The Portland daily press., 1871-09-22
IrAILY PRESS,
FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER % 1871.
O.s rvore s,ep Toward the NHiIIenniu i'i
PORTLAND.

One More step Toward the MiIienhi,
A most suspicious event lately haPP
o. the Tyne in England. The telegraph n"'
from day to day told our readers oil the great
strikes now existing among the mechanics Oh
England Tens ofthousandS Oh men through
cut the country have stopped work until
their employers shall consent to adopt the
nine hour rule. Especially serious is the re-
volt among the smiths, engineers and ship
Carpenters of Sunderland and Newcastle on
the Tyne, where. more. tonnage is built annu-
slly,,than even on the Clyde. Ten thousand
Inep have struck in Newcastle alone, four
tfths of whom have left the place.
Now the organization of 5he English work
ipgmen through their trades unions is so per
feet that the Tyne shipbuilders, like Sir
James Armstrong found it impossible to re-
pace their striking workmen with Britons
from other parts of the country. So they
were constrail ed to send TO France, Germany
and Belgium Tor skilled mechanics. They
were partially successful here, but. in was
only by falsehood. Representing that the
strike was over, and that foreign workman
were needed only to fill the places of those
who had left town, they induced somei hun
dreds of foreigners 10 come over and go to
work. But in few days these Germans
intelligent fellows and most of them ex-sol
diers, began to find out the truth, and imme-
diately thereafter to pack their bundles pre-.
paratory to journey back to Fatherland
These honest Beriners, some of whom had
aipn ,ns,- IL
France and were not likely ito be governed
in their action by fear, tratarnized with the
members of the Workingman's League, at
tending their meetings and making speeches
IN their own language. Some of them paid
their own expenses back 10 the continent,
while others, who were not able to do so, ac-
cepted their fare from the treasury of the
League. Therefore, up to the latest advises
the strikers hold their advantage through the
sympathy of their foreign brethren.
These things au9ur well for the future
Strike is at best ard imperfect, exhaustins
and everyway undesirable remedy for tn,
workingman's wrongs. But whenever 1t i
resortec TO it is unpleasant to see the failure O
the strike made certain by other workers win
come 10 take the bread out of their brother
mouths. 1t is joyful thing TO see that tn
workngman, as wei as the philosopher, ha
become ian international man." and that tn,
bond of sympathy between laborers is begin
ming 10 extend across seas and mountains
This Solidarity" of the laboring classes viii
bear wonderful fruit. How long will it be be
fore men who recognize the fact that diff
ference in Their language does not make then
any less brethren, and does not disturb tn,
perfect identity OF their interests, will refus
= to be led to slaughter in the interest of dy
nasty or of an adventurer? How much long
er, when workingmen have become statesmen
will such war as that of 1870 be possible
How much longer, when workingmen ca
form international leagues, will kings be 20:
s'ble? More important still, how long, whe
woikingmen are showing capacity for organ
ization and combination that will enabl
q them to unite and furnish their own EN-
ploy will capitalists be possible? Map
years, Doubtless. But with such an educa-
3 ton Of the masses as is entirely practicable
2 we should anticipate that this leveling move
ment would so on with greatly accelerated
speed. If so much can be accomplished OF
indicated by that old-fashioned, unphilosophi
cal, empirical method, the strike, what might
: not not be done with the improved, scientific
method, cooperation? If there are such re
suits when education is partial, what will
happen when every worker is a scholar?