The Newcastle Riot: When Labor Turned Mob

From whatever point of view the recent trouble at Newcastle may be regarded it has the appearance of a very bad piece of business. It must be condemned from beginning to end by every right-minded citizen, and there remains absolutely nothing to be said in excuse of the conduct of those who were the apparent cause of the affair.

The facts of the act, briefly stated, seem to be about as follows: The miners at Newcastle and Coal Creek are divided into two factions, between which a feeling of bitterness had long existed. The smaller of these factions holds the charter of an assembly of the Knights of Labor. The other faction, which exists to a large extent of seceders from the Knights of Labor, is organized into a local society known as the Miners' Protective Union. The members of the latter organization contend that all the disturbances which have disgraced Newcastle in the past year have been due to the efforts of the Knights of Labor to prevent them from working in the mines and virtually to drive them from the camp.

The events of the past week go far toward proving that this view of the case is the correct one. The Knights of Labor have certainly been the aggressors throughout the troubles, and, though they are outnumbered by the members of the Protecting Union at Newcastle, they have been able to intimidate their fellow workmen by calling in the assistance of members of their order at Gilman and Cedar Mountain.

Several times in the past the Knights of Labor at Gilman have gone to Newcastle and taken part in the difficulties there. During the past week they repeated this performance, though with more serious results than ever before. The immediate cause of the trouble was a petty one brought on by the employment of a man objectionable to the more aggressive faction.

The immediate cause, however, is of little importance. The real cause of the trouble was the bitter feeling between the Knights of Labor and the members of the union, a feeling for which the former seem to be almost entirely to blame. There was no question of wages, no question between capital and labor, involved. The whole point at issue was whether an armed mob could prevent a hundred or more workingmen from beginning their daily labors.

This is the time to decide whether a lawless mob can go with impunity from place to place, interfering with business, intimidating those who are engaged in a lawful and unobjectionable pursuit and preventing by force those who are personally objectionable to them from earning their daily bread. If this thing can be done in Washington Territory, it is best that the people should know it at once, and if it cannot be done, it is time for those who have attempted it to suffer the penalty of their lawlessness.

The people of Newcastle have a right to know whether they live under a reign of law or under a reign of lawlessness. With trade-unions, with organized labor generally, every man has full sympathy. It is not only the right, but it is the duty of workingmen to organize for their own protection. But organization does not imply license to violate the laws and intimidate those who desire to work. The members of the Miners' Union of Newcastle had as clear a right to go work on Friday morning as they had to eat their breakfast, and those who attempted to prevent them cannot in any manner justify their act.

It is high time that lawlessness should be put down and that respectable citizens should live in the rights guaranteed to them by society.