The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-07-28
The Other Side.

men some heavy blows during the past
week, and it is now about time for the public
to hear their side Of the story.
To the average, comfortably-ofr house,
holder. it is clear that these bloody riots
have all had their origin In the surptuous
luxury Of the laborng man. who is OBJ
stinately unwilling to rctrcnch his expenses
rho Erening Post, for example, urges labor
ing men, instead of rcbcllng. to "look at
the watering places poor souls If they
only could afford to look at the watering
places and thence learn contentmcnt with
their lot from the spectacle Of suffering
among the summer guests:
Tailoring men ousht learn TO look about Thorn md
study the sirns Of the umc. Nowhere. the present
day can they mud moro profitable subject for rcf, elton
than ~ the various watering places throughout the coun
ty. II they turn their eyes in direction they will
lind ono ha Che lnrs, inns closed lack patronage
ia another thov viii miss from the fashionable dri,e-a
dozen of the equipasc, displayed there IA previous sea
SONS BY wealthy business men"
And what will the aboror learn from this
consoling glance at watcring-placc priva-
tions? Why, that, as the merchant must
"give up his summer at the Spa" and his
winters box at the opera, in hard times, SO
the laboring man must come down with
the rest, but this he is unwilling to do, and
strikes Such outrageous conduct inspires
the Post to add that the laboring classes
in this country have accustomed themselves
TO cxtravagant habits of living which must
bc 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 rich family
cut down from slo0.oo0 to $4,000 year,
and the wages of poor family cut down
! from 81 to 90 cents day. The poor family
is unwilling to give up its cxtravagant
habits; it strikes
Now. some of the railroad operatives have
| been striking, not SO much To get more
wages, but to get any at all. There are
railroad companies concerned in the reduc-
tion that have not paid their men for several
months, and in the face Of this fact, with
the men deeply in debt to the stores where
they trade, and accordingly forced to ac-
cept almost any prices, these roads have
aped the others in ten per cent. reduction.
When. for one instance, this thing happened
no further away than on the Long Island
Railroad, the men struck; and they told the
company they wanted the unpaid wages
that some of them had been earning ever
since the lst Of May There was no riot or
disorder, but Il keen sense Of injustice. We
could hardly have blamed them for more
than mere passive resistance, if it be true,
as We have heard, that the company mad
actually proposed Ia antcdate the reduction
TO the beginning Of the month of July, in the
course OF which 1t was announced. This
last would not have been merely unfairness;
IL would have been downright robbery. The
same cool antedatng of II reduction is re-
ported of an Ohio road.
Now, this case may be mentioned because
the Long Island Railroad Company was one
Of the first TO repair its palpable injustice.
1t has just paid the men their back wages;
it has even abandoned the proposed ten per
cent. reduction, SO eXasperating when back
wages We're due; and to-day the Long
Island Railroad employees are lifted up by
their own efforts from state Of misery and
almost desperation. No happier set Of men
can be- found on any railroad, unless it be
the officers of the company themselves,
who are conscious Of having at last acted
with honesty and Justice. Will any cheap
palaver about workingmen being unwilling
to curtail their extravagaut habits tell the
moral of that successful strike?
That Is an example worth looking Mt. We
may find plenty OF others, Of different SORTS
On some great roads Il ten per cent. reduce
ton ha, been made in wages, in order to
avoid a ten per cent. reduction in dividends.
The wiscacrcs explain that it would be fatal
to reduce the dividend because there would
be panic in the stock market, tho commu.
nifty not understanding its causes. Hence
the reduction is made instead on the labor
en- he, iorsooth, being able to understand it,
and to receive it more calmly than the stock
dahbcr.
On other roads, whore the earnings are
hardly meeting The expenses, the necessary
reductions have been made In ways that
a.e nccdlcssly abrupt, brutal, and tyran-
meal. In some cases the tone is, Take it
or leave IT, This road is run by receiver,
with power from the courts" In others,
whore reductions might have been submit
ted TO, the work Of brakemen and conduc-
tors was simultaneously increased, as I'M
der the famous double header edct, for
doubling the size of trains and putting on II
pushor locomotive Again, there are cases
reported in which reductions have been
made on hnkemcn's wages, which are
already less than ninety cents day, bring
ing them down below eighty. Long-estab-
lshcd privileges have also been taken away /;
as, fOr example, the privilege enjoyed on
some roads. of n summer vacation without
Liability to lose ones place. While some
roads have made but II single reduction in
wages Heretofore since the war, others have
already made several, and meanwhile their
stock has largely been watercd and they
al" paying dividends on this watered sto, k.
But without pretending to formulate all
tho grievances urged by the men, We at
! least IuNn boon ullp IN cbAVu hot tlnN,