New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-17

the utmost those ill-regulated and turbu-
lent spirits who control their organizations,
and who crafty their vanity or their moro
interested motives by exciting the laborers to
q conflict with their employers. As yet there
has been very little actual viOlencc-that is to
say, actual pillage and murder. Two or three
attempts to wreck trains have been provdcn-
TALLY frustrated. In many instances men
have been mobbed and frightened away from
work which they were willing and anxious to
do. But fear and dstrrlst are as effectual
dcstroycrs of tho public welfare rs overt
violence would be- The whole region terror
lied by the strike is falling into dangerous
torpor. Trade is suffering day by day. The
retail merchants have been crediting the
miners up to the point where ruin is imml-
nent. 1t is not their own money alone
which has sustained tho misguided labor
ers in their persistent idlcness. They will
drag down the small stOrekcepers with them
to bankruptcy, unless sOmo relief speedily
comes. Meanwhile the present threatening
state of things may ut any moment, by some
| unforeseen accident, bo changed to disastrous
conflict and bloOdshcd.
| 1t is lamentable to sec community so mis-
that nothing but some such experiences M this
could ever prepare the laboring population of
this country for the hard lesson which the
immediate future has in store. The day OF
cxtravagant prices and inordinato profits is
gone, as well for the employer as the
employed. We are now in transition
state in which the REIMBURSEMENT OF
values is to be accomplished, and this cannot
be done without great friction and personal
embarrassment. Thousands Of business enter
prises must fail and pass away, in the sharp
competition which lower prices will force upon
them. Unless every indication Is at fault,
wages ere to be lower instead of higher. and
| the means of subsistence food, and clothing
will inevitably fall with the price OF labor. The
condition of workingmcn will of course be no
worse than it is now. But every effort like
those now making to resist this inevitable re-
adjustment by artificial means, so clumsy and
so lawless as the machinery of strikes, can only
result in injury to the laborcrs themselves. and
in widespread damage to the community at
large Ignorance is always force, and dele
ferrous one, in society. But it becomes many
times moro destructive when organized, and
strike, nine times out Of ten, is merely ignOr-
ance organized.
| Even when strike has some foundation in
reason it is still usually injurious to all parties
concerned. The contest in Pittsburgh between
the Iron Association and their boilers and
puddlers has ended in an apparent victory for
tho latter. There may be said to have been
some logic in this struggle OF the boilers. as
the effort OF the iron masters was to reduce
their wages to a point belOw the average paid
for tho same kind of work in other parts
of tho country. The strike has defeated
that reduction, but at heavy loss to both sides.
| The lock- out has lasted five months For five
months the laborcrs have earned nothing !;
nearly half a year of their lives has been
thrown away. The difference they fought for
will never make good that loss. The employ
crs on the other hand have evidently suffered
severely also. They admit that the Western
mills have been taking away their work from
them during this period of idlencss. And this
will DO almost universally the case. In times
| like these there is a surplus of labor all over
the world II men refuse in one region TO
work for what their work will bring,
the cessation OF production in that region
will stimulate production in another, and the
result will be dead loss to the community
where work has been stopped. If employers,
by an error of judgment, refuse to pay the
honest average rate of wages, of course they
suffer by the arrangements which ensue. We
doubt if there has been a strike in the history
of labor which has not injured both employers
and labOrers. This is the case even where
they are peaceably conducted; but where they
are accompanied by terrorism or violence
against those laborers who want to work and
support their families, they cease to be ques-
lions of political economy and become crimes,
to be dealt with promptly according to law.
| MR. JfcCTLLOCH on FRENCH FIN1NCE.