Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1898 — LABOR UNIONS [ARTICLE]

LABOR UNIONS

Through Legislation the Democracy Lifts Many Burdens From Labor Organizations. It Wm Through Democratic Legislature* That Coercion and Intimidation by Unscrupulous Employee* Wa* Prohibited— Republican* Responsible for the Infamous Law to Intimidate RaUroad Employe*—Bringing of Pinkerton** Into the State to Shoot Down the Striker* Prohibited by Democratic Enactment*. It is well known to every union workingman in Indiana, because it is a part and an important part of labor’s history, that the time is not remote, even if it has passed, when employers were-virulently hostile to labor organization and in numerous ways sought to impose penalties upon workingmen who became members of such organizations. This hostility was exhibited in various forms, each and all of which was inimical to the liberty and independence of the union workingman. This opposition took the form of coercion, intimidation, threats of dis* charge, and of discharging men from their employment and of blacklisting them. It was in the most odious form wage slavery. And to make matters still worse, the opposition of employers to labor organizations was often, and generally, secret. The employers had their hired spies and the penalties imposed came without premonition. This shameful antagonism of employers became so pronounced that union workingmen appealed to the Democratic legislature of 1893 for redress and the response was the enactment of a law, approved Feb. 25th, 1893, which provided: “That it shall be unlawful for any individual, or member of any firm, agent, officer or employer of any company or corporation, to prevent employes from forming, joining and belonging to any lawful labor organization, and any such individual member, agent, officer or employer that coerces or attempts to coerce employes, by discharging or threatening to discharge from their employ or the employ of any firm, company or corporation, because of their connection with such labor organisation, and any officer or employer, to exact a pledge from workingmen that they will not become members of a labor organization as a consideration of employment, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof in any court of competent jurismetion, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding |IOO, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both, in the discretion of the conrt.” In these provisions of a wise and just law it is seen that labor did not apoeal to the Democratic legislature in vain. Workingmen were at onoe emancipated from a most debasing thraldom. The odious schemes and machinations of employers were overthrown and union workingmen oould exercise their rights and discretion unintimidated. When the great number of union workingmen in Indiana is considered and the benefits that have accrued to them by virtue of the law under consideration, the Democratic party of Indiana has a right to felicitate itself upon the wisdom and justice of the statute which secures rights to workingmen which they appreciate, and prize above measure. INTIMIDATION Infamou* Legislation Enacted by th* Republican* Against Workingmen Repealed by the Democracy. The Republican legislature of 1881 enacted one of the most infamous laws that ever blotched the pages of the statute books of Indiana. The law, which was approved April 14, 1881, was designed especially to intimidate railroad employes and prevent them from striking against oppression, intimidation and coercion, and compel them from fear of fine and imprisonment to do the bidding of their task masters unresistingly. It is a matter of history that the demands of corporation magnates, when they have required laws promotive of their schemes, however nefarious the object in view, have sought ‘ the aid of Republican legislation, and there is not an instance on record in which a Republican legislature or a Republican congress has failed to respond satisfactorily. The Republican law of 1881 was in the interest of railroad corporations, the penalty being fine and imprisonment for any and every attempt to resist the outrages inflicted upon them by men in control of the ’railroads of the state, among whom, more or less conspicuous was, 0. W. Fairbanks, now United States senator. No one knew better than Fairbanks the purpose of the despotic law, but it was reserved for the Democratic legislation of 1889 to give railroad employees the relief they sought by repealing the Russianizing Republican intimidation law, for which thousands of railroad men in Indiana were profoundly grateful. The splendid record made by the Democratic legislatures to improve the standing and broaden the influence of workingmen in Indiana baa made the Republican party cautious, though still ready, as la shown by the infamous and unconstitutional garnishee law to aim a blow at poor mon when over aa opportunity offers, if it can be done in a way to obscure the real iateat of the moaoure. Whoa, as tbo records show, that five Democratic logMaturss in racnooriou retpoadod to the requests of the work-

