The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 44, No. 201, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 11, 1885 Page: 4 of 8
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THE GALVESTON DAILY NEWS WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 11,1885.
A. II. BELO & CO.,Publishers
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Wednesday, November 11. 1885.
WHAT IS A STATE FORt
1 f non possumus is to be the prevailing
response of state ixecutive authority wlica
appealed to for the protection of citizens
and communities, in rights of property, in-
dustry, traffic, highway and transportation,
against mob invasion, seizure and domina-
tion, it may not be impertinent to inquire
what is a State for? If the average State—
not excepting Texas—is found organically
impotent or historically unavailable for
such protection, it would be interesting to
know what return is made to the average
citizen for his outlay in taxes for the sup-
port of government. It is a fact, for ex-
ample, that locomotives have been disabled
by people who did not own them;
that the transfer of products from one
place to another has been forcibly prevent-
ed; that there has been violent interference
by one class of people with the rights and
property of other classes; that business has
been to a great extent forcibly and unlaw-
fully suspended; that a conspiracy to effect
these things was entered into, organized
and carried out; yet the constituted author-
ities of Texas have passively surveyed the
scene with the sublime serenity of Olym-
pian gods. Perhaps they are properly in-
active as well as inconsequentially majes-
tic, Perhaps there is no law in Texas
prohibiting such wholesale privation of
the rights and property of others.
If there is no law of this kind
of course the governor and the rest of them
could do nothing but let the mischief stew
in its own juice; but if tlieie are such laws
in Texas, then clearly it is somebody's duty
to enforce them. The state of Texas is ele-
mentally big and powerful enough to com-
pel obedience to every mandate on her
statute books. The laws of the United
States arc not set at defiance with impunity.
A mail train is not molested or embargoed
by the most reckless band of strikers. Nor
can they with impunity stop the trains oper-
ated under the direction of a receiver ap-
pointed by a United States court. Why?
Because the laws of the United States and
rights under those laws are not solemn
mockeries or barren idealities. The
States, by not protecting their citizens
and the property of their citizens from
mobs are suggesting to thousands of silent
but earnest thinkers disgust and con
tempt for state sovereignty. If the average
State will not or can not guarantee for t'ie
people equal protection in their rights, and
peace, order, liberty and security in the
keeping of law, then sooner or later the
people will be ready to exclaim, well-nigh
with one voice, away wish the useless and
costly trumpery of so called state govern-
ment. The day, probably, is not far dis-
till when the railroad companies will be
joking for the passage oi" an interstate
con.m< rce bill, instead of opposing such a
measure, with a rider, giving the United
States courts primary and 1inal jurisdiction
over all interstate railroad lines. If the
raihoad companies are to continue to get
prpcticidly no protection, or scarcely any,
fiom the State, they must of necessity be-
gin to look elsewhere. A nation,
a state, or a community that pro-
motes or tolerates anarchy in any
form can not be either prosperous
or happy. It is the right of every man to
revolt against tyranny, to transfer his ser-
vices when he feels so disposed, to sot his
own value on his labor and to belong to as
many societies and organizations as he
pleases. It is not the right of any manor auy
set of men to interfere with the property of
another man, of a company or a corpora-
tion ; and it is not the right of any man or any
set of men to do what is wrongftd and in-
jurn us to the general public. If it is not
the duty or within the power of the State,
as constituted, to piotect the property and
n r; 1 rglits of its citizens from unlawful
agressions of all kinds, then these citizens
cm not too soon demand to be relieved of
ili expensive paraphernalia of a cumbrous,
ol i truclive and fraudulent pretense, digui-
fiid with the name of state government.
A BIT OF HISTORICAL, REPETITION.
Scene: A street in London, King Rich-
ard 111 in royal progress meets the widowed
que, n and the mother of the dead King
Edward. The royal ladies bewail their
bereavements and woes, and upbraid
the newly crowned king fcr his series of
crimes and atrocities. King Richard, not
believing in freedom of speech or of the
press, determines to drown the voices of his
accusors and censors, and therefore, as the
historian Shakespeare relates, he exclaimed:
"A flourish, trumpets! Strike alarum,
drums! Let not the heavens he,a' these tell-
tale women rail on the Lord's anointed.
