Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1886 — Gould to Powderly. [ARTICLE]

Gould to Powderly.

Following is Mr. Gould’s reply “Nkw York, April 14.. . “T. V. Powderly, Esq., G. M. W., K. of L.177~' Dear Bib—At 12 o'clock to-day I received from Mr. William <>. McDowell, whom you Drought with vou to ourr.Jcent conference, a letter iu whiph ho savs: ‘By yesterday’" mail I received a lette? written Dy.- Mr. Powderly addressed to yon. inch fed InA lotter addressod to Trie. With this I hand you the letter addressed to you by Mrr l’pwderly, and a copy of Mr. Powderly's lotter to me inclosing the some.' “Tho following is a copy of the lettir Mr. McDowell: sent npi as coming from you : “ ‘Gknekai. Assembly, Order of Knights of] Labor of America, Office of Gf.neral > Masts-u Workman, Scranton. Pa., April 13. j “My Dear Mr. McDowell—l inclose you a letter which you are to lead and doliver to the man for whom it is intendod. I do not care whethor you deliver it in person or through the medium of another; I only ask that it be placed iu his , hands. If you havD succeeded in effecting a settlement with him do not give it to him. If yori think there is a prospect for an immediate settlement do not give it to him ; but it such is not the case, then I want it placed in his hands. Allow him to either consent or make a reply. If he consents to an honorable settlement, then the lttier will never soe the light of day; but if he does not so act, -1 hen it will be published to the world, and from the time he opens up the ball in a legal way wo will continue to wage tho battle with him. His w’ealth cannot save him if this fight is begun. Lit no one know of the existence of this letter until after 5 o’clock of the day you deliver it; then if he makes no reply let it go to the world. Let him know the limit of time allowed. I sincerely hope that there wifi be nq mare necessity for Its publicity. Hoping for the best, I remain, very truly yours, , “ ‘T. V. Powderly. “ .‘To W. O. McDowell, Esq., New York.’ “I-thus received your letter to me dated ‘Scranton, Pa., April XI, 1886,’ at the same time and by the same agency that I received your foregoing letter of instructions to Mr. McDowell. “The animus and purpose of your letter to me cannot be fully understood without knowing the contents of that one. I was peremptorily notified at the same time that I must answer your letter by 5 o'clock to-day and I was graciously given until that hotir to respond. “Your letter to me.embraces two subjects, one relating to me personally and the other to the relation of tha Kilfghts "of Labor to a railroad company of which I am the President, and in some degree the representative of its public and private duties. I shall refer to the first subject very briefly. The circumstances above given iimier whieh your letter was delivered, as well—as its tenor and spirit, place its purpose iu writing it beyond any fair doubt. It would sesm to be an official declaration that the Knights of Labor had determined to pursue me personally unless the Missouri Pacific Company should yield to its'demands in what you call the strike on that road. “In answer to these personal threats, I beg to say that lam yet a free American citizen. lam past 49 years Of age. and was bonpat Roxbury, Delaware County, in this State. I began life in a lowly way, and by industry, temperance, and attention to my own business have been successful, perhaps, beyond the measure of my deserts. If, as you say, I am now to be destroyed by the Knights of Labor unless I will sinkimy manhood, so be it. Fortunately I have retained my early habits of Industry. My friends, neighbors, and business associates know me well, and I am quite content to leave my personal record in their hands. If any of them have aught to complain .of, I will be only too glad to submit to any arbitration. If sueli parties, or any of them, wish to appoint the Knights of Labor or you as their attorney, such appointment is quite agreeablo to me, but, until such an election is made, it w-ill naturally occur to you that any interference on your part in my personal affairs is, to say the least, quite gratuitous. “Since I was nineteen years of ago I have been in tho habit of employing in my various enterpri es large numbers of persons, probably at times as high as 50,000, distributing often three or four million dollars per month in different pay rolls. It would seem a little strange that during all these years the difficulty with tbe Knights of Labor should be my first. Any attempt to connect me personally with the late strike on the Southwestern roads or any responsibility therefor is equally gratuitous, ai you well know. It Is true law the President of the Missouri Pacific, but when, the strike occurred I was far awaytentbe ocean and beyond the reach of telegrams. I went away relying on your promise made to me last August tnat there would be no strike on that load, and that if any difficulties should arise vqu would come frankly to me with them. Mr Hopkins, the Vico President of this company, who was present and cognizant of this arrangement with you in my absence, sect you promptly when the present strike broke out the following telegrams: “ ‘New York, March 6, 1886'.—To T. V. Powdebly, Scranton, Pa.: Mr. Hoxie telegraphs that Knights of Labor on our road have struck and refuse to allow any freight trains to run, saying they have no grievances, but are only striking because ordered to dd so. If there an* anv grievances we would like to talk them over with you. We understood you to promise that no strike woulcLbs ordered w’ithout consultation. ' “ ‘A. L. Hopkins.’

