New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1845-10-14
IudustriHl Anarchy.

IudustriaI Anarchy.
Some journals have rcpubishcd, with evident
ahuckle Of delight, the details given by the Pitts
burgh papers OF the recent strike of women en-.
ployed in the Allegheny Factories, and the means
by which they succeeded in stopping the works.
To u.s. thesc narratives brought none other than pain
full emotions. To hear OF three four hundred
young and respectable women, not satisfied with re.
fosing to work on the terms offered, they had a
perfect right to do. proceed TO burst open gates
guarded by salwart men, break into factories. and
then force those who preferred working to desist,
all the while surrounded, backed, cheered on by
crowd Of admiring masculine spcctators--rhis is
story very far from amusing to us. Whatever were
the wrongs Of these women il seems 20 that their
attempt to redress them involved the gpssest viola
ton Of the rights Of Property and of Personal Lib
erty. They were In the factories this errand bat
as wilful ,respassers. and could do nothing there
lawfully against the wishes Of the proprietors And
II they were FIVE hundred to fifty, neither their
ben any thing else gave them the least right TO
say that those Who chose to work should not do
Majortes have no right to override the will Of mi
morales unless by compact and wherein had the
persistent workers consented to be governed by the
regulations of the strikers
But in affirming that the Amazons Of Allegheny
did wrong, we do not assert that they acted without
provocaton or from improper motives They doubt
less thought they were struggling for rights with
held from them by the tyranny of capital. The
laiion Of Laborer and Employer is so false and an
tagonistc Society around us that all sorts Of hal
l.,t atoJ tx-t I n
rate the true from the false in regard to the
versy In question;
l. The Factory Girls Of Pittsburg and Allegheny
say, The hours Of Labor lover twelve per day in
the mills are too many Add to these what are
needed for taking food sleep, &c and they leave US
time for mental improvement or hcalthful excr
else. Yet we are compelled to work all these hours.
We demand their reduction TO ten.
2. But answer the Employers, we under
constraint as well you. If We run our mills but
ten hours. while those with whom we compete in
cell our fabrics cheap they do. and must sell at
0 loss or stop workng-in either case be ruined So
tina, you would gain nothing by our compliance with
your demands. for you would soon be thrown out OF
work and eagerly seeking places in the twelve-hour
factories while we should be bankrupt and our
creditors suffering for our blind folly
,. We disbelieve or care not for this say the
Girls; it is more important that our lives be pre-
served by healhful exercise and our minds improved
by hours OF caltaro. than tina; you be enabled to sell
cloth half a cent cheaper per yard. If others do
wrong do you set the example of doing right, and
we will see the movement supported
A. ~ a.
Factories are stopped. The business Of the manu-
facturers Is brought to dead halt time when the
demand for goods is unusually good and prices re
muncra,ing-the strike. If long persisted in, will be
sure to break some Of thcm-and the Girls who
were earning at least twice as much as working wo-
men throughout the country average and getting
their pay promptly. are now earning nothing, and
may remain 20 for moaths II any Of them engage
in other pursuits il will be to far less anaee than
they worked in the factories lfthey 20 out to work
in households they will have to work quite as many
hours have no more time for improy ement obtain
much lees than and receive i, neither so reguarynor
% certainly ashley did in the factories Their social
position will be lowered and their narrow indepen-
depcc abridged by the charge. And beside, they
will thus come ia competition with and thrown out Of
employment many who a subsistence by do
mes,.c service. If they try Needlework, they will be
fer worse otfm every way. and they competition will
press on class already ON the brink of famine
Where il the escape from this labyrinth
Bear In mind tina, the ground Justly taken by the
Employer points distinctly to deeper and darker
gals Of depression and degradation For if in some
not distant sosson Of manufacturing and general de-
preston few companies should see fit to increase
~ they might the hours OF labor to fourteen, they
would 10 enabled thereby to undcrsel their rivals
Who maintained the present hours and these mus,
ooms up TO the new standard or be ruined The ar.
yamcni cxpressly iuplies and establishes this As
Free Trade between nations renders Of necessity
he loxesf reward Of Labor in any the ultimate stand
nd in all 20 Free competition In Industry i.wsaG
similar internal consequences in regard to the
conditions and rewards Of Labor
And let none cay that the new doctrines and IDEAS
Z oar day have produced the present collision
'ittsburgh L. most devout and practical City, of
vhose twenty FIVE thirty Churches not one can
e Obtained fora Social Reform Convention. LISA
ity Of Religion and Industry. 10 which dreamers
ave little influence But 10 truth these strikes
10 older than oil modern theories-arc as old as the
xistence Of distinct classes known a. Employers
nd Employed. They are less frequent and less
isssrous In our day and country than they were in
treat Britain forty years ago. They grow natu-
Wy cat Of The relation they influence. When one
49, I'VE BY working for another, receiving and sub
- .tI C. I.