United labor bulletin. (Denver, Colo.) 19??-1915, 1910-03-11
PHILADELPHIA STREET CAR STRIKE

Inc greatest ulONt VI ieSChb SSo4S -
the chess board of humanity is now be-
ing made at Philadelphia, u S. A.
We have had within the last decade
the uprisings in Russia almost amount
ing to revolution. Then the Russian
Japanese war, when the old, old contest
between the Caucasian ard colored races
again waged. Then the fight of true
democracy against the remnant of feud-
alism carried on in Great Britain at the
elections just ended.
The present Philadelphia street car
strike, however, goes ceeper than these
struggles.
America today is the land of promise
and of hope to the oppressed of the world.
BY hundreds of thousands the disinherlt-
ed yearly flock to our shores. The divine
dream of liberty is the loadstar which
draws them.
A rude awakening is at hand. The
sinister powers of our trusts and cor
porations are startling the dreamers with
riot and bloodshed.
The United States of America is being
shown up in it's true colors, as the coun-
try where hypocrisy, political corrup-
ton and colossal fortunes are exertins
their blighting influences as strongly as
ever did these evil agencies in Carthage,
Rome and Venice-our best prototypes IN
the struggle of plutocracy versus democ-
racy.
Plutocracy is now in the ascendant.
The great seats of government are con-
trol1ed by it. Lawmakers and judges
bow before it's almost almighty power
But the great mass of the people, the
men and women who still dream that
this country of ours is the land OF the
free and the home of the brave are grad
ually waking up.
The great strides of the last twenty
years are but the shaking Of the limbs OF
the sleeper and dreamer.
Lamentable as are the riots at Phila-
delphia. they are but the effects of
cause.
The rottenest state politically is Penn
sylyania 1t is the state OF the late quay
and of Penrose. The state of the steel
trust and of the coal baIons. And the
city government of Philadelphia is rotten
to the core, as has been shown over and
over again. The great rublic utility cor
porations use the city officials as profit
feeders to the watered stocks and bonds.
Again and again have the people of
Philadelphia tried to throw off the cor
poration yoke. But the power and ma
corporation executives and corporation
judges-always came and triumphed.
The riots today in Philadelphia show
the contempt of large number of peo-
Pile not for true law, but for corporation
law and usurpation.
The real lesson and seriousness of the
Philadelphia strike lie not only in the
lawlessness of the Philadelphia rioters,
but in the general sympathy expressed
throughout the country with the men who
dare to oppose corporate lawlessness with
popular lawlessness.
That means we have entered into
physical struggle between the trust tools
and the people who have lost hope in
American ability to lead through growth
of civic virtue.
All true Americans deplore corpora
ton violence as strongly as they do mob
violence.
Hence what is the remedy?
We answer, more civic virtue.
How can that be obtained?
First through the preservation and ex-
tension of the initiative and referendum
and other reform methods to more and
more place the real government of our
country in the hands of the great mass
of the people. For the great mass is in
herently honest, while the individuals
and so-called representatives mostly fail
under great pressure.
Second let all workers who truly love
their country join the unions of their
calling. The trades union movement is
the greatest advocate and builder of true
democracy. Then let all employers OF
labor who are not tied up with the great
trusts and corporations give fair condi-
- tl,1t- -; e.
a fellow feeling between employer and
employe which will prevent differences
from reaching the danger stage now
threatening Philadelphia.
And, thirdly, the reactionary and abb
surd injunctions in trade disputes and the
anti-boycott decisions must stop-Port-
land Labor Press.