The Express.
London, England, 1867-09-05 00:00:00

STRIKES IN THE UNITED STATES.

(From the Nem York Tints.)

The proceedings of the National labour Congress
at Chicago are calculated to leave an erroneous impression
upon the public mind. They magnify " the rights of
labour" and dwarf its duties. Perhaps a notice of some
recent strikes may tend to correct this error. In glancing
at the mistakes and blunders of trades unions, it is not
necessary to go far back. Even the eight-hour movement,
the failure of the Chicago strikes, the failure of the strikes
in the ship-building trade in New York, and the complete
ruin of that business, and hundreds of similar cases in
both the Old World and the New, may be passed over as
stale, or as too well-known to call for notice.
As it might be supposed that the leaders of
the so-called working men had lately grown
wiser, we will refer only to the West in-
stances of the disastrous contests they have led.
In the beginning of last January about 7,000 men con-
nected with the iron works in and around Pittsburg struck
for higher wages. They demanded 9 dole. per ton for •
certain class of work. Their employers simply refused to
pay so much. For several months this branch of intl=
was at a standstill. At last • compromise was a
upon, but at reduced wages ; the workmen agreed to take
8 dole. per ton after August 17. It is estimated that the
amount of wages lost by the men engaged in this strike
amounted to 2,850,000 dols. The loss to the country
from this affair was probably not less than 5,000,000 dole.
Both parties may have erred in this case. The facts, how-
ever, just stated warrant the conclusion that the trades
unions of Pittsburg deserve most blame for this heavy loss.
Again in March last, the coalminers at LaSalle, 11l struck
for • champ in rules. They objected to the use of gratings ore
which to discharge coal, and which were used to facilitate
the measuring of "slack." They wanted the mine-owners
to stick to the old plan of estimating the quantity of
" slack " by guess. The latter refused. Work ceased im-
mediately, and both parties have been sitting looking at
each other in idleness for the past four months. Within
• few days past they have commenced to talk of compro-
mise upon some system of co-operation. Whether this
plan be carried out or not, it is certain that every person
connected with the strike has lost several hundred dollars
by it. To show how the Miners' Union of La Salle was
managed, it is said that it had a rule that no man should
raise more than four tons of coal a day. Of course men
who put in themselves this strait-jacket law are not
I very likely to yield anything or admit that they
have done wrong. To all unprejudiced outsiders,
however, it must be evident that such men need
a lesson, not so much about their rights as
about the duties they owe to their families and to their
country. Work is a very important duty which they
neglected. It is aaid that 400 miners were out "in this
case, and that the losses will amount to 200,000 dollars.
This sum is large enough to buy the land and to open
half-a-dozen coal mines, such as were lying unused,
and to equip them with all necessary machinery. A thud
recent case is that of the printers in Detroit, Mich. The
compositors on one of the papers in that city struck in the
beginning of this month. The printers' union wished
another newspaper publisher to take on the strikers.
This was objected to, and immediately all the
men connected with the union sopped work. This occurred
August 8. The inconvenience caused to the publishers
appears to have been of short duration, and they will pro-
bably be able to carry on their business without complying
in the least with the demands of their employes. The loos
to the printers in this affair must be considerable, and to
the publishers almost nothing. The case is not an im-
portant one to the public ; but it is mentioned as the latest
illustration of the folly of all attempts to maks • living,
or to control other people in tasking their living, by
strikes and standing idle. The strike itself may be good
or bad ; it is the idleness and other crimes which gene-
rally follow the strike that inflict certain and serious
injuries upon the community. The delegates to Chicago,
and the orators of trades unions generally, may not do
any very great harm by merely talking about " the
rights of labour." In some cases considerable good
may be done by such talk. But it should
never be forgotten that the necessities, the duties, and the
pmctieabilities of labour are as important and necessary,
in their places, as its " rights." Organizations which
P)ant themselves firmly on their rights alone are one-
egged concerns, ready to topple over at any moment.
Whether the National Labour Congress is • concern of
thin sort, the future will soon determine. If its members
and all the persons under its influence will attend con-
stantly to the duties which the, owe to themselves, their
familiefs and the country, there will be little, if any,
reason to complain of losses by strikes, work will take the
place of voluntary idleness, and co-operation will supply
the want of individual capital.

A CoMmtneirr Or NATIONR.LTS is true that
freedom is a condition indispensable to the object in view;
but to familiarise men's mind, with that object is in itself
to supply them with a powerful lever for the acquisition of
freedom. The first serious blow to nationalism was dealt
by free trade, which gave for the first time a common in-
terest to nations, and taught them that whatever might be
the result of human arrangement., nature abhorred their
antagonism. In order that the minds of men might re-
ceive the idea of political union it was necessary that
commercial enmity should cease. The possession of vital
interests in common leads them in the first place to pause
before they coins to blows, and in the next place to coo.
eider whether there must not be some signal and fatal de-
fect in a system which arms ever community to the teeth
against its neighbour, and supplies them with no court of
appeal but the CODDOD'S mouth, and no arbitrator but the
sword. Free trade, then, is progressing ; currency it may
be hoped will at no distant time be assimilated; not long
ago a great congress representing the working men of all
nations met in the capital city which was of all others the
I most appropriate for their meeting; and men have turned
to see what can be done to remove a difficulty which is
serious, but which the example of Switzerland shows not
to be fatal—that of language. Above all, in England, upon
which so much of the world's future depends, the spirit of
freedom is abroad, has recently gained a victory, and will
I not rest (we may hope) until its triumph is complete. It
cannot be long before • neighbouring and rival nation
shakes itself free from the charge of unfitness for self-
I government ; and, when that is done, more than half the
battle of freedom will have been won. Beyond the Atlan-
tic the cause is secure. So long as that great people, whose
greatness has been shown by recent events to rest on a
foundation which no hurricane can shake, possesses almost
a monopoly of real political liberty, the idea of a common
polity for civilised men can assume for it no practical form.
—Macmillan's Magazine for September.
HZALTH HILISTOBSD HT DO BLEAT', FOOD TO TIM
BTostacis, DIM; lungs, and liver of old and young. mien
dyspepsia (indigestion), constipation, diarrhea, acidity, bead.
=hgneurslicia, hysteria, palpitation, sleeplessness, debility
, cough, salsas, fevers, consumption, low spirita. eo,ose
annual cures which bad raided all ntedea, including that of
his Holiness the Pope. —This, at It lid.: 1113., : 12th., tb. ;
24th., 408.—Thi Barry and Co., TT, lagenteerest, Loudon ; also at
61, Oesceehurchetrest : Mis, ;el sad lie, Ildordotrsat;
sad apiece's and oltmlis.— iMrWassalat4