Strike, I say! Either be patient and en-
treat me fair, or with the clamorous report of
war thus will 1 drown your exclamations."
History repeats itself in many curious and
wonderful ways, and sometimes under un-
expected and almost incredible circum-
stances. Who, for instance, would ever
dream of a flourish of trumpets and alarum
of drums in Texas in order that the heavens
should not hear tales concerning the
"Lord's anointed?" Yet it seems thu
we have, after a sort, a " Lord's anointed "
political and official royalty in Texas, and
its faitLful body of fuglemen and flunkies
lo head its processions and sound its
glories, and drown all voices that are not
tuned to servile and fulsome adulation.
But it must be said that, in its
double role of chief trnmpeter and
chief drummer in this performance,
the Dallas llerald comes lamentably short
of doing justice to the occasion and honor
to the fame of Texas for surpassing bigness
in all things. If one of Richard's trumpet-
ers or drummers had succeeded in making
only such a feeble flourish or such a pitiful
a'anim as the Herald makes for the " Lord's
Sinointed" in Texas, the hunchbacked
monarch would have dropped the head of
the hapless flunky in the waste basket with-
out much ado. The Herald's little tin
trumpet is wheezing, its little donkey skin
drum is cracked, and altogether its efforts
arc only calculated to belittle what it wants
to magnify. Fortunately for our esteemed
contemporary, it can not belittle itself.
MORE OF A STATESMAN THAN BUSI-
NESS MAN FOR GOVERNOR.
Great stress is laid upon the necessity of
having a business governor, while in fact a
business legislature is more urgently re-
quired. The greatest reforms must come
through legislation in which the governor,
in a constructive capacity, has no direct
participation. It is notorious that taxes are
not equal aid uniform, aud that if they
were the day of issuing bonds would be
again postponed indefinitely. It is notori-
ous that the present system of assessing and
collecting taxes on personal property bears
unequally upon property-holders. In the
pastoral districts tax-paying is altogether
voluntary. This works a hardship upon
honest men, for they pay their own and
the neighbors' taxes. In one county, in
which in 1S84 there were taxed $448,000
worth of cattle, in 1885 not a single cow is
tendered. In others when pay-day comes
the tax collectors report no property
found, and in others still the agents of the
sta'e land board report the stock
rendered much below their actual
value. In the cities and towns some kinds
of personal property arc not assessed at all
as a rule, and when rendered at all are usu-
ally put at figures n uch less than their true
value. It is also notorious that the occu-
pation taxes are negligently assessed and
collected. High license prevails, but only
to the extent of showing that it is largely
or mostly voluntary. While the liquor-
dealers pay half the revenues, it is believed
that if all who retail liauors were taxed,
the income from that source would be
doubled. The greatest farce is the poll-
tax, which appears to be maintained for the
sole benefit ot the assessors. The revenue
system throughout is full of defects. What
is want, d, perhaps, first, is a business man
as comptroller with more authority over
county tax assessors and collectors; and,
second, sp. cial revenue agents to detect
violations of the laws. Honest tax-payers
and faithful revenue officers would be ben-
efited and assisted by a rigid enforce-
ment of the laws rendering taxa-
tion in fact as well as theory equal and uni-
form. As far a3 the financial machinery of
the State is concerned, it matters little who
is governor if the revenue system has a
first class administration. Tuere can be no
such administration unless the comptroller
at its head is a business man and has power
to reform ;;buses. The governor receives
all his information of state finances from
this official, and will advise the legislature
the better when he adopts the views which
this information suggests, though, unfortu-
nately, it has been usual to ignore the comp-
troller and disregard his advice. The gov-
ernor has no authority over the comptroller
in fact. lie is chief executive in the sense
of commanding the militia, ad rising the
legislature, granting pardons, appointing
notaries and certain asylum officers and fill-
ing vacancies in the judiciary. The comp
(roller is chief executive in iiis department,
Evidently a better business man is required
for his department than for the office of
governor. Under the laws of Texas
the treasurer and the land com-
missioner are the chief executives
in their respective department, and to per-
form their duties satisfactorily must have
business qualifications in a measure beyond
what may be sufficient for a respectable
governor. The next governor will find the
legislature in possession of the advice of his
predecessor, and each member intent upou
carrying out his preconceived views. The
new governor must then be a man of great
influence if he is to mold legislative opin-
ion. A mere business man, posted in the
details of government affairs, but who is
not qualified to reform aud reconstruct
and to conceive and formulate the land
and finance systems anew, will have little
influence upon legislation. A good busi-
ness man might advise well enough if the
old channels aro to be followed, but Tex is
wants radical change. Something of
statesmanship is wanted in legislation and
a governor able to mold legislation must
be more of a statesman than business man.
