Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-06-25
Another Striking Lesson.

The coal strikes of Pennsylvania have
ended, or perhaps it would be better to say
that the strikers have another lucid interval.
How long it will last remains to be seen, as
the contingency probably depends upon the
amount OF wisdom which has been learned
from this last experience of jumping out Of
the frying-pan Of reduced wages into the fire
Of total idleness. To all intelligent, sensible
outsiders there never was a clearer case Of
folly and disaster. 1t is estimated, for in
stance, that there were 10000 miners, hav-
ing not less than 200 600 persons dependent
upon their labor for support, who were en-
gagged in the strike. One half Of this num-
Der at least-or 10000 men--were out of
work from the 10Th of January up to the
middle Of June, or over $50 days. At S2
n day, multiplied by 20 900, this would give
a loss in wages alone Of over s 6,000,0O O
Adding to this the loss incurred by dealers,
merchants and coal companies, and the pro-
perty destroyed by mobs, to say nothing Of
the great injury inflicted upon manufacturing
industry and upon consumers generally by
the increased cost of coal, and double the
above amount, or $4,000 900, would be a
moderate estimate of the damage caused by
this insensate course of the striking miners.
And what have they gained by it after
all? Nothing-they resume work practi-
cally where they left off the only change
being an agreement looking to an increase
of wages conditional upon the increase Of
the market price of coal which may or
may not prove of some benefit In the mean
time they have eaten themselves we'll nigh
,,t ac ko.,en I'D knnna kaxya a-knraNnl kkatn
union funds accumulated for such emergen-
cies, and contracted pecuniary liabilities
which it will take months aud years to relieve
themselves from. They have made the very
name of coal miner a nuisance to the general
public, and have done more to injure the
good reputation Of the laboring community
than any body Of capitalists could effect with
all their means and influence. And what
makes the matter worse, this wretched blum
dering was enforced against the will Of per-
haps a majority Of the miners, could they
have freely acted out their own wishes, by a
few leaders in the Miners Union, who exert
the ouly kind of downright despotism extant
in this country since slavery was abolished
at the South.
Al We have Baid, could there be a clearer
Ease than this And if men will not learn
from its consequences, from their wives and
children reduced to the verge of starvation,
and from the multiplied evils fixed upon the
community, what hope is there Of wiser con-
duct in the future? We see that a British
writer attributes a large part Of the bad
public opinion which has made strikes such
a feature of the times to the sentimentality
of such authors as Charles Dickens, who al
ways gave the impression that the laborer
was deserving aud abused, while too often
depicting the employer as mean, niggardly
and exacting. 1t is very likely that our
humanitarian literature has had something
to do with coloring the public mind with such
one.sided views, and that the strikers, igno-
rant as they have generally been, have felt
the force Of such a sentiment abroad and
have made the most of it. We believe, how.
ever, that about the same state of things
would have existed if Dickens never had
The disagreements between labor and capital
have grown out of circumstances of the time.
They can only be removed, therefore, grad
ually and by processes of enlightenment.
Even the best methods of arbitration, as tried
in England and in this country, seems to
have effected but little in advance of tho re-
moval Of Ignorant prejudices. The press
must do a large share Of the work by dis.
seminatlng facts and discussing the whole
subject in a fair and candid spirit and en-
ployers must be ready, not only with fair
proposals, but with a willingness to hear the
other side and enter into mutual explana-
tions.-BOStOn Journal.