Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-03-24
Strikes and Street Railroads-Thc Tri-
umph of Labor.

SATURDAY..~.......-... .............. MARCH "a
Strikes and Street RRilroads-The Tri.
umph OF Labor.
II would be hard TO show any reason why
the business of driving street rail-cars should
be any more exempt from general competi
tion than the driving of street-drays, or thar
any other kind of labor. No means have ye
been discovered for setting aside the universal
law Of supply and demand in the regulation
of the wages of labor, and II is fortunate fol
the laborer that it is so, for in II is his only
safety. Any artificial regulation must nee
essarily result in the benefit Of portion o
the laborers, at the suffering of the rest.
The strike-as it is called--of the driver,
on the Passenger and City Passenger Rail-
ways, having been carried out to what il
termed a triumph of labor, and regarding
MS we do the interests of labor as comprising
all the interests of society, and all triumph'
OF labor as the only real progress, it is meet
that we should look into the advantages
which labor has gained by this triumph, that,
if real, they may be duly exalted, and other
triumphs of the same kind encouraged.
The railway companies run twenty cars,
about sixteen hours and half each in day,
furnishing employment to thirty drivers
who, by alternating reduce their days work
to between eleven and twelve hours; with
the option also to the driver Of driving
through the whole time, which is from six
teen to sixteen and half hours, in which
case two of them receive the pay of three.
For the ordinary days driving, the companies
paid last summer cighty-hve cents day, or
81 271z day for the long time. In the win
ter they raised the wages to one dollar, being
one dollar and half for the long time. Re-
Gently they reduced wages again to eighty
FIVE cents day for the short time, which
clused the emeute.
There can be no question that these drivers
had q right to leave this labor if they believed
the wages inadequate. Furthermore, their
right to strike in body, so as to make the
embarrassment of their employers aid them
in carrying their own ends, is not called in
question; but what was there in this case,
then, that required it to be excluded from
general competition? There are hundreds
aud probably thousands of laboring men in
this city who would have been glad to take
these situations at the wages. Bywhat prin-
ciple that looks to the protection of la
borers are these to be cut off from their right
to seek employment where it is offered? Yet
these have been treated as if they had no
rights that were entitled TO respect. Some
who took employment were forcibly taken of
the cars, and their personal safety threatened,
while the city authorities countenanced and
some others encouraged this monopoly OF
drivers who set up their exclusive privilege
against the laboring men of the whole city.
This is what is called II triumph of labor
and defeat Of capital. Yet we doubt if a
young man, anxious for employment, and
with willing employer, but who found HIM
self excluded by this close corporation Of
drivers, would regard it so; and when we
consider that one is but the representative of
hundreds who, in principle, are deprived Of
the right to labor where it is in demand, by
the prescriptive right Of this small combina-
ton, the triumph seems anything but one of
labor. Combinations of capital, oppressive
TO labor, are often talked Of but rarely seen.
Capitalists have never yet succeeded in set
ting themselves above the law of supply and
demand; but when laboring man, needing
work for the subsistence of himself and
of those depending on him, and competent
TO drive a rail-car, though perhaps un-
equal to labor which requires full phys
ical strength and endurance, is driven
from a car on which he is receiving wages
satisfactory to him, and better than he could
earn elsewhere, by combination who as
sumo the labor as their exclusive privilege,
he probably would call it any thing but
triumph of labor.
Such triumphs as this will hardly glorify
our city authorities who countenance them,
nor that small portion Of the public who en-
courage them. The practice, extended into
other kinds of business-into which it is just
as applicable-willb be any thing but beneficial
to the prosperity of our city, or to the inter-
ests of honest and industrious laborers.