The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-05
The Strike .n the >vharves.

The strike of the Longshoremen, under.
the auspices Of the 'Longshoremen's Pro-
tective Association" has doubtless caused
great embarrassment to our shipowners, and
has certainly retarded the delivery and ship
ment of the produce and merchandise which
cumber up the wharves OF the city. But
the Longshoremen have the clear right to
combine to obtain higher wages; it rests
with them to say at what rate they will or
will not work On the other hand, the snip
ping agents must determine for themselves
whether they can afford to pay the price de-
manded, OF whether they can get the work
done at lower rate. 1t is their right to
employ whom they please, at whatever price
they may agree upon, and when the Long
shoremen endeavor to prevent any persons
from working, because they take less than
the standard price of the association, they
commit an unlawful act and expose them
selves, we should judge, to the severe penal
ties Of the law.
The whole matter is lucidly explained in
the following extract from note in Mr.. Nc
Culloch's edition OF Adam SMITHS ''Wealth
Of Nations:'
s'If any Number of persons choose to COM
bine to refuse to work, except for a certain
amount of wages, or for certain hours per day,
or week, to forbid them would seem to be a
most oppressive interference with one OF the
distinguishing privileges of free laborers. 1t
was found, too, that, practically, the laws
against such combinations were good for moth
ing, and that, instead of putting them down,
they gave them secret character, and made
them be easily perverted to other and more
Objectionable objects. But when workmen
have power to refuse to employ themselves on
terms of which they disapprove, they have got
all, in this respect, to which they are entitled.
None of them have any right to dictate TO their
fellows, or to say that, because they object TO
certain stipulations in the terms offered by
such and such employers, no one else shall be
allowed.to accept them. A pretension of this
sort strikes at the very foundations. of society,
and, If tolerated, might enable juntos of de-
signing individuals to infllct irreparablc injury,
not only on the employers Of labor, but ON the
manufacturers of the country, anu consequent
lyon the lasting interests Of the laborng class.
We need not, however, be surprised TO learn
that this Is what numbers of workmen in varl-
Ous places have attempted to do; and that
combinations have been formed, not for the
legitimate purpose of refusing to work except
on certain conditions, but for preventing other
workpeople who may disapprove of or not
choose to insist on these conditions, accepting
the terms offered by their employers. The
measures taken to enforce this most unjustifi-
able pretension have, in some instances, been
of very obnoxious description, and have
evlnced the existence of very dangerous
spirit. Nothing should be omitted that may
serve to root ont and suppress combinations
for such illegal ends. They are completely
subversive of that security essential to the
prosecution of all industrious undertakings;
and are. at bottom, as hostile to the interests
of those that enter into them as they are TO
the interests of everyone else"
But the Charleston Longshoremen, nearly
all Of whom are negroes, are now striving
to compass their ends by brute violence and
intimidation. On yesterday, they attacked
and wounded white man, not member,
OF course, OF the association, who was
working on the wharyes at the old rates OF
pay, and later in the day they hurled brick
bats at the laborers who continued to work,
bruising them slightly. Encouraged by
the impunity which attended their first on
slaught, they made second attack; and
to-day we may look for more serious dis
turbance unless our pusillanimous Chief
Magistrate plucks up the courage to do his
duty and protect the working laborers from
the violence of their black assailants. II
Mayor Pillsbury will not do this, the men
who desire to work must take care OF them
selves without his help; but we cannot for
get that the same official who now sends "a
contemptibly small squad Of policemen,
armed with their slaves, to save from harm
abody Of industrious laboring men, could turn
out the whole police force, with Winchester
rifles and fixed bayonets, as we'll as batta
lion Of United States troops, when there
was likelihood that number of Georgia
gentlemen, with their Charleston entertain
ers, would resent, as it deserved, any in
dignity that colored mob might offer
them.
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