Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 168, 20 July 1894 — THE STRIKE. [ARTICLE]

THE STRIKE.

The Country of Whieh Onr Capitalists Wish Us to Beeome Citizens* The boycott ordered to enforce tbe strike against Pallman raises tbe most serions question that basyet appeared as the outgrowth of labor unioitisni. By confederation of the labor employed on railroads with Iabor in other lines, 1 it has been sought to make it ! possible to stop every car wheel in the country. Mr. Debs is at the head of this combination, aud by his order trains out of ' Chicago gere obstructed and stopped and Pullman cars were ! cnt out of trains aud side- ; tracked in the deserts of the Sonthwest, witbout reg«rd to the rights of tbeir passengers. The men who stop traius and cut out cars have no quarrel with the railroads for whieh they work nor with the Pullman Company. Mr. Debs does not work for Pullman, and has no quarrel with him, but he says he will bankrupt Pullman if he attempts to use hia supposed rights to hire men who want to work for him at wages upon whioh they eau agree. If Mr. Debs ean eompel Pullman to give up this right by stopping every wheel on every road that runs Pullman’s sleepers. he has and nxercises a power that is not gmnted to the Government i itself. If the exercise of that power by him be lawful, Mr. Debs is' a higher autocrat than Csar or Shah, for he is the nnqaestionable diotator of travel and trans- 1 portation in this country. When he says trains may move it ia ao. When he says tley mnst stop ; they stand still. Passengers on ' important bnsiness, perisfaable freigbf, prodncer. final market ' and oonsnmer are the playthings 1 of Mr Deb’s hnmor. He oan make plenty or famine at will, and no damand is too bard nor couditions too difficnll i for accomplishment by the nae to < th« aughty meana in kit ooaiiol. ]

The law compe1s ooe railroad I company to haul the c irs of another. To faeilttate commerce it is recognīxU pahlie policy to | eompel this excbaage of cars anel nse of tracks. State and Federal : legislation has impressed the railways of the country with rules j and regulations by whieh freight ‘ and passeogers starting on thrf Saco must be brought vnthoot de* lay or vexation to tbe Sacramento if demanded. p»assing“ over the tracks of a dozen ditferent eompanies on the way. Mueh is said i abont the power of corporations, | bnt if noited, with biIlions at their haek, they should trv- for I one raoment to do what Mr. Debs calmly orders, the conrhs wonld grip tbem like a vise. anJ not on- : ly woul J their cars move but they j wouU be caught in pena!ties so exemplary as to aJmonish them that eapilal cannot take to itself the power of life anJ Jeath. Bnt ean the courts reach Mr. i i Debs? No. UnJer his orJers ; trainraen anJ yarJmen stop all trains, whieh means that insteaJ of Jischarging the contract implieJ in their eraployment tbey refose to Jo so. If the railroaJ seek to move its trains by mitting new men iu the plaee of those who stop thera, they are preventeJ by violeuce. Ifc is evulent that the principles of the law rcust be searcheJ anJ applied to such a situation, for the exercise of such powercannot be safely eutrusteJ to one man without legal restraiut or responsibility. Mr. Debs will probubly aJmit himse!f that nof many of his acquaintances are fit to be trusted with absolute and nnrestrained coutrol of all the business of the country whieh he is at preseut exercising. To treat sCch combinations as he heads like corporations, subject to the judicial, responsive to

writs, within reach of punishment for the misuse of power, roay be one solution. lt is certuiu that such issues caunot be mueh longer Ieft for solution to the exhaustion of one party to the dispute. The syrapathetic strifce of whieh this is an example is an anomaly in morals . and economics. By it men~are orderod to worlc trKon iUo wo 11ing delegate is informed of a distant dispute of whose merits neither he nor the men ordered into idleness ean know. The employer never knows at what moment, for no fault of his. his meu may quit and his plani be shnt down. He may be in the midst of a contract in whieh failure may ruin him, but when his men quit he is not allowed to fill their places and save himself. He must siraply stand still and be bankrnpted. One eun see that this condition of things makes the s} r mpathetic strike the foe of stability in labor and prosperity in business. California is quito likely to realize this if Mr. Debs hold oui He wishes to stop all traffic b\ the Sonthern Pacific systera, because that road uses Pullmani Uur fruit is going forward t> market. Mr. Debs ean condemi it to rot ou the road, and tlut whieh is ripening to rot in tte orcbard. Every wage earner ii the fruit industry must drop bis earning and every proprietor hs season’s profits, because Mr. Dels wants to gīve Mr. Pullman lfce choi<£ between bankruptcy or surrender of the rigbt to empoy men who are willing to work for him. —The 1