, 1874-02-27
TIE gEOElIALERs' STRIKE.

The Knights OF St. Crispin are still holding
out against their employers, but with little proB-
pcct Of SUCCESS. The employers say that they
have been pushed to the wall and can yield no
more. In proof Of their position, they give some
we;ghty facts and figures. Chicago boot and
shoe jobbe1s ought to be out OF all danger from
Eastern competition. Their market ia large,
and yet easily reached; their reputation il high
this city is the great centre of the trade in hides
aud our tanneries not only supply the homo de-
naud but send their wares to the East. Despite
these advantages, our boot and shoe jobbers are
exposed to keen rivalry, which grows sharper
every year. and forces them to sell
Ut little moro than cost in order to
keep their customers. L case Of boots that sold
last gear for SAB brings but 945 now. The dif-
ference comes wholly out OF the pockets Of the
dealers. The Eastern jobbers can compete with
ours, because, and only because, they get labor
st much lower rates. At Worcester, Mass.,
whero the same grades OF "stoga" boots are
made, the workmen get $3.50 Per case and fur
niah their OWL ahop-room, nails, pega, ETC., 80
tha: they clear not moro than 43 a case. Here
they arc offered $3.50, besides zoom nai1s, ETC.,
md they demand S5,-the wages they received
Hhen the Same grade Of goods sold for from SO
to $40 per case more than they do now.
The employers say that it is simply I'M
possible for them to pay g per case
mora than the Eastern manufacturers do and
then undertell the latter. The cost OF living is
not much greater in Chicago than it is in Worces-
ter. II the wages paid to Worcester Crispins are
fair, those demanded by Chicago C1isp;ns are ex-
&ortonate. Il the latter pereist in their strike,
the shops must bo closed. 4 year ago, when tho
men struck, the employers said: TT re are
forced to grant your demand, ne shall have to
cut down production one-half; take your choice
between full production at the old rates and half
production Ut the new" The men chose the lat
tar. As = result, our large houses deal much
more in Eastern goods than in those Of their
own mako. Their salesmon are ordered to al
Ways dispose OF the first, when possible, in pref
srence to the second 4 further advance nov in
oost Of 1aboz rodld make the production nil.
The feature Of TIE contest between masters
and man which has done most to excite popular
sympathy for the latter is tho demand by the
former that the men should not use their wages
to support their Fellows On strike. It ia
claimed, however, that this apparent attempt to
dictate to the men what they should do With
their OWN money is just, for, as ne have hither-
to explained, a strike against one employer Is
really strike agniust ali, and the men employed
by ons manufacturer have no mere right to aid
their fellows nomina1ly against another, but
really against himself, than clerk would hare
right to wil1fu11y injure the reputation Of the
firm that hired him. The argument is An in
genious one, and gives philosophers curious
question in ethics to discuss. The employers
can ut any rate. claim, without chance OF contra
diction, that they have been forced TO this act
b. the instinct of sepreservation and that it is,
at the xorst, only strike on their part in reply
to strike on the other. :.