TTbe Conservative * 3 -
would submit to pay the stamp duty if
it was moderated ? "
"No , never , unless compelled by force
of arms. "
"Don't you think they would submit
to the stamp act if it was modified , the
obnoxious parts taken out , and the duty
reduced to some particulars of small
moment ? "
"No , they will never submit to it. "
"Have you not heard of the resolutions
of this house and the house of lords as
serting the right of parliament relating
to America , including a power to tax
the people there ? "
"Yes , I have heard of such resolu
tions. "
"What will be the opinion of the
Americans on those resolutions ? "
"They will think them tinconstitu-
tioual and unjust. "
Just as the McKinley administration ,
in the case of Porto Rico , wants to
establish a -
pro-
Supremacy of . . . ,
Parliament. < * dent for colonial
administration , so
England in 1768 , by the resolution of
right , sought to establish a precedent
determining the constitutional rights of
parliament in legislating for the Ameri
can colonies. It will doubtless be re
membered what this "precedent" led to.
The resolution of right is almost iden
tical with the modern declaration of the
"supremacy" of congress and reads as
follows : "That the king's majesty , by
and with the advice and consent of the
lords spiritual and temporal and the
commons of Great Britain , in parliament
assembled , had , hath , and of right ought
to have full power to make laws and
statutes of sufficient force and validity
to bind the colonies and people of Amer
ica , subjects of the crown of Great
Britain , in all cases whatsoever. "
THE CHICAGO
STRIKE. Chicago forcibly
illustrates the tyr
anny and injustice of labor combinations
55,000 men having been thrown out of
employment. Arrangements had been
"made for the expenditure of $12,000,000
in the construction of buildings. This
must now be abandoned , because of the
strike inaugurated at the instance o :
6,000 machinists , who demand that the
present wage scale of 15 cents an hour
as the 'minimum and 25 cents the
maximum , be increased to 28 cents an
hour as the minimum , a nine-hour day
the employment of only union men am
discharge of all non-union men am
colored laborers.
The strike has already produced a
riot , as a result of an attack upon non
union employees
ElVects of the Strike. . , . ,
in which one man
was mortally wounded and fifty others
injured and removed to hospitals. The
average daily wage is about $2.00. Thi
means a loss to workmen of $110,000 for
every day the strike continues or $8,800 ,
000 per month. The tying up of such
a large volume of capital and the sudden
withdrawal of the purchasing capacity
of this army of workmen seriously
hamper the business life of the com
munity and effects more or less directly
all branches of trade. This is what the
trike is doing for Chicago. In this , as
n eyery other strike that has taken
place in this country , the wage-earners
hemsolves are the most injured. The
history of strikes is proof of their futility
as a means of correcting the differences
between capital and labor. In the
Homestead strike , after great loss of
> roperty and a deplorable sacrifice of
ife , not a single point of financial
advantage was gained by the laborers ,
jut was attended with an actual loss to
them of thousouds of dollars in wages
The commission appointed by Presi
dent Cleveland to investigate the Pullman -
man strike , on
Tlio Pullman Strike. . . .
-
< r )
page 18 of their
report , under the heading , "Losses and
Crimes , " state : "According to the
testimony , the railroads lost in property
destroyed , hire of the United States
deputy marshals , and other incidental
expenses , at least $685,808. The loss of
earnings of these roads is estimated at
$4,072,916. Some 8,100 employees at
Pullman lost in wages , as estimated , at
least $850,000. About 100,000 employees
upon the twenty-four railroads centering
in Chicago , all of which were more or
less involved in the strike , lost in wages
as estimated , at least $1,888,483. " In
the consequent riots and lawlessness 1
men were fatally injured and 586 placed
under arrest.
Not only is the financial loss to the
community large as a result of a strike
but the moral ef-
Moral Ell'cct. - , . , ,
feet is most de
generating. It converts industrious
workmen into idlers and , as is often the
case , lawbreakers. It makes innocent
families suffer. It affords an oppor
tunity for the criminal , lawless element
of society to ply their vocation. Too
often they have their origin in grievances
not real but imaginary. The walking
delegate , the professional agitator , whoso
experience as a laborer is confined ex
clusively to the manipulation of his
facial and vocal muscles , fills workmen
with discontent , creates antagonism
between employer and employee , alto
gether unwarranted and unjust , that he
may exact a price for the termination of
hostilities.
The principle of labor unions , which
foster and encourage strikes , is wrong.
It is a trust or com-
Wrong in Principle.
to
prices and differs from the combinations
of capital only in this that the labor
trust seeks to control and fix the price
of labor , while the capitalistic trust
affects the price of commodities. If it is
against public interest for capital to
combine to fix the price of commodities
and eliminate competition as a factor in
their regulation , then it is equally hostile
to public interest for labor to unite to
fix the price of wages. If legislation is
proper to suppress one form of combi
nation , it should be applied to the other.
The labor trust is even the more
tyrannical. Capital does not use force
and violence to
Tyranny of
Labor Trnnt. prevent competi
tion. The labor
trust , in Chicago , in the dispute with
the Now York and New Jersey Ma
chinery Manufacturers' Association , and
in every other strike , has demanded
that only such men , as it recommends ,
shall be employed. It not only makes
this demand but uses force and violence
to make the demand effective. It not
only attempts to fix the price but assumes
to dictate who shall be employed at the
stipulated price. It assumes the pre
rogative of determining what men shall
have the right to make a living. Which
is the more tyrannical and oppressive ,
the more un-American , the labor trust ,
evolved by the walking delegate , or the
capitalistic trust ?
W. E. Curtis , in
INITIALED EGGS.
the Chicago Rec
ord , tells this tale of poultry :
"Somebody down in North Carolina
found an egg bearing the letters 'W. J.
B. , ' as you learned in the dispatches to
the Chicago Record the other day , and
now we hear that a hen over in a Mary-
laud village has dropped one with
G. O. ' marked on it as distinct and
immovable as the north star. This
places Arthur Pue Gorman in an em
barrassing dilemma , because he has not
yet expressed a presidential preference.
Mr. Gorman will not believe that any
well-bred Maryland hen would lay an
egg with Grover Cleveland's initials
upon it , and insists that some old goose
must have committed this eggstraor-
diuary folly under the hypnotic influence
of Daniel S. Lament or J. Sterling Mor
ton. Mr. Gorman suggests that the
'G. O. ' egg may possibly be a relic of
the campaign of ' 88 or ' 02 and advises
great care in handling it. "
One of the striking
GOVERNMENT
COMMISSION. ing features of the
McKinley admin
istration is the principle of government
by commission. Political debts that the
president was unable to pay by appoint
ment to a regular federal position , were
satisfied by sending the individuals
abroad to inquire into the practicability
of doing a lot of visionary things. The
pleasure trips of political tourists to
Cuba , the European bimetallic pow
wow , the peaceful declamatory con
ference at the Hague , and other junkets
to congenial climes have cost the govern
ment three million dollars with abso
lutely nothing to show for it except a
report of a good time by the beneficiaries
and the satisfaction of the executive in
possessing a receipt in full for the pay
ment of political obligations ,
J5 >
