People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1893 — AGAINST PINKERTONS. [ARTICLE]

AGAINST PINKERTONS.

Important Declarations by a Special Committee of the Senate. WASHINGTON, Feb. 11.—Mr. Gallinger from the select committee appointed by the senate to investigate and report the facts in relation to the employment for private purposes of armed bodies of men or detectives in connection with differences between workmen and employers submitted the report of the committee Friday. The committee found that even the proprietors of the detective agencies admitted that the presence of the so-called Pinkertons at a strike served unduly to inflame the passions of the strikers, and the employment of detectives in the guise of mechanics impressed the committee with the belief that it was an utterly vicious system, responsible for much of the ill-feeling and bad blood displayed by the working classes. The committee declares that the employment of a private armed guard at Homestead was unnecessary. There was no evidence, they say, to show that the slightest damage was done or attempted to be done to property on the part of the strikers. At the same time there seems to be no excuse for the strikers; laboring men should learn the lesson that they cannot better their condition by violating the law or resisting lawful authority. The committee reached these conclusions: 1. Rights of employers and workmen are equal. 2. Employers have an undoubted right, provided they fulfill their agreements, to employ and dismiss men at pleasure. 3. Workmen can legally organize for mutual protection and improvement. 4. When dissatisfied with wages or hours they should attempt to arbitrate. 5. Failing in this they have a right to discontinue work either singly or in a body. 6. Having discontinued work they have no right, legal or moral, by force or intimidation, to keep others from taking their places or to attempt to occupy, injure or destroy the property of their employers. 7. In all controversies, arbitration having failed, reliance should be placed upon the power and adequacy of the law. 8. Employment of armed bodies of men for private purposes either by employers or employes should not be resorted to, and such act is an assumption of the state’s authority by private citizens. 9. States have undoubted authority to legislate against the employment of armed bodies of men for private purposes; but the power of congress to so legislate is not clear, although it would seem that congress ought not to be powerless to prevent the movement of such bodies from one state to another. In conclusion the committee says that its investigations have led it to conclude that the fault is not wholly on one side; that middle ground seems to be in the direction of arbitration. Without making any recommendations, the committee closes with a plea for arbitration.