THE PRINCIPLE AT STAKE

Terence Powderly, 1890 photo.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, September 26, 1890.

THE PRINCIPLE AT STAKE.

From the New York Journal of Commerce.

   The strike of a portion of the workmen employed by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad company is of interest to the whole community, beyond the mere fact of the possible delay to travelers and the interruption to the prompt delivery of freight. There is a principle at stake which is really of vital importance to the peace and welfare of society. The loungers at the street corners, the socialists at their public gatherings, and we regret to say, some of those who write for the press, misrepresent the character of the struggle with a view to vindicate the action of the strikers and in the hope of awakening public sympathy in their behalf. The newspaper writers who describe the difficulty as a conflict between labor and capital, or as a pitched battle between a wealthy corporation on the one side and a portion of their poor, oppressed operatives on the other, may set forth this view for the sake of an increased circulation of their issues among the labor organizations, but they must know that there is no truth whatever in such representations.

   The railroad company, which has many thousand men in its employment in the course of a few weeks dismissed fifty-five of them, with the notice that it had no further occasion for their services. Some or most of those who were thus discharged were members of the Knights of Labor, and among them was Edward J. Lee, who was the head or Master Workman of a District Assembly of this organization. It may be that his official duties, or what Mr. Powderly in his correspondence with Vice President Webb calls the mission of the Knights "to work in educational and legislative directions," interfered with his activity in the company's service, but for some reason deemed by his employers to be sufficient [cause], he was discharged. He immediately stirred up an excitement among his comrades, and John J. Holland, who is an official of the Knights of Labor, called at the office of the company and demanded an explanation of its conduct in the discharge of these men. Mr. Webb asked him if he was in the service of the corporation or had any connection whatever with it, and on his replying in the negative informed him that he did not wish to discuss with an outsider any trouble between the company and those in its service.

   Without more ado these gentlemen ordered a strike, and about 1,000 trainmen and switchmen in this city and a number in Albany quit their work without a word of warning, leaving the passenger and freight trains for the moment completely blocked. After a brief interval the passenger cars were set in motion, but the freight trains remained motionless, and the whole carrying trade was at a standstill. Mr. Powderly, who is chief of the Knights, came to the city and opened a correspondence with Vice-President Webb. His claim was that the men who had been discharged were turned out "because they were members of, and active, in the Knights of Labor." Mr. Webb denied this in toto, saying that no one had been discharged because he was a member of that Order. He insisted that in each case the men had been reported to the division superintendent, their cases and the reasons assigned for their removal had been carefully examined by him, and his report was then made to the executive officers and approved by them before the order for removal was issued. This was not satisfactory to the Knights and they have been engaged in a strenuous effort to extend the disaffection and to call out the firemen and all other employes [sic] of the company who can be induced to listen to them.

   This is the exact position of the conflict. The employer states unequivocally that he did not dismiss a single man because he belonged to a secret order, but because his removal was recommended by his immediate superior by reasons referring wholly to the more efficient service of the department. He insists on the right of every employer to manage his business in that way, and he will not submit his official action in such matters to arbitration. He claims that the right to his own best judgment as to whom he will employ is not to be questioned by those having no connection with the company. On the other hand, the leaders of the Knights of Labor claim that no one may discharge from his service a member of their Order without accounting to them for such action. They insist that the employer must give a reason for his conduct satisfactory to them, or reinstate the dismissed workmen. If he refuses to do this they will call out all their members employed by him and do what they can to ruin his business.

   One of the most striking features of the case is its one-sided character. Any Knight of Labor may leave his employer without notice or question, and no one can call him to account. But the employer may not dissever the connection without permission of the Order to which the workman belongs. And in other cases now before the public and still unsettled, the members of the Order will leave in a body if the employer refuses to discharge some one or more working with them whom they do not like. He must not discharge a Knight of Labor unless the order approves of it, and he must not hire or continue to employ another man if the Order forbids it. He may not deal summarily with their men, for they will not permit it because they are members of the Order.

   This is the principle now at stake all over this country. May a man work for a living if he does not belong to a trade organization? May an employer hire such a man if the terms proposed suit both of them? Is a workingman free to stay outside of all the orders and working at his trade thus earn his own living? May an employer select his own men, engage them on terms satisfactory to them, and has he a right to refuse employment to a man whose service he no longer requires without submitting his reasons and motives for such refusal to the manager of an Order with whom he has no connection, or to arbitrators at their demand?

   The public at large have a much stronger interest in a proper answer to these questions than is generally supposed. The liberty of the citizen to earn his own living without joining a labor organization, and the right of every man to manage his own business without taking counsel of others, have been questioned and seriously menaced, and it is time to set up the standard of freedom and to rally to its support.

Henry Walter Webb.

LEFT OUT IN THE COLD.

