New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-06-25
A LABOR STRIKE.

large number Of painters have struck
for higher wages in New Orleans They
demand three dollars and fifty cents per
day. The scarcity of work will help the
bosses to resist this movement, and the
chances are that the strike will come to
nothing, except in certain cases where
work has been contracted for The
strikers say that they are now only getting
two dollars and fifty cents per day, which
they declare is insufficient to support their
families We desire to see all men pros
per, and if the painters had taken a pros
porous season for their strike, we should
have urged the bosses to increase their
pay. But the times do not justify any adj
vance in prices. Work is scarce and set
Elements hard to be had. And what is
worse it will be scarcer still. The House
Painters Association, which should have
husbanded its means for the summer sea-
son, when sickness threatens its members,
will now spend its Accommodations in this
attempt to get "blood out of a turnip,"
and when its members really require help
it will be bankrupt The strikers will lose
time; they will lose their temper, and they
will drive off business. In New York, where
the condition of prosperity is good, where
trade is 1ourishing, and where all the me-
ehanical pursuits are strongest in num-
bers, the strike, that was almost universal,
has been forced to give in, because it was
begun at the wrong time and upon the
wrong basis. Millions of dollars were
lost, and number of lives were sacri-
feed. We are too poor to lose money in
this way. The strikers in New Orleans
will injure themselves, and they will in
jure the community. Men who did pro-
pose to spend little money, out of the
little they have saved, in the way of i'm
provements, will draw back, because they
will not dare to begin an expense when
they do not know what it will amount to.
Strikes arrest labor. They create dissatis-
faction. The winners always have to
watch the losers. Besides, while men are
on a strike they drink and waste their
time in discomfort and unthrifty idleness. |
Bad men take advantage of the Occasion |
to infame the prejudices of good men;
idlers live upon the general funds; the |
spirit Of intolerance spreads and license
supersedes law. One set of men, who do |
not want to work, interferes with another
set that does not want to be idle. Rows
occur, and the police and the courts be-
come the arbitrators of matters that men |
of sense ought to settle by argument and
reason.
We talk to the painters "like a father"
They may think we are against them, or
that we are meddling with what does not
concern Us. That is their mistake, and it
is about as great mistake as this strike
of theirs in the very middle of the dull
season. The whole community is af-
fected by their idleDess, and as it is our
business to consider all things that affect
the public we are bound to consider their
conduct and give them our advice 1t
would be to our interest if they were paid
ten dollars per day, provided such wages
could be afforded and not injure the town.
As they cannot get the best pay, they
should consent to take the best they can
get We can not consent to see the whole
community injured and demorali4ed by
body Of strikers who are hurting them
selves and all their friends in aIfruitless
effort to make business where there is
none.