The Portland daily press., 1867-05-08


teemsd with reports of the sayings and tloinos
miscellaneous strike. The carpenters, ship
joiners, ship painters, brass turner's, plumbers
metal roofers, boiler makers, iron moulders
tool sharpeners coal shovelers and all the rest
have been passing resolutions and striking or
preparing TO strike, as if the small profits real
lied in the present state of business afforded
most eligible margin for an increase of wages
Ihe meetings of the practical Painters" the
"Journeyman Tailor's Protective Association"
and the United Derrickmen" have been scenes
OF lively debate, and the "Boss Carpentersn
nave Deen at their wits ends. Here in Maine
VIC nave had our little hurries at Biddeford and
Lewiston, and in this city there have been some
symptoms of disaffeotion among different
classes OF builders. In Manchester and law
renee tho strikers compelled some of the mills
to shut down, and had to be restrained by the
police. In New Jersey, a large force of iron
miners marched by fourso through Dover the
other day; proceeded to the Swede mine whore
few of their number were still at work. order
ed them to stop and compelled the teamsters
whom they met drawing ore to return and un
load. The Pennsylvania legislature has lust
passed q law "for the bettor protection of ner-
son, property and life in the mining region, Of
tho Commonwealth" providing for the an
pointment Of q marshal of police with an ade-
quate force, to put down the Molly McGures"
who going from colliery to colliery instigate
most Of tho strikes in that region, order works
TO stop, fires to be put out, and oven 60 50 far
as to dictate who shall be bosses and what la
borers shall be employed, enforcing their COM
mands by the most reckless destruction O,
property and life. In Chicago the riotous
demonstrations of Thursday and Friday by
way of "enforcing the eight-hour law" have
eliminated in extensive and disastrous fires
undoubtedly the work of incendiaries iaf1aHa
Z In England, few weeks ago 1856 engine
drivors and as many fremen struck work ON
the London, Brighton and South Coast rail-
way, and for twenty-four hours the southern
side of the great city was parafyzed The men
carried their point, and returned to their du
Ties next day. 1t is q little less than a year
since the engine drivers and firernen of Eng
land and Scotland organized their 'sUnion." /"
They have now orer II, 900 members, capital
OF $4,000, and newspaper OF their owii APP
propriately called The 7rain Shares in the
London, Brighton and South Coast railway
receded per cent. during the interruption Of
travel--a symptom which the directors were
quick to observe and act upon. What NAV
not be expected from the conscious strength OF
An organization which in its first year startles
the world by feat like this! 1t is no better on
tho continent Europe. In Paris, the taIors are
on strike to the terrible discontinue ofunhap-
lpy Americans who have worn their old clothes
over seas trusting to be speedily arrayed in the
very latest Paris fashion. The workingmen
have learned what solidarity" means too.
There is good understanding between the ID
borers OF England and Franco and Belgium.
Employers learn with despair that it is no lo,,-
ger possible to import laborers to fill the yacu-
um occasioned by strike. Tho three tailors
OF Tooley street, if they were now living ana
were influential members or the @Journeyman
iallors Protective Association" might reason
ably andproperly begin their manitestoes with
I'VE, tho people" 'fr't- 'H' 'hd' we O
What does all this mean, people ask; and |
wiseacres are beginning to scrutinize the mat
ter as intelligently as the Pickwickians studied
"Bill Stubs his mark" The World thinks /
strikes are the laboring mans "dumb protest
against the prolonged supremacy of the Union
party. The Evening Post is confident that
now at last the laborins men are getting tired
of protective tariffs and want cheaper jack
knives and rOundabouts. Fac. of these tw o
writer's is so busy with the management OF
his special hobby that he neglects to raise his |
eyes and observe the same phenomena in free
trading England and France where at least
there is no "Union" party. The truth is, here
is agreat fact; which needs not to be explain
in civilized eos atries all the world over have
become sufficiently intelligent toacombine, to
act patiently and systematically together, to
frame and obey rules and laws of their own.
That is all, and it is much. For labor is the
one thing with which the world cannot dis
pense. The men who control the labor of any
country are masters OF it destinies, and if the
laborers of any country insist on controlling
themselves and their destinies, they, cannot be
hindered. If they can govern themselves in
voluntary associations, they can govern them
selves In all respects. 1t is not by chance that |
england, while she faces the labor, question,
Is also compelled to concede to the laborine
classes larger share of political, influence
than they ever claimed before. ..,t...4.
,7 The right of one man or any body of men to
say for how much money he or they will render
. stated service, is incontestable. The attempt
OF any man or any body Of men to control the
action of others in this particular deserves to
DO repressed and punished with the utmost |
promptitude. The disaffection of laborers with !
their present situation, rightly viewed, is en-
couraging. They will learn by and by that q |
strike does not afford tho best remedy. The
same principle of cooperation which manifests
Itself IN the strike, il carried step further will
give us joint-stock companies of laborers. each
owning share however small in the business
in which they are engaged and each performing
the part for which he is best fitted with tho alb
solute certainty Of receiving in return his fair
share of the common profits. Labor and eapi-
tai will thus work harmonously together. We
mentioned q few weeks ago the cooperative
iron foundry at Troy, and there are other ex-
amples of the successful operation of the same
plan. "The general tendency Of such q sys-
tem," says Ruskin. in recently published
letter, sis to increase the facilities of ADVANCE
ment among the subordinates, to stimulate
their ambition, to enable them to lay by, If they
are provident, more ample and more early
provision, and to form in the end a vast class of
persons wholly different from the existing ope-
rative-members of society possessing mod
crate competence, able to procure, not many of
theluxuries hut all the comforts of life, and to
| devote some leisure to the attainments of lib
oral education and to the other objects of free
life" sjl gli tsaiase tofq sri q .bdi s7aaat'4n
/
| A"'c ~i AAsrrer' .buiii
Soon after the bombardment OF Valparaiso
by the Spanish feet, German constructed q
submarine boat for the purpose OF applying
torpedoes to the bottoms of the Spanish ves-
sells The boat was about forty feet long, and
propelled by screw worked by hand from with
| in The builder had so much confidence in the
success of his invention that in his trial exper-
| iment, he avoided ordinary precautions against
failure neglecting to attach cables to his craft
by which to raise her in case of an accident. or
even a buoy to mark the spot if she should not
rise, and, as though this were not sufficient
| taking for his attendants to share in the haz-
| ard only his son and eight personal friends.
| After sailing about short time upon the sur
face of the water, the boat was made to sink,
and correspondent of the New York Herald
shall tell the result: ,.., .,,. a .,.. ,
| Several hours elapsed, and tho boat failing
to reappear, the spectators crowded on the
] mole began to fear that all was not right, and
| as the day passed by the feeling became gener-
| al that the adventurous party had gone to the
bottom. Late in the afternoon the mail steam