The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-08-27
THOSE AMERICAN HEROES.
An Illuminating Story OF Industrial
Warfare

An Illuminating Story Of Industrial
Warfare.
The other day | happened to see III
paper meant only for the eyes OF
employers an interesting story OF war
1t was a reprint of the annual report
of the Chicago and Great western
railway, in which it gives an account
Of how it broke a strike. 1t says IL
''resorted to professional strike break
ers who are willing to work during eX-
citement and danger, but who fefuse
to work after the excitement ana DAN
ger are over.
They are poor mechanics" the re-
port says. land always demand nigh
pay. The company paid them two
months the wages which the strikers
had demanded and. in addition, fur
nished them with board and lodging
within the companys barrlcade.
THE strike breakers are recruited
from all parts of the country by means
Of advertisements in the newspapers
and through employment bureaus.
Fully 90 per cent of the strike break
ers." the report says, knew nothing
about machinery and had to be got
rid Of. but that was not easy.
"The first batch discharged consisted
of about 100 men. who refused to
leave the barricade, made themselves
fort within the company's barricade
and. producing guns and knives. re-
fused to bulge. The colnpany's fight
ing men after a day or two forced
them out of the barricade into Spe-
cial train. which carried them under
guard to Chicago"
After going into details about the
incompetence of the strike breakers
and the methods used for breaking the
strike the report says, The fighting
men have been discharged and the
barbados removed"
This is what is called law and order.
1t is not evidence. 1t is a gentle,
peaceable effort on the part of the
employers to protect honorable men
seeking work from villainous union
thugs who demand higher wages and
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
prizefghters and lodging house buns,
with guns in their hip pockets and
knives in their belts. 1t employs
these men to run their business and
to incite war. The police. the militia
and the courts. with the aid Of ex-
convicts. prizefghters and lodging
house buns. stand by the company in
the interest of property and civil war.
Honest workingmen trying to better
the condition 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 Bow
cry type, readers of dime novels itch
ing to use a gun. They have no wives
and children. They have no interest
in honest industry and have no inten-
ton of working a day longer than the
excitement and warfare continue.
| This is the type of man thai Presi-
dent Eliot of Harvard university calls
the American hero.
These thugs. eX-convicts 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 Amer
lean citizens should. to maintain the
right to work when. how and where
they like.
Isn't it delightful? And the best of
it is that the railroads tell the story in
their official report.
And what a combination it is of the
predatory and the parasite! Think Of
idle stockholders. capitalist govern
ment and professional criminals join
ing together in this holy war against
the tyranny Of unions of decent. hard
working. honorable men who by their
labor produce the wealth Of the world.
Robert Hunter.