The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-08-05
THE, OTHER SIDE.
WHAT CAN BE sA1p FOR THE STRIKERS.
Now York Sun

| from PIUtdrsh-" STRIKE, but Hear " Inc
@nthcrlties have struck the railroad work
week, and it is now about time for the public
to hear their side of the story.
To the average, comfortably off bouse-
no der il is clear that these bloody riots
have AL had their origin in the sumptuous
luxury of tie aborDg man, who is Ub
stinately unwilling to retrench his expen-
ses. The Ecening Post, for example, urges
laboripg men, instead of rebelipg, to "look
at the watering places and thence learn
contentment with their lot from the spec.
tacie of suffering among the summer
guests
"Laboripg men ought to learn to look about
them and study the signs OF the times. No
where, at tte prr sent dav, can they find moro
pro fitable su hject for reflection than at the va
rious " altering places throughout the country
II they turn their eyes in one direction they
" III mud ore batf Ibe large inus closed for
lack of patronage; in anotcer they will miss
from the fashionable drives a dozen of the
equipages displayed there in previous seasons
by wealthy business men,"
Aud what will the lsborer learn from this
consnIing glance at watering place priva-
tions7 Why, that, as the mercha ut must
" give up his summer at the Spa" and his
winter box at the opera, in hard times, so
" the laboIing man must come down with
the rest. but this he is unwilling to do, and
strikss." Soch outrageous conduc. inspires
the Post to add that "the labnring classes
il this coontry have accustomed themselves
to extravsgant habits of living which must
be got rid Of"
So we see that some well-to do people
never dream of the awful difference there is
between having the income of q rich family
cut down from 800 600 to 900 600 year,
and the wages of poor family cut down
from 8 TO go cents a day. The poor family
is un willing to give up its extravagant
habits; it strikes!
Now, come of the railroad operatives
have been striking, not 80 much to get
more wages, but to get any at all. There
are railrood companies concerned in the re-
duction that have not paid their men for
several months, aud, in the face of this fact,
with the men deeply in debt to the stores
where they trade, and accordingly forced to
accept almost any prices, these roads have
aped the others in ten per cent. reduction.
When, fer one instance, this thing hap
pened no farther away than on the Long
Island Railroad, the men struck ; and they
told the company they wanted the uppaid
wages that some of them had been earning
ever since the 1st of May. There was no
riot or disorder, but keen sense of iojus-
tice. We could hardly have blamed them
for more than a mere passive resistance, If
it be true, ss we have heard, that the com .
pany had actually proposed to antedste the
reduction to the beginning of the month OF
July, in the course of which it was an
downright robbery. The same cool aute
dating of reduction is reported of an
| Ohio road.
| Now, this case may he mentioned be-
cause the Long Island Railroad company
| was OF Z OF the first to repair its palpable
irjustice. 1t bas just paid the men their
back wages; it has even ahabdoued the
| proposed ten per cent. reduction, so exas
peratiug when back wages were due and
to-day the Long Island Railroad employ
ees are lifted up by their own Efforts from
state Of misery aud almost desperation.
No happier set of men can be found on any
railroad, unless &C be the officers of the
COR pany themselves, who are conscious OF
having at last acted with honesty and jus
tice. Will auy cheap palaver about work
ing men being unwilling to curtail theiI
txtravagaEt habits tell the moral of thai
successful strikef
This is an example worth looking at. We
may find plenty of others of different sorts
On soGIe great roads a ten per cent. reduc.
tion has been made in wages, lu order Il
- avoid ten per cent. reduction in dividends
The wiseacres explain that it would b.
fa' al to reduce the dividend, because ther
would be panic in the stock market, tn
curnmunity noe understanding its causes
Hence the reduction is IN ade instead on tn
iaborer, he, forsooth, being able to under
stand it, ard to receive 1T more caimy tina
the stock daSbier.
, hardly meeting their expenses, the neces
, sary reductions have been made in way
f that are nsedlessly abrupt, brutal, and y
ranUicGl. In some cases the tone ls, 81 ak
it or leave it. Tais road is run by re
ccirer, with power from the courts" l
others where reduction might have bee
e submitted TO, the work of brakeman an
: cond actors was simultaneously increased
= as under the famous double header edict
1 for doubling the size Of trains and putin
i on pusher locomotive. Again, there ar
9 cases reported il which reductions hav
q been made on brakemen's wages, whic
: are already less than ninety cents day
= bfiuging them down below eighty. Long
established privileges have also been take
away; as, for example, the privilege en-
t joyed on some roads, of a summer vacatio
J. without liability to lose ones place. Whil
g some roads have made but single Iedue
i ton in wages heretofore, since the wa
!" others have already made several, an
:, meanwhile theic stock has largely bee
n wAtered, and they are paying dividends o
this wAtered stock.
But without pretending to formulate q