Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1874-01-04
STRIKES AND LABOR.

Some OF Tue idtcst shouShtS VI ieuuiuB |
thinkers ore quoted in the British Quar-.
teriy Review for October, and are well
worthy Of reproducing here:
Labor will not keep. The laborer who |
stands out for day has lost the value of
that day forever.
Tnionism, undoubtedly, gives more
mower to strikes, but it also, with strength,
brings an increased sense of order, re-
sponsibility and caution. |
In agricultural, as in other industrial
disputes, it is not impracticable to dis
cover the means of getting capital and
rustic labor to cooperate for their own
and the nations benefit on terms of
eonity and undiminished confidence.
Increase OF wages need not be ipjuri-
ons to farmers. Union, migration and
emigration are all contributing to the
lettering of peasant life. Lord Derby
has said that land in England is not pro.
ducing by so per cent. what it might do.
The plan which has of late been most
referred to as the remedy for trade dis.
putes is the appointment of one or more
arbitrators. with power to examine the
parties and the books Of the employers.
In some cases arbitration has been sue
eessful
The peasant and his family live mainly
on bread. The cost of provisions is an
essential element in determining the
wages of the laborer; but the standard OF
comfort which the working classes are
content to adopt has also a material in
auence.
Agricultural wages are found to vary
out of proportion to the wages Of other
industries. In Turkey farm-laborer
earns about Is, Cd. per day, in Prussia
Proper about 3D., in Belgium about 10d.,
while an English NAVY obtains from As.
and Cd. to IS.
Labor" said Ricardo, "has its natu-
raj market price. The former is that
price which is necessary to enable the
laborers to subsist aud perpetuate their
race, and it depends on the price of food,
necessares and conveniences required
for the support Of the laborer and bis
family"
Piece-work is payment by merit, and
is the means by which the possessor Of
natural or acquired ability surpasses the
less industrious or gifted, and by which
all improvements are brought about.
"ro pay all equally is to place all on the
same dead level, and remove any tenden.
cy to progress.
Every year which gives birth to new
strikes and fresh heartburnings will also
suggest the reflection to many employ.
ers that it is better to relinquish some
part of the profits of business in estab.
fishing cooperative scheme, than to
encounter the suspicion, the strikes, the
discomfort, of workmen who have neither
knowledge of, nor sympathy with, theil
employers affairs.
A general augmentation Of wages ha'
been experienced in the last ten years
There are exceptions. and occasiona
falls, but upon the whole an increase ha
been secured. The friendly society o
ironworkers stated that eases in which
that union has kept wages from fallinI
81 may be instanced in nearly every branch
"also cases in which rise has been OBJ
tanned; but those rises were chiefly wher
there had been previous reductions
Foreign competition is serious ele
ment of danger to the manufacturing in
terest. At Sheffield. for example, ther
has been an increase of foreign compet
ton, partly owing to the low rate c
wages given abroad, and partly to the rt
s,rictions imposed by the unions. S
also in iron shipbuidlng, foreign comp'
tition has increased and disastrous e
feet produced on that business on til
Thames by the union insisting on RAJ
Of wages which the profits of the trat
would not bear.
Considering the unsettled and uneas
relations of employers and employee
and the difficulty of obtaining bindin
decisions between them, it seems certa
that courts of industry or conciliation,
some such designation, will ere long for
branch of the institutions OF our cou
try. The French Tribunal of Commer
furnishes some valuable hints for an
stitution OF q popular yet permane
character. 1t is branch Of the pub
establishments Of France, and its cons
tuition is ordained in every particular
the Code de Commerce.
The habitua code Of sentiment whi
prevailed between employers and Ell
ployed in the times when the form
were regarded by both law and usage
the governing glass is now greatly !
laxed, and cannot be revived, though 81
timents OF equity and mutual forbearan
ought now to form substitute for
For ourselves, we hold the opinion Ii
we are in state of transition, and Q
passing through period Of importa
changes in the industrial interests whi
cannot at present be thoroughly und
stood. 1t is impossible to doubt Il
trades-unions have been one, at least,
the contributory causes of slow but {
preciable rise Of wages, which there is
reason to suppose has yet reached