The Houston Post, which may be taken
as a tiue representative of the temper and
feeling of the business men of Houston, is
not misled by the apparent good the Gal-
veston strike has been to that city, but has
a dac appreciation of the almost irreparable
injury that has been done not only to Gal-
veston, but to every city in the State, by
the embargo placed upon Texas trade by
the forcible closure of this the chief port.
In reply to an editorial paragraph in the
San Antonio Times, the Post, of yesterday,
says:
The Ban Antonio Times thinks "Galreston's losa
in the present strike is Houston's sain." The P >st
is unable to see it In that light It may have in-
creased the cotton receipts here to some extent,
giving the compresses a little morn work, hut tint
is too narrow a view to take of It As Houst m
sends most of its cotton over Galveston bar, the
stoppage there hurts Houston almost equally with
Galveston, and iDjures both by diverting citt m
northward to St. Louis and eastward through
Memphis. But aside from this, Houston does mt
desire prosperity at the expense of misfortune to
its neighbors.
What I Know About Executiag the
Laws would make an attractive heading to
a Review article by Governor Ireland.
Caiu. Sciu'hz must be stuck on Posts.
First he started out on the Detroit Post,
next he held forth on the Westliche Post,
at St. Louis, next he turned up on the New
York Post, and now he is on a hot trail
after the Boston Post. Carl's Postscript
ought to be scon due.
A tony of brandy seldom has a pedigree.
It seems that the Apaches have not yet
finished their annual killing picnic. They
must give up soon, however, as the snow
will soon make its appearance, and the
braves must report to the agent in time t >
draw their winter blankets. There is noth-
ing like a paternal government with a well-
dcveloped bump of kindness.
Did Golc smith have the Texas Congres-
sional delegation in his mind's eye when he
penned the line:
" The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool?"
The Picayune doubtless had its sight
upon the largest cotton receipts ever known
wl;en it kindly remarked:
If Galveston workingmen do not wish to have
Galveston forgotten as a business point they wili
patch up their ditferences and go to work.
Thank you kindly, Mr. Pic. The Galves-
ton workingmen had already seen the point;
but we will remember your good advice
when your trouble comes.
The Picayune will probably give up
protectionism in time. It states that
"glass is taxed 05 per cent, for the
benefit of labor engaged in glass-making.
Yet the wages of glass workers have de-
clined 70 per cent since the protective tax
was clapped on to the product of their
labor. A law making it a crime to buy or
use imported glassware would not cause
home manufacturers to raise the wages of
the poor men and women who do their
work." Of course not. If the protection-
ists were desirous of raising wages by law,
why did they not do it. They could pay
bounties to the operatives or take various
other measures. They pretend to legislate
for the workingmen, but when the evidence
is clear that the proprietors of protected
works get all the profit wrung out of con-
sumers, the protectionists do nothing but
say let them alone in their peculiar advan-
tages.
The case of Riel is really bothering the
Dominion government. If the rebel is
hanged, the French and half-breeds are
ready to kick up a row, and if he is not
hanged, the English and Orangemen will
make eheol howl. It isn't the pleasantest
situation in the world to be a Canadian
statesman,
TnE New York Herald comforts the pro-
tectionists by telling them that the tariff is
not in danger. Well, it ought to be in dan-
ger.
Gladstone's speech at Edinburgh prac-
tically concedes home rule to Ireland, and
now it is only a question of separating im-
perial from Irish interests when the whole
troublesome question may be settled. A
few years ago Parncll was sneered at, but
when he takes his place as prime minister
of Ireland, as he probably will within a few
years, he will be hailed as one of the great-
est statesmen and patriots of his age. Par-
ncll is by no means the greatest Irishman of
this or other ages, but he applied American
methods to the attainment of his object, and
he is apparently within sight of the winning-
post.
