The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, December 01, 1890, Image 11
Dry evening’s fallen tears Quick aB night disappears, Vor soon I’ll tread The grassy bed Where meadow larks delight my ears. Awake this early blrdj ’Tls Morning gives the word. No sorrows with me rise, Fresh beauty greets my eyes ; Since darkness flod I have no dread, Of hidden dangers breeding sighs. Ye oreatures of the earth Bring gladness, song and mirth. Now clearor grows the sky, Yon hills are drawing nigh; The blazing sun Has now begun To seek his midday throne on high. Aspiring hope is mine Whose sun oan ever shine. THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR AND THE NEW YORK CENTRAL. In the October number of the Free Lance there appeared an article by C. D. S. on the New York Central strike, which requires an answer, or rather a statement from a different point of view, of the questions involved in that controver sy. The article in question is mainly the assertion of opinions without attempt to verify or enforce them by argument; and, while I should prefer a different course, I must here content myself with what will be more a statement of my own views than a formal argument, partly because my main object will be accomplished if by presentation of the other side the reader may be encouraged to investigate and form an opinion for himself, and partly because I am now unable to find many of the reports and records of the strife and investiga tion, from a hasty perusal of which my opinions were formed at the time. With C. D. S. I can have no quarrel regarding the futility of strikes in general to accomplish any real and lasting good to the men engaged in them, and much less to laborers as a class. But beyond this and the fact that the strike was finally unsuc cessful I can find no shadow 'of “proof that “a strike of this nature hrtd been premeditated; 1 ’£tttid THE FREE LANCE. that Mr. Powderly was only waiting for a more efficient organization and a more promising pe riod “to effect a complete tie-up of all rail-roads possible.” On the contrary, I have reason to be lieve, from the private testimony of personal friends of Mr. Powderly, as well as from the utter ances of that gentleman himself, that no one more fully realizes how little real good (beyond the awakening of public sentiment and thoughtful dis cussion) may be accomplished by strikes, and that no one would exert his influence more vigorously to prevent every strike he could than the Grand Master Workman of the Knights. But this very fact makes him all the better qualified to lead, and carry to the most successful issue possible any strike once entered upon contrary to his advice and in clinations. This it may be that leads superficial observers like C. D. S. to assume, without any other foundation, that Mr. Powderly’s opposition to the ordering of certain strikes has been due to a desire to lead a more extended strike of the forces under his control. Let us now turn to a very important question, carefully avoided by C, D. S., viz: the reasons alledged by the Knights for the strike, and.the at titude towards it of Acting Third Vice President Webb. The Knights claimed that members of their order, including several who held prominent positions among them and had been spokesmen for their fellows in various conferences over griev ances, had been summarily discharged without explanation and apparently with no other cause than that they were members of the K. of L. Mr. Webb, it is true, denied this, but loftily refused to offer any proof, and seemed to expect the public to beleive his uncorroborated and unsupported statements against those of a number of the dis charged men and of Mr. Powderly, who had thoroughly investigated the matter. Mr. Webb, seeming to have concluded that his sudden prom inence before the public (due entirely to his high handed and insolent action in this controversy) warranted him in adding “Knights of Labor” and “State Officials” to old ComHiodore Vandet-