ingmen of Indiana to afford them relief from oppressive conditions, all doubts regarding the fealty of the Democratic party to labor at once disappears, and the fact that the party is the friend of the workingmen of the state stands confessed and irrefutable. PINKERTONS The Great Friend* of Carnegie, Frick and Other flnccrapulotu Employer* Denied Admission to Indiana by a Democratic Legislature. It will be remembered by every citizen of Indiana, who has ever given labor troubles and interests a thought, that a few years ago serious labor difficulties occurred at Homestead, whereabout 10,000 workingmen were employed in building up the colossal fortune of Andrew Carnegie, one of the multimillionaires of the country. This man Carnegie is now knowu in Europe and America as “Blowhole” Carnegie, a sobriquet applied to him because of his attempt to rob the government in the manufacture of artnorplate for battleships, which was found to be worthless on account of “blowholes.” But before Carnegie attempted to defraud the government, he, in association with another rascal by the name of Frick, who bad won a large measure of infamy in the coke regions of Pennsylvania by defrauding workingmen, began the same system of robbery at Homestead. Carnegie and Frick tried several methods for killing their employes who struck against the reduction of their wages and by being watchful, had escaped being scalded to death by hot water or killed by electricity, and finally to subdue men who were contending for fair wages and against robbery, Carnegie and Frick imported into Homestead a small army of thugs known as “Pinkertons,” who were armed to the teeth with the most deadly weapons. These mercenary murderers, hired to kill for so much a day and rations, were attacked by the Homestead workingmen and compelled to inglorionsly retire from the battlefield. But the incident aroused universal indignation and became a world-wide infamy. It disclosed the fact that a concern in Chicago kept constantly on hand or within call an army of unhung mercenaries, who could be hired as the British hired Hessians, to kill workingmen with as little compunction as if they were so many vagabond dogs, and it was seen that there were men in the United States at the head of great industrial enterprises who were willing to hire these outcasts to murder their employes, and fearing that Indiana might be within the “Pinkerton” zone, the Democratic legislature of 1889 enacted a law which forbade the employment of such vagabonds. This law enacted to protect workingmen from wounds and death inflicted by men as heartless as Apache savages, pro vided, “That it shall be unlawful for any person, company, association or corporation to bring or import into this state any person or persons or associations of persons for the purpose of discharging the duties devolving upon sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, marshals, policemen, constables or peace officers in the protection or preservation of public or private property or in the punishment of any person violating the criminal laws of this state.” And the penalty imposed for violating the law is imprisonment in the penitentiary for one year and a flue of < 100. “ This wise and humane Democratic measure received the emphatic indorsement of every workiugmau in the state and was convincing evidence of the promptness of the Democratic party to shield workingmen from the assaults of corporations, and from assaults of thugs, the product of the slums of great cities, and in the employment of men who were willing to resort to such means to conquer their employes.

Governor Mount’s friends, regardless of party, are still deploring the injuries he received in his collision with Judge Showalter. The Governor had sidetracked his train, whioh was hauling the constitution, the legislature, the supreme court, the 3-cent streetcar fare law and the attorney general when Showalter’s injunction locomotive struck him, head-on with terrific force, since when the governor, the constitution, the legislature, the S cent fare law and the attorney general have been so intermixed and intertwisted that all who have viewed the wreckage have declared the collision was altogether the most disastrous that ever occurred, since such judicial mosquitoes as Showalter wore boots. Before the war with Spain we were getting on nicely with a standing army of 25,000 men, and now we are to have a ’standing army of 100,000 men. It costs money to keep up such an establishment, but to raise it all that is required is to lick and stick revenue stamps. _________ Major McKinley hints that Whitelaw Reed will be made secretary of state, because he married a fortune big enough to enable him to get up swell entertainments in Washington, and make a superb ass of himself, as he did in Paris. Senator Fairbanks, who goes to Canada on some sort of a government picnic, oould, if required, tell the Canadians the profitable limit of wind and water to be injected into their railroad stocks and bonds. Having acquired the Hawaiian islands, 2,000 miles west of our Pacific coast, what becomes of the “Monroe doctrine?” The administration ought to inform the people, approximately, how much leprosy has been annened to the United wwuBCW wMMM