The Yellowstone Journal

A QUEER SITUATION.
The reason why the convention of the American Railway union, which was in session in Chicago on Friday, did not declare the strike off, as it was said they would, is, according to Debs, that under the constitution of the union the convention had no power to do so. This was left, he said, to the local unions to do as they pleased. It would puzzle a court house full of lawyers to find out where the responsibility lies in this organization for ordering a strike or calling it off. Debs disclaimed any responsibility for ordering the strike, alleging that it was ordered by a convention of the A. R. U. which had met in Chicago just previously. One might suppose that if a convention had the power to order a strike it implied the power to revoke the order. But it seems not. Debs says he cannot call it off. The convention cannot call it off. Nobody can call it off but the local unions which were in no wise responsible for precipitating it. They simply obeyed orders. They went at the summons of their leaders into a war which was none of their making. And now that the war has ended in defeat, they are told that no one can get them out of the scrape but themselves. They may keep on or stop fighting as they choose. It is their affair. Their leaders have washed their hands of the whole business. The point is of no practical importance, as it affects the strike itself, which was off long ago, but it places the strikers themselves in an unpleasant predicament.