The New York herald., 1877-07-25
Tn. Belly and th. M.nssrs.


with the people, because he derived his orr
gin from them,' went out to their camp and
related to them fable, which we recon-
mend TO the strikers and the workingmen
generally just now. 'At time" said he,
when all the parts of the human body did
not AS now agree together, but the several
members had each its own scheme and its
own language, the other parts became in
dignant that everything was procured for
the belly by their care. labor and service,
and that the belly. remaining quiet in the
centre, did nothing but enjoy the pleasures
afforded it. They oonspired accordingly
that the hands should not convey food to
the mouth, nor the mouth receive it when
presented, nor the teeth chew it. But while
they expected thus to subdue the belly by
famine the members themselves and the
entire body were reduced to the last degree
of emaciation. Thence it became apparent
to them by disagreeable experience that
the belly did no more receive nourishment
than supply it, sending to all parts Of the
body and to all the members the blood by
which We live and possess vigor"
1. is an ancient fable, but it applies just
as we'll in these days. The strikers now. as
in tho old times. complain that the belly en-
Joys undue privileges but when they ut
tempt TO isolate it they see that famine over
takes the members and that Il wholesome CO
operation Of all the parts is tho only possible
course by which any or either can prosper.
All over the country miners, factory ope-
ratives, all classes of laboring people, are
deeply excited at the strike Of the
train men, and some thousands have them
selves struck mainly out of such sympathy.
We ask them and all who are moved to
fellow feeling with this labor movement to
consider what good it docs. and we will
not ask what good it does the country, but
of what advantage is it to the workingmen
and their families?
Stop moment and look this question
squarely in the face There were good
many thousand people all over the country
out OF employment before the strike began.
Are any of them now employed? Has the
strike brought work to any willing hand, or
"a weeks wages to any wife and children? Is
it not true, on the contrary, that the strike
has added to the general and already too
great mass of suffering at least nine OK ten
thousand families, nine or ten thousand
women and twenty or thirty thousand
little children, to whom Saturday night will
bring no means to pay for next weeks food
and clothing? Is that, on the whole, good
thing?
Then, again, every man, even the most
ignorant, knows that the more capital there
is and the safer it's employment is the
more there is for workingmen to be paid
with. It is because the times are hard, be-
cause the capital of the country was largely
destroyed by the war, by the Chicago and
Boston fires, by waste in city and State
governments, by the stealing of rings-it is
because these losses have impoverished
the country that SO many thousands
seek in vain for employment And
here is strike which wantonly4u and
lawlessly stops the whole transportation
Of the greater part Of the Union, and by
doing SO causes enormous losses, not merely
to the railroads, but far more to the farmers
sending products to market, to the merchants
who would buy them, to the man ufacturers
who would give in exchange their products.
All this loss still further impoverishes the
country-already too poor to give employ
ment to all its hands. If the times were
hard before, this weeks wild and foolish
work can only make them harder to every
body, and particularly to workingmen and
their families; to men who live from wages,
and who can receive wages only from other
men who are able not merely to employ but
to pay them.
Nor does the loss stop with the strike. It
will take the country good while to make
it up. Not only will the farmer, the manu-
facturer, the merchant, who has lost by the
strike, be less able for some time to pay
wages to men anxious to work, but an act Of
destruction like that at Pittsburg will, by
making that city poorer and burdening it
more severely with taxes, make the condi-
tion Of its workingmen harder for years to
come. Howf BY raising, necessarily, the
price of house rent. OF provisions of
clothing, of everything that the working
man and his family must use Is this de-
struction, then, an advantage to workingmen
| anywhere?
But, it may be said, the strikers had
grievances. They received too little pay ;
they had families to support. Well, they
receive no pay at all now their families
havo nothing at all. Surely that does not
improve their unhappy condition. But this
is not all. a strike is business transac-
! ton. Beforc man stops work, az nc is
reasoning being, he should be satisfied
either that he get other and more profit
able employment. or that his employer can
get no one to fiji his place at the
| price. In the last case, of course, he COM
mands tue situation, and is able lawfully,
to coerce his employer. But nothing is
clearer than that the strikers have made o
| miscalculation. There are, in fact. plenty of