People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1894 — Mr. Egan’s Testimony. [ARTICLE]

Mr. Egan’s Testimony.

iChicago Record. Mr. Egan may have been entirely serious, but there was a vein of grim humor in his testimony before the labor commission yesterday. He told the commission that he was the general agent of the General Manager’s association in its contest with the American Railway union. In that capacity lie was authorized to call for police, deputy marshals, federal or slate troops in any number he thought necessary, but he did not have authority to talk in peaceful conference with Mr. Debs or Mr. Howard without the special sanction of the General Managers' association. Unlimited power for repres sion, not a jot for peace, would define the extent and scope of Mr. Egan’s job. Incidentally, it would define the whole unfortunate policy of the railroads in the recent difficulty. Carried to its legitimate conclusion such a policy means extinction for one of the contestants and incalculable injury to the interests that are drawn into such conflicts innocently. It is not likely that the neutral public will continue long in its submission to the inconvenience and damage ’that comes from acquiscence in such a policy as Mr. Egan so ingenuously described. The people who paid for soldiers and deputy marshals to do Mr. Egan’s bidding have a right to demand that conciliation be substituted for extinction in the general mangers’ strike vocabulary.