Then follows a ser es of dispatches between Messrs. Gould, Hopkins, and Powderly. Mr. Gould continues: “When, in spite of all this correspondence, you desired to see me personally, I cordially met you, and, having put myself in communication with Mr. Hoxie, arranged for arbitration. Ever since then Mr. Hoxie has stood ready to receive any and all persons in the actual employ of this compauy, as a committee or otherwise, and confer upon or arbitrate any matter of difference or complaint either between the companv and themselves, or between tho company antpits late employes, and for that matter between the company and anybody else. No such committee or individual employe has, so far as known to me, ever mode such application. In this connection it will be remembered that they left, not because of any complaint whatever of this company’s treatment of themselves* ..but only because of the company’s refusal to comply with their demand that this company refuse to do what the law requires in the way of interchange of business with another company with which some of jrqjix order had a quarrel. “In the meantime this company has of necessity gone on extend emplpymeht to Such of those persons who recently, and without even alleged provocation, left its service, as saw fit to return. These returning employes have been very many, and in this way its roils are already, if not quite, as full us its shops and equipment, crippled by acts of violence attendant upon* recent action of your order, can employ. Mr. Hoxie advises me that every such person ajfc plvipg to bo received hack has been employed unless believed to have taken part in recent acts of violence. This company still stands ready .to make good, in the fullest sense, its agreement as expressly set forth. In the face of all this you notify me that unless by 5 o’clock I personally consent to something—precisely what I do not see—then personal consequences of a sort vaguely expressed, but not hard to understand, will at the hand of your order be visited upon me. Let pie again remind yon that it is an American citizen whom you and your order thus propose to : destroy. The contest Is not between your order and me, but between your order and the laws of tho land. Your order has already defied those laws in preventing by violonce this company from operating its road. You held then that this company should not operate its road under conditions prescribed by law, but only under conditions prescribed by you. You qow declare, in effect, that I hold my individual property and rigl.ts, not as other men hold theirs, but oulv at the peril of your letting loose irrevocably, after 5 o'clock, your order upon me. If this is true of this company, and of me, it is true of all other men and complies. If so, you and vonr secret order are the lnrtv, and an American citizen is such only in name. “Already forweeks your ordoT has", in your a,ttack upon this company, not hesitated to disable it by violence from rendering its duty to the public., a«J from givrii'g work and paying wagee to men at least three times your own number, who. working as they wore by 1 your Side, were at leisl deserving of your , sympathy. Havina pusheff this violence beyOHd even the ~ great forbearance of the public, und found in this direction cause to hesitate, yon nojv turn upon me and propose that tho wrongs you have hitherto inflicted on the public shall now culminant in an attack upon an individual. In this, as I have said, the real issue is between you and the laws of the land. It may be? before you are through, that those laws will 'efficiently ' advise vou thatoven I, as an individual citizen, am not beyond their care. Very respectfully, “ “Jay Gould.”

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