The contest between capital and labour in the United States,
though it always ends in one way, is more bitter than in England. The tramcar drivers of Brooklyn, for instance, have gone out on strike, and the contest has at once developed into a small civil war. The strikers stop all cars by force ; all telegraph wires are cut ; and the men who remain faithful to the Company are threatened with revolvers. The Governor of New York has, accordingly, called out the Militia ; and the 7th Regiment has tried to guard the cars in starting. It has not succeeded, however; and the Militia have been so heavily brick batted, that on one occasion the men replied with their rifler, and "thirteen casualties" are reported. We can form no opinion on the merits of the original quarrel, which was about wages, and only record the fact that under the Republic the resort to force on both sides is at least as precipitate as under a Monarchy. In this country, thirteen casualties would be a subject for Parliament, but in New York life is cheap, and in Chicago the railways kill that number every few days out of pure indifference and hurry.
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