New-York tribune., 1873-04-11
TILE STRIKE.


over its workmen, and the uneasiness of the
public, threatened with general darkness ana
the many consequent inconveniences and dan
gers, Is now at an end. For the hands "ho
have thrown themselves out of employment
the trouble has only begun. They have
doubtless a good deal of poverty to expect
before they find equally remuneratiye work III
other places, and they have sacrificed what
ever public sympathy they might have rea-
sonably claimed, by their brutal assaults upon
peaceable men in search of work. A German
looking for the Gas Works was knocked down
the other day, beaten and kicked In the face,
and then stabbed. man who was only
suspected of wanting to work was pursued
by a body of strikers, who stopped
a car in which he was riding and attempted
to drag him out. Such outrages must be sup
pressed at once that they have happened in
even three OF four instances is disgraceful
fact. which the police authorities should be
called upon to explain. The liberty which the
strikers claim for themselves of either working
or not working, just as they see fit, they must
be compelled to allow to others. A strike Is
a lawful and i'll many cases n sensible mode
of obtaining for labor what it is really worth.
We are not opposed to the principle upon
which il is founded, and for the same reason
we believe i'll the justice, if not in the wisdom,
of lock out The laboring man has per-
feet right to say, My labor is worth so much
an hour, and / will not give it for less. The
capitalist has q right to say, The wages which
| offer are worth so much labor, and | will
not give them for less. Only in both cases
there must be fair dealing and no interference
with those who offer either their work or their
money at cheaper rates
But the wisdom of a strike depends upon
considerations which the hands of the New
York Gas Company have not taken into ac-
count. The purpose of their movement was
to demonstrate that their work was worth
more than the Company paid for it. The re-
suit has proved the contrary. The value of
labor is subject to the same conditions which
affect other values 1t is worth just what it
will bring in open market, nothing more and
nothing less. When the market is overstOcked
the value falls; when the supply is scaDt 1T
rises Now everybody knows that ali this
season there has been a surplus of labor In
New-York. Nearly every season the case is
the same. There is not capital enough
available in operations which, at the
ruling prices for labor, can be made profit
able to give occupation to more than
fraction of the able-bodied men who have
come to the city in search of employment;
and it is for the sake of the hungry and suf-
fering thousands who find no place here that
THE TRIBUNE has so long repeated its advice
to go West where labor is needed and its price,
if not greater in dollars than it is in the large
cities of the Atlantic coast, is at least greater
in purchasing power. The gas-men believed
that the inconvenience they could infict by
deranging the operations of the Company for
even few days would be so great that they
could enforce a higher price for their labor
than the condition of the labor market war
ranted 1t was fatal miscalculation. They
forgot that gas-making requires no technical
skill which cannot be acquired in few hours
All the idle laborers in New-York. therefore
and there are thousands of them-stood ready
and able to take their places. For every man
that struck there were three eager to be en-
gagged at the wages which the strikers rejected
Under these circumstances the strike was fore
doomed the men were merely cruel TO them
selves and their families.