It should be distinctly stated that this cartoon is not to be regarded as having a general or abstract application. It appeared during the first street-railway strikes in New York; and the lesson it tries to teach was addressed especially to the corporations which, acting as common carriers and holding valuable franchises, were putting the public to great loss and inconvenience in carrying on a protracted struggle with their employees, wherein there was little doubt that right and justice were entirely on the workmen’s side.
However, this was the beginning of the great labor struggle that did so much to clear the minds of the people on the great question of the inter-relation of Capital and Labor. Puck’s forecast was almost prophetic. The editorial, which rebukes the greed of the corporations, points out that the strikes which they had precipitated could only serve to teach the workmen to abuse the right to strike; and goes on to say: “They are not more wise, more temperate, more just than their employers. The employers, having power, have misused it. They will likewise misuse power. What could be expected otherwise? Where they have the upper hand, they will tyrannize. They will strike and paralyze business, not only to enforce just demands, but to enforce unjust demands. Their employers will use the power of money to retaliate as best they may. A war, a veritable Civil War is begun, to which who can see the end?”
“FOR WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP.”
PUCK, June 15th, 1887.
Incredible as it may seem, the hare-brained theories of Mr. Henry George as to the communistic ownership of land received at one time a most unmerited toleration from people who would not have been suspected of sympathy with such vagaries. That he and his partner McGlynn did not accomplish the mischief they set out to do was no fault of theirs. When this cartoon was drawn, June 15th, 1887, they seemed to be perilously near to attaining their end. The reason that they failed was that, as is usual in this country, Horse Sense ultimately triumphed over Hysteria.