A new Republican paper has been started
in Cincinnati for the ostensible purpose of
beating John Sherman for senator. It is
thought that Charley Foster is behind the
enterprise.
The Philadelphia Press makes this deli-
cate allusion:
Senator JIaxey. of Texas, calls civil-service re-
form the blue-ribbon humbug of the period " We
infer from this that Sir. Cleveland is tryiu^ to run
the country withi lit Maxey's assistance.
An income tax would be more equitablo
than any tariff tax. but even an income tax
would not affect the oppressive monopoly
of unused land. Some limit ought to ba
put upon the number of lots or acres of land
an individual may hold wholly unimproved
and unused. In the country such land
affords range for neighbors' cattle, but in
cities it is oftener overgrown with weeds,
and the tenure for an indefinite number of
years in that condition interposes an unna-
tural obstacle to the people's acquiring
homes, increases the burden upon residents
for streets and sanitary measures, disfigures
a cily and renders systematic improvements
very difficult. Beside, the system is a
foundation for future landlordism. Exces-
sive land holding without use is in the na-
ture of a public nuisance, and tends to pre-
pare conditions for revolution.
IIohaceB. Yammer duly congratulated
Governor Hill on his election, and said
"we " were all proud of it hereabouts. This
was probably true in a great measure, but
who told Horace to speak for " we?"
Since Foraker's return from his stump-
ing tour in Virginia he has been telling ap-
palling tales of political proscription iu the
Old Dominion. Foraker should be more
comprehensive in his investigations. No
doubt there is, after a sort, proscription in
Virginia, but is it any wotse than exists on
the other side in Iowa, Vermont, Massachu-
setts and other strongly Republican States?
Even in Connecticut, where the Democrats
have always been able to put up a good
fight, if not able to carry the State, it should
not be forgotten that a Republican legisla-
ture voted the portrait of Governor Thomas
II. Seymour out of the capitol because he
was a Democrat. Political proscription of
some kind exists more or less everywhere,
but, unfortunately, people fail to see it in
its odious light unless they are themselves
sufferers.
Those who imagine there is less inde-
pendence in New York or elsewhere than
there was last year must have a strangely
poor opinion of American manhood.
The United States has in circulation and
locked up in the treasury $4 of silver to
each inhabitant. France has in circulation
$14 to each of her inhabitants. At the
rate silver has been coined in the United
States during the past eight years it will re-
quire thirty years to coin as much to each
inhabitant of the United States as France
has now in circulation. If all the silver
mined in the United States were coined as
fast as taken out of the ground it would not
at present increase the money of the coun-
try $1 a year for each inhabitant.
Some New York papers call upon the
free trade convention at Chicago to "de-
nounce silver." If it did, it would be a
laughable illustration of the facility with
which political bodies can be used for pur-
poses foreign to their alleged reason of ex-
istence.
Mahone is thoroughly readjusted.
Of course it has been noticed that the
Hon. Horace B. Yammer did not open liis
mouth one way or another publicly on the
subject of the strike until the trouble was
about over. It is a very cold day, indeed,
when Horace does not endeavor to land on
the strong side.
Mbb. Weldon is acting suspiciously—as
though she might be contemplating a lec-
ture raid on the United States.
TnE chronic strike nuisance may well be
considered in connection with the migratory
condition and habits of an increasing num-
ber of laborers. If the policy of the State
were to put city homes within the reach of
industrious artisans aud laborers, they
would be more careful of the business in-
terests of the places where they live. The
settled man is a conservative citizen when
he owns a lot and a house thereon. Specu-
lative landholding is something that exists
wholly by the power of statute and the
police protection of the State. The State
should therefore shape its tax policy so a3
to squeeze out a system which is a public
evil, a mistake from the beginning. The
homestead exemption law amounts to
little without a policy which will give every
femily a right to acquire a home on paying
what may be reasonable to reimburse the
holders who have bought and held land and
lots in excess while society was under a
universal misapprehension as to the nature
of landed property and the now visible evils
of land monopoly. If laud can be con-
condemned for railroads, it should be con-
demned, if necessary, for homes for the
people at a moderate price.
Dio Lewis would make a good prohibi-
tion candidate. He has taken a cold water
bath every day for forty-five years.