Master Workman Lee's Dupes will not be Reinstated—Their Places are Filled—Powderly's Scheme for a Tie-up on the Central During the World’s Fair will be Frustrated.

   ALBANY, Sept. 19, 1890.—H. Walter Webb, third vice-president of the New York Central railroad, who has been west as far as Buffalo, inspecting the workings of the road, arrived in Albany at 5:30 o'clock this afternoon on his palace car, Grassmere, accompanied by Superintendent of Motive Power Buchanan. An Associated Press reporter who was in the depot at the time of his arrival, asked Mr. Webb how soon the strikers would be reinstated. In answer to this and several other questions, Mr. Webb said:

   "It may as well be understood right here that from now on none of the strikers on the Central road between New York and Buffalo, inclusive, will be reinstated. It is better for the men, for their families and for all concerned to know that none of the men who are out will be taken back. The men left the employ of the company six weeks ago to-night, and they have had ample opportunity to apply for work before this week. They well understood the policy of the road from the beginning, and they have seen it successfully established.  They did not seek re-employment until the strike had been declared off and since then they have nearly all asked to be put to work. This would be impossible, as we have enough men now in our employ to operate the road in all its departments.  During the last few weeks we have weeded out all the undesirable men who usually slip into the employment during a strike and we now have an experienced class of men. Then again in justice to the old men who have been loyal to the company and to the new men who came to our assistance when their services were welcome, we could not reinstate any of the strikers, especially by turning any of our new men away. Even if any of the new men should leave, their places will be filled by new men as we have firmly determined not to re-employ men who have been doing all in their power during the last six weeks to injure the road."

   General Superintendent Voorhees thoroughly approves of this policy. There are about 3,300 men along the line of the road on strike until the end, and it is these men who will not be taken back. The sooner they appreciate this fact and secure work elsewhere the better it will be for them.

   Superintendent Buchanan afterwards said the locomotive department in West Albany was running with a full force of 500 men, while in the other departments, the repair shops, etc., the usual number of men—about 800—are employed. In the car shops, the building of cars will be resumed shortly, when the remainder of the materials arrive, and after he has had time to organize a working force of about 500 men. Mr. Buchanan says he has more applications from men for work in this department than he has any room for, but he will pick out 500 of the best men. There are orders for 1,500 new cars now to be filled, all of which will be built at West Albany.

Employees and Employed.

   The letters of Powderly to Lee, which were produced at the investigation of the late Central strike, were a curious disclosure of the situation of the organization of the Knights of Labor. They show a body of workmen secretly combined against their employers as their enemies. The object of the workmen, as represented in the letters, was not to do their work honestly and well as men and citizens, but to arrange and prepare and conspire in order to make a successful demand at a fortunate moment to secure some advantage. The only reason suggested for such a movement at the time of the correspondence was that the railroad company was "lying off" men, apparently for no other reason than that they were members of this organization.

   Now we believe that any honest man in any employment would acknowledge that such a reason was valid. If any such honest man were himself an employer, and while paying his men the wages they asked, and maintaining perfectly friendly relations with them, he learned that some of them were combined, and waiting and watching for a convenient moment to make a demand upon him under a threat of ruining his business if he did not comply, would he not feel himself entirely justified in getting rid of such employes as fast as he could? Could he honestly blame any man or any company that did the same thing?

   Powderly dissuaded Lee from encouraging the strike at the time it occurred, but only for the reason that the time was ill-chosen; and he intimated that a better time would be the year of the World's Fair, when the enormous traffic of the road and the consequent loss from interruption of communication would induce the company to grant almost any demand. In view of the light which these letters throw on such combinations, no sensible man can be surprised that there is profound distrust of employes whose fundamental principle is that the employer is their natural enemy, whom they must circumvent in every possible way. Such a view cannot lead to pleasant relations, nor dispose either the employer or the employe to be friendly. It will naturally, as we say, incline the employer to do just what the employe would do in his place—get rid of such employes with all dispatch.—Harper's Weekly.

FROM EVERYWHERE.

   Wayne county has one hundred peppermint distilleries. [This was the Peppermint District represented for one term by Assemblyman William H. Clark, editor and publisher of the Cortland Standard, before he moved to Cortland—CC editor.]

   Dr. Justin has secured another gun, a mate to the two that burst, and will soon repeat the dynamite shell experiment.

   Alfred Rose, of Penn Yan, aged 78 years, is dead. It is stated that he was the originator of the famous early Rose variety of potatoes.

   Six distinct shocks of earthquake have been reported as occurring Monday morning in South Carolina. The last shock was noticeable for nearly a minute.

   Cal Woods has been convicted of murder in the first degree by a Lake George jury and will pay the penalty of killing his father-in-law by being executed with electricity at Dannemora prison during the week of November 8.