The American Railway Strike
By Editor
The great topic throughout the country at present is the strike of the American Railway Union in sympathy with the employes of the Pullman Car Company. The result is that not only railroad business, but every business in any way dependent upon railroad travel or transportation, is for the time paralyzed. The aim of the strikers is to cause loss to the railroad companies unless they lay aside Pullman cars, but the practical effect is to cause loss of employment to many poor men whose employers are compelled to stop or curtail their mercantile or mechanical business for want of railroad accommodation. In California fruit ranchers and fruit dealers are in a measure ruined for the season for want of transportation facilities. The strikers would fain convey the idea that the movement is a defense of labor against capital; but practically it is a thrust at every man's interest on account of the grievance of a few employes of a private corporation. The greatest sufferers are those who are in no way responsible for the cause of the trouble, and are powerless to remedy it. The Southern Pacific Company is concentrating its efforts to break the strike at the three strategic points of Oakland, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. In Colorado government troops have been called upon to interfere in the contest at Trinidad, and the probability is the government will be drawn into the contest in a general way. If the strike continues, the destruction of property will erelong become a feature of the fray, which will necessitate action on the part of State and government authority. The times are ripe for lawlessness, and, however the present contest may terminate, we may expect little else but strife and confusion from this time forth.