The president of Mexico seriously enter-
tains a proposition to employ the army of
that country in the prosecution of public
works. This will sound rather queer in
this country, but when it is remembered
that the Mexican army is recruited largely
from convicts, the proposition will seem
rather rational. Mexico has no peniten-
tiaries, and convicls are either shot, sent to
the mines as slaves, or enrolled in the army.
Iu time of peace there is no reason why an
army thus recruited should not be placed
at some useful employment.
Ex-Congressman OoHiLTJtEE to the New
York Star:
I am a stalwart Republican, as you know, and it
suits me exactly. I wanted to see those half-breeds
get a thumping, and they got It. I sat beside the
telegraph instrument at the Carlton club, in com-
pany with Eoscne Conkling, listening to the elec-
tion returns read until after 8 o'clock on Wednesday
morning. Senator Confeling ftlrly beamed with
joy over Governor Hill's election and the downfall
of Davenport and the half-breed leaders).
The New York Sun shows up Mr. War-
ner's mistake. He assumes gold as the
standard of value, and measures silver by
it. The Sun should not apply its trenchant
logic to the gold men, who refuse to favor
even the Warner plnn, which would simply
give more currency on a gold basis. It ap-
pears they not only want the gold basis, but
a prohibitory limitation upon currency even
at that.
Boston has had a Pall Mall Gazette reve.
lation, but not procured by artificial
means.
Is a new encyclical letter the pope goes
for modern secular government, which, lie
says, leaves the laboring people hungry,
miserable and deceived, and in consequence
they have lost all respect for civil and reli-
gious authority, and now seem on the verge
of overturning the social fabric of Europe.
The statement that Catholic missionaries
are excluded from German colonies is de-
nied by Bismarck through the minister of
the interior.
THE STRIKE.
' JUSTICE REQUIRE)) PROPER RK8PEOT
FOR THE RIGHTS OF OTHER".
Timely and Eenallils Correspondence on Hie
•Jnlveiton Strike —The Prena of New
York and Kliewhere on the
Situation.
[To The News.l
l'ERIIAPS a BLESSING in msquise.
Galveston, November 10, 1885.—Laborers
of America, whether native or ot foreign ori-
gin, are you so little attached to the free Insti-
tutions of this country as to establish and
maintain so despotic a tyranny within our re-
public? Think of it—you who would stand
aghast nt tbe idea of any of the constituted
authorities who administer your municipal or
county tlVairs should levy an additional tax
upon you, for any improvement, however im-
portant or necessary, without first consulting
those who are to be called upon to pay the tat
—you permit three or five men,not only to call
for a small percentage of your means, such as
the tax-levying powers might demand, but to
demand your whole means of subsistence, and
to control your personal movements by a sim-
ple edict
I well recognize bow organization may be of
great benefit to laboring men; how by making
common cause the laboring men of one class or
section may assist the laboring element of an-
other class or another section In the support of
bis rights and the resistance to wrongs that
may be done or threatened. I can well under-
stand how, under certain circumstances, the
members of labor organizations may deem it a
prudent measure to organize a strike with a
view to promote their oommon good. All of
this is not only legitimate, but, when executed
with respect to justice, prudence and good or-
der, will almost Invariably engage the sympa-
thies of good citizens, even though they are
not members of such organizations themselves,
though such a strike may work them some
temporary inconvenience. But justice re-
quires proper respect for the rights of others
sb well as those you would yourielves main-
tain. Your own rights should be jealously
guarded, inasmuch as you should never be re-
quired to take so important a step which en-
tails so much of sacrifice on you and your fami-
ly without your having a voice in the matter,
in the same manner in which the consent of
the tax-payer is required in the administration
of municipal affairs when a new tax is about
lo be levied.
