Year: 1877

| NY biS iuStiICbS vi SbIl-pFeSeEVHblOH aLl IT.
venge. But we are not permitted to suppose
that the mob will ever be again SO badly or
ganized, SO poorly armed or SO inef1iciently
led as 1T was upon this its first demonstra-
ton On the other hand, the prolongation
of the causes which led to SO much of organ
ization and efficiency as we have already seen
will inevitably produce constantly improving g
organization, and the next move will be just
as much mere formidable than this one, as
this one was more formidable than the latent
condition that preceded it.


/ This "strike, as it is called, will soon end.
the men will go to work again or permit 9TH
ers to take their places, and the machinery OF
society will be set running. When this has
been accomplished the average American citi-
zen will draw long breath, say that "it is all
over now. thank God, take drink and be tran
quil as to his mind We have often remarked
that peculiar good-natured cynicism of the
average citizen. But ''it will not be all over.
On the other hand there will be


SIMPLY AN AHM1sTICE.


The begrimed millions who toll have
made q, show of force and are satisfied.
Among other things they have sconclusively
shown that they are not to be ''put down" by
any dandy militia companies made up OF
dapper clerks and counter shippers, law
students, ct cetera from Philadelphia. They
have admonished the illegal authorities" how
frail and flimsy Is the authority of gov
ernment' under our system-which seem s
to be represented mainly by demagog
uery and stupidity. And they have
warned their employers that even the
i,,t-n Tat 1,S,r II
that the enormous and daily growing mass
of men whose wages would not pay for the
cigar stubs their nabob employers throw
away, are going to abandon their organiza-
tion or abate their struggles. In short, this
| is an irrepressible conflict. and that the sum
and substance of meaning in this whole
business.


Well, have lately read in some of the sa-
pient newspapers of the North, perhaps hun
dred times reiterated, the grave statement
that "this is the ancient conflict between car
tal and labor, and labor ought to know that
CAPITAL ALWAYS GETS THE BEST oFTHE FIGHT
in the long rum


Does it2


Well, yes it always has in the past. But
stop moment. Where and under what con
|
tofore when capital has always had the best
of the fight in the long run?' In England?
Yes; where 1t is the custom to ride labor mobs
down with squadrons Of regular cavalry
Dragon Guards-the most perfect horse sol
diery in the world-men who never disobey
an order and who think as their horses think
by the bugle. In France? Yes; where in ff-
teen minutes the entire Faubourg st. Antoine
can be swept with the guns of regular bat
teres from six directions, and where an army
corps of trained infantry can be summoned at
tho drum tap within any ffty-mile radius in
the country. And so Of every other nation in
Christendom but ours.


Men talk about the 'trepressive power of
the government just as If our system were
like those of the Old World; devised express
ly for the protection of the rich and privi-
legged few against the toiling and wretched
mass We have been tried in foreign war
and, like other Republics have been grandly
successful. We have been tested in section
al struggle and the cohesive force of the ma
ton has been found all-sufficient We have
just now had a


FoRETAsTE OF REAL CIVIL WAR;


of that conflict of classes, which is the most
terrible of all species of war. And, so far as
force has been called in requisition for pur-
poses Of repression" 1t has aggravated the
evil instead of curing it..


Pittsburg would have been quiet had moi
the Philadelphia militia fired the first shot
And even after all the turbulence provoked by
the rashness and aggravated by the subse-
quent cowardice of the Philadelphia Furiosos,
it was the mob itself that checked the de-
struction; not the legal authorities" After
that Pittsburg affair, the venerable Governor
of New York got his back up and declared he
would suppress the strike in this State If il
took hundred thousand menl He called out
his militia He announced his intention OF
beginning at Albany and "opening the block
ade in all directions" Had he adhered to his
sanguinary declarations New York city
would undoubtedly have been in flames within
twelve hours after the firing of the first shot
in the Central yards at West Albany. But We
have observed that the venerable Gov.
ernor of New York did rot turn his
bloodthirsty militia loose after ALL Simply
because the railroad managers rushed fran
tically to him-personally and by telegraph
shouting, Don't! for Gods sake, don't! Dc
you want all our property destroyed All we
want you to do is to make show of force
while we make treaty with the insurgents
But for Heavens sake, don't spill any blood 7


Thus the venerable and well meaning coun
try politician who finds himself to his great
astonishment in the gubernatorial chair O.
New York was prevented from being the in
nooent cause of possibly the greatest calam
ty that ever befell any community. For
know indisputably that the torch was ready
and that the first shot fired by the militia al
the striking workingmen was to have beer
the signal for its application to well nigh
everything combustible in New York. The
shot was not fired and will not be, YOU NAV
depend upon that. Moreover the bulk of the
militia has been ordered to disband.


When you know these things you can form
an idea of the meaning of phrase hereinbe.
fore employed, that


| ''LAW AND ORDER EXIST HERE Ry sTrFEFp