Burlington Strike, 1888; Labor unions -- United States; Railroads -- United States -- Employees
The Brotherhood feels proud of its record, and it is our purpose to
carry forward our good work in the same straightforward manner. We
ask nothing of our employer but what is reasonable, believing that
it is the policy of the railway managers of the present day to
treat with their employes in a fair and liberal manner. It has been
my experience, during the limited time that I have been connected
with railroads, that most of the dissatisfaction that arises
between employer and employe originates from the overbearing,
tyrannical action of some petty foreman, ofttimes a Master
Mechanic, and employes censure the officials, and sometimes affairs
assume a serious aspect, when, if the employe would go to the
proper authority--the President or General Manager--and lay his
grievance before them, he would get immediate satisfaction.
Ofttimes the officials know nothing of the existence of any
dissatisfaction until they are informed that the employe has
struck; then it is too late to present the true situation to the
official, who, having had no intimation of trouble, feels greatly
incensed at the action of the employe, and immediately turns
against him, when, had the facts been presented to him, the foreman
or the petty boss that caused the dissatisfaction would have been
looking for employment, while the employe would have had justice.
There is only one way to adjust our grievances, and that is by a
careful statement to the proper authority. Then, if we fail to
obtain satisfaction, we can feel that we have done our duty, and
the responsibility rests with employer, not employe. During the
past few months we have observed in many localities troubles
between employer and employe. The cry has always been, Labor
fighting capital. Capital is not the enemy of labor; it is not
capital that labor is opposing; it is the monopolist, and such a
monopolist grinds down the laboring man to starvation wages in
order that he may enrich his own coffers. Labor is the creator of
capital, and as such there can be no strife between them. It is the
monopolists that control capital that antagonizes the laborer, and
compels him to work for scarcely enough to keep his family in food;
and it is those monopolists that to-day have capital bound in
chains and separated from its creator--labor. For years laboring
men have been subject to reductions in wages until, in many
instances, the amount of their daily earnings would scarcely buy
food sufficient to sustain life. Men of liberal views have observed
this state of affairs, and many of our great thinkers have examined
into this question, and, becoming convinced that it was wrong to
allow their fellow-men to be trodden down by a class of men that
have only one ambition, and that is to control all the capital of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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