When a strike Is deemed a necessity, each
member of the organization should have the
privilege, in fact it should devolve upon him
as a duty, to give cr withhold bis consent in so
important a step; and no doubt each man will
carefully reflect before he voluntarily consents
to deprive himself and family, for a time, of
dally bread. And when such a majority as
jour by-laws may require for the purpose of
determining upon such a measure have de
cldtd in favor of cessation of work, all of you
will pesEtss the great satisfaction of knowing
that there was no other object in the sicriSce
j on ate making than the common good, and
thnt a decision was arrived at, after a full de-
liberation of tbe parties most deeply interested,
end each of whom had as much at stake as the
rest. Can jcu have the game conviction under
tte j reeent system of unrestricted committee
rules? Certainly not. In the first placo, unloas
1 am misinformed, the members of your execu-
tive committee are paid a salary, hence they
do not, like jou, depend upon their daily labar
for a support;secondly, haveyouever reflected
upon the great power you place iu the hands
of these men, and hence what great tempta-
tions jou expose them to? I do not wi3h to
ieflect- upon tbe personnel of either your Qal
veston or state committee. I take I; th »t you
billeved theru to be honest and upright raon,
or you would not have honored them by select-
ing them for the responsible positions in whion
tbey have been placed.
While I have no doubt that tbe ordsr of
Knipbts of Labor aimed at a laudable purpose
in its inception, and has great good uuder-
Ivirg it, which, if properly developed, miy
become a blessirg not only to the memoera
but to society as an entiiety, is seems to me
that it can not be denied by any intelligent
observer, that so far its practices ara entirely
at war with the principles proclaimed by the
order. Even the name is entirely out of k iop-
irg with its operations.
In feudal times, when the rights of the peo-
ple eleitred no respect from their rulers great-
er than these saw tic to extend, it wv? tbe
knight who was most jealous of his individual
privileges, which neither king nor emperor
ourst deprive him of with impunity. Wnile
be was ready at all times to lap do vu his life
for his kiug and his country, be was equ»lly
ready to shed his blood in defense of his par-
sonal prerogatives, the most sacred of which
was to have a voice in the administration of
such affairs as most directly concerned him.
How different with this modern knight in this
country, where every citizeu claims to be a
sovereign, and where those in positions of au-
thority admit themselves but to be the ser-
vants of tbe sovereign people.
It seems strange that the prerequisite nf this
particular knlgbthood should embrace not
cniy the surrender of rersonal rights, but even
the abdication of well founded opinions. This
he virtually does when he leaves his personal
affairs In the hands of anarbltrary committee,
in whose deliberations he has no voice,
and whose edict may result In demanding of
him that be qnit his avocation, and thereby
deprive his family of their daily bread. It
certainly implies, on th part of any
American citizen, a wonderfully ssirt-
1 ng Inconsistency, to see him so easily
part with those vital principles of liberty for
which the American people have so much to
pride themselves npon; yet this Is tbe case
when a free agent permits a committee to say
whin he shall or shall not cease work, without
being permitted to have a voice In the trans-
action. A special order is Issued by a star
chamber committee, and immediately thou-
sands of men must leave their accustomed vo-
cations, and tens of thousands dependent upon
them must be stinted of the necessaries of life.
Though this order may, on its face, appear
ever so unjust, though it may operate most
disastrously to the interests of the very people
wbcm it is designed to protect, there ts
ro appeal, except it be to another committee,
rquatij arbitrary, and equally removed from
the pi-nonai guidance of those whose affairs it
isebaiged with managing. ThuB from one
committee to another the vital interests of in-
dustrious men may be bandied about; but the
indlvidaal knight, the bone and sinew o( the
order, tbe man who, by his laboriously earned
wages contributes his mite to tbe support of
thelEStitution, has no say-so in the matter.
He must subrt it, or be considered a traitor.
Kightbere i with to insert the copy of an
order which was issued last week by your or-
ganization:
Office of Dlsrrict Master Workman Texas,
State District AssemMy No. 78, Knights of l.ab ir -
Geo. Seals. President of Gulf, Colorado and Santa
l''e Hnitroad Company—Dear Sir: By order of the
executive board of the Knights of liabor, ^tate of
Texas, you are hereby allowed tobrinj? ia an t haul
cut the irnin having the circus, and no other
freight. Very i espectfully. P. H Got.dsn',
P M. U*. nnd Chairman of the State Ececutive
Board, District Ko. 78.
1 ask you what would you think if Gould or
Vandei bilt, or any of the railroad kings were
to exercise authority in such a way, even
though it might be over property in whijh
they have proprietary rights, and for no other
reason except that they had the power. I re
train from suggesting tho dangers they wo il i
expoFe themselves to in issuing such an order,
notwithstanding that the property recognizsd
by law as a puhllc highway they might si
manipulte be their own.
