. The company paid them two
months the wages which the strikers
had demanded, and in addition furnish
ed them with board and lodging within
the company's barricade.
The strike breakers are recruited
from all parts of the country by means
Of advertisements in the newspapers
and through employment bureaus
Fully 80 per cent. of the strike break
ers Nnew nothing about machinery, and
had to be gotten rid of, but that was
not easy
The first bach discharged consisted
Of about one hundred men, who refused
to leave the barricade, made themselves
a fort within the company's barricade,
and, producing guns and knives, re-
fused to bulge. The company's fight
ing men this is all quoted) after a
day or two, forced them out of the
barricade into special train, which
carried them under guard to Chicago"
After going into details about the in
competence Of the strike breakers and
the methods used for breaking the
strike, the report says: The fighting
men have been discharged and the bar
ricades removed"
This is what is called law and order.
1t is not violence. 1t is gentle, peace
able effort on the part of the employ
ers to protect honorable thugs who de-
mand higher wages and better condi-
tions OF work.
That's what the papers tell us.
The facts are the company refuses
decent wages, puts up barricades, goes
over the country and hires ex-convicts,
prize fighters and lodging house buns,
with guns and knives in the hip pockets
and belts 1t employees these men to
run their business and incite war. The
police the militia and the courts, with
the aid Of ex-convicts, prize fighters
and lodging house buns, stand by the
company in the interest OF property
and civil war.
Honest workingmen trying to better
the conditions of their families are met
by this combination of capital, crime
and government.
The strike breakers are not there to
work, but to fight. They are the
Bowery type, readers of dime novels,
itching to use a gun. They have no
homes nor home life. If they have
wives and children they have deserted
them. They have no interest in honest
industry, and have no intentions of
working a day longer than the excite
ment and the warfare continues.
This type of men President Eliot of
Harvard University calls the American
hero.
These thugs, ex-conviets and prize
fighters he imagines are fighting for
a great principle. They refuse to abide
the tyranny of association with their
fellows, and stand up as free American
citizens should to maintain the right
TO work when, how and where they
like.
Isn't it delightfuli And the best of it
is that the railroads tell the story in
their own official report.
And what a combination it is of the
predatory and the parasitel Think of
idle stockholders, a capitalist govern
ment and professional criminals join
inc together in this holy war against
the tyranny of unions of decent, hard