It Is an old saying that ia generally lielievol
to he a true one, that every man has his price.
Have you ever thought of the enorm sus in-
ducements that may be held out by interested
Varties to roemb«rs of your ruling body to
bring atinut a split between yourselves and
jour employers, for reasons entirely foreign
to your interests, and perhaps even antagonis-
tic to them? While I do not wish to insinuate
tl.at such has been the history of the late strike
in this city, I would call your attention to the
fact that the same motives which called for
tbe sentiment in tbe Hoaston Herald to hurra
for tbe Knights of Labor, because the strike
would bring business to Houston, might go
still further and hold out very valuable in-
ducements to parties possessing the power to
bring about a similar strike. Do not forget
tbat this little affair In Galveston meaus.the
loss of probably $50,000 to $75,000 dally to
Galveston, and a relative gain to other city
or cities. I want to be positively under-
stood tbat I feel entirely assured tbat tha
above cited expreesion of the Herald does not,
in my opinion, represent tbe sentiments of tho
Houston people or the rank and file of the
Knights of Labor anywhere; but It does show-
to what extent the workingmen might bo
mcde tools of if Interested parties should im-
properly influence those whom they have in-
ve> ted with such absolute power.
fc-o much for what is due to yourselves. Noir
a few worde as to the rights of others, which
ycu may not disregard if youeare for the sym-
pathies and assistance of your fellow-citizsns
In 3 our struggles. Your duties in this regard
are very simple, and more in the nature of
emission than commission. In short, you must
not interfere with the personal or property
rights of others while contending for your
own.
If tbe imprudent counsels which caused the
late strike will induce tbe laboring man to re-
flect sufficiently as to move them to so reform
their organization as to act with justice to
themselves and the community, wherever any
difference should arise between them and
their employers hereafter, undoubtedly what
appeared to be a great curse yesterday will,
in the end, prove to be a blessing in disguise.
American Citizbs.
a monstrous outrage on natural justice,
[New York Times.]
The Knights of Labor constitute a formida-
ble organization. They are now engaged ia
demonstrating their power by paralyzing the
business of the city of Galveston, and In great
part tbe trade of the state of Texas. The loss,
damage and suffering that have been entailed
by their action are Incalculable. Texas ia
peaceful and prosperous, and yet war or pesti-
lence could hardly do more mischief, for the
time being, than Is done by this stoppage of
the machinery of commerce. The device by
which this vast mischief is done is the simple
plan, imported, with the name, from Ireland,
and called " boycotting," in dishonor ot Cap-
tain Boycott, whose tenants and neighbors re-
fused to do any work on his estate or to suffer
any work to be done so long as he persisted
in opposing tbe will of his tenants. The
possibilities of this method of coercion are
erormous when it is systematized and extend-
ed, as has now been done in some parts of the
United Btates. The stoppage ot the trade ot
Galveston is the last stage of a quarrel the
first stage of which was a dispute whether &
Bteemsbip line should pay its longshoremen $4
or $5 a day. It may be asserted as an axiom
tbat every man who receives $4 a day for his
work iB anxious to receive $5. The question
whether he " ought" to get it is practically a
question whether he can get it, and this de-
pends upon an infinity of considerations which
may be lumped together and called the condi-
tion of the labor market. Boycotting
differs from an ordinary strike in
tbat the boycotters not only strike
work hut induce other men totally uninterest-
ed In their quarrel, whose own relations with
their employers may be perfectly satisfactory,
to strike work also unless their employers re -
frain from doing any business with the object
of tbe animosity of the strikers. This has hap-
pened in Galveston. The steamship line
against which the original Btrike was directed
supplied tbe places of the strikers with men
willing to work for the wages paid, only to
find itself prevented from receiving goods
frcm any shioper who employed members of
any trades union. Even other steamship
lires ore prevented from landing or ship-
ing freight in order to increase the
pressure upon the commercial community
to take sides with the 'longshoremen, and
to insist tbat their demands shall be granted in
Ol der that the business of the place may go on.
It, would be suicidal for any community to
yield to such oppression. A hundred latnrara
in any branch cf business might at auy time
rerder all commercial investments worthless
in any community, and render the emnloyment
of their own labor and that of everybody else
impossible, if they could require all workers
for wacoB to quit work because some workers
were dissatisfied with their wages. The
procedure Is a monstrous outrage on na-
tural justice. The most elementary re-
qulrtn.ott of natural justice is that no
man shall be a judge in his own
cause. These strikers not only constitute
themselves judges in their own cause, but they
decrm that nobody shall have any dealings
with the other party to the cause while It is
pending. The logical outcome of boycotting
wonld be the death by starvation of the em-
ploj er who resisted a strike, through the refu-
sal of all men to furnish him with food. That
would be tbe result if the Knights of Labor
were complete, and it is so nearly complete, as
the situation at Galveston sbows, that the
business cf a city can be brought to a stand-
still by an insignificant number of per-
sons in the enforcement of a de-
mand which may or may not have
any show of reason, since it does not ap-
pear that the Knights of Labor make any in-
ciuirles upon that point. It is useless to argue
tbat the paralysis of business resulting from
the cdoption cf war as a means of adjusting
weges will Bffect tho workers for wages not
leeB irjnriously than any class of people and
more immediately, since they have less provi-
sion made against a season of idleness. It is
Eossibie that the law of Texas does not cover
oycotting. But Texas is by no means the
only State in which boycotting is invoked as a
means ot increasing wages, The guests of a
hotel in this city have lately received
letters frcm tbe representatlvas of
tradesunions warning them not to be-
come its guests in future, for the reason
tbat theowmr of the hotel had had a dispute
with some workmen employed in repairing the
hotel, in which the workmen considered them-
selves to be in the right, and threatening "an
unrelenting personal warfare" upon those
who might disregard the warning. Any overt
act of boycotting seems to be provided
for in that section of the Penal
Code of New York. which defines
as a misdemeanor the act of any two or more
persons who conspire "to prevent another
from exercising a lawfo-l trade or calling, or
doing any other lawful act, by force,threats, or
intimidation." Persona who meditate boycot-
ting their fellow-citizens will do well to bear
this section carefully in mind.
***
[Louisville Courier-Journal ]
Tbe dispatches of yesterday refer to the Gal-
veston Btrike. There are 3300 members of the
KnlgbtB of Labor connected with this strike,
of whom 1700 have local employment at Gal-
veston in railroad shops, freight houses, cotton
gins, wharves, and in other departments of
transit commerce All this work has been
biought to a standstill, all freight tralfii to or
from the cily has been Btopped, and railroad
agents in the interior are declining to receive
produce for the boycotted city, which cuts off
about 5C00 bales of cotton daily. There is no
disturbance of the peace, and 300 of their mem-
bers have been detailed by the Knights of La-
bor to aid the police, If necessary, in suppressing
disorder. The above sketchy reoital presents a
study. There is a new problem arising, whi3h
is assuming more and more importanca year-
ly, and which it will become necessary to sat-
tle with such justice and wise mediation be-
tween the two interests concerned tint the
compound may be a source of harmony an!
strength, instead of discord, disorder and
w eakness. There is no doubt that American
society 18 sound enough, and that our political
sj stem is strong and comprehensive enough,
to deal successfully wi.b this or any other pos-
sible exhibition of antagonisms between inter-
ests and classes, or with any possible attempts
at innovations upon the existing systems.
The wise plan of procedure is the conserva-
tive one—the searching into the ongia
and causes of such demonstrations, and
the ccrrection of real evils, while maintaining
inflexibly the active authority of the latv. The
law is the will of the people, and this should ba
the only meen» of redress of griuvances whbli |
can not be settled amicably by the parties di-
rectly interested. Of this there should bo no
question, and there should be no hesitation ia
acting upon it. But, all the aame, there is this
pioblem looming tip, which the law must mea-
sure wistly and learn how to deal with it.
When a large elass of law-abiding and indas-
tiicus people furnish proofs, by such sacrifices,
of a stinging sense of injury, it is a fair pre-
sumption fri queutly that the injury is real,
and in all cases of public injury there ought to
be a public remedy.
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The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 44, No. 201, Ed. 1 Wednesday, November 11, 1885, newspaper, November 11, 1885; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth463474/m1/4/?q=Cadet+Nurse+Corps: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.