Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-17
GTRHKES-


 | Msy6.
 | STRIKES.
 Strikes, it has been well said, ,are born of ig- norance, distrust and 8 lack of that spiri5 of brotherhood between employer and employed l upon which the best interests of both depend. | This being the case, it is perhaps not to be l wondered at that they are so numerous during periods of widespread destitution and suffering, when men ought to be thankfulfor getting any work at any wages. England, in 1S79-a year of great business depression marked in crease in the annual number of strikes. They foot up 327 against PIT fn 1878 and 191 in 1877. Out of all the strikes in England in 1879 | only three were successful, twenty were com promised, and the rest failed or went over into 1880 unsettled. The new year opens with bet ter prospects for Epglish manufactures and trade. Some employers have raised the wages of their laborers voluntarily. But those who struck to their own injury during the hard times find what seem to them excellent reasons for striking now that better times are approach ing and strikes are numerous. Careful observ- CTS predict that there will be more strikes in England during 1880 than in any recent year. In America also there are indications that many laborers will try to take advantage of the better times by strikes. Already some of the most obstinate strikes on record have occurred in this country since the reaction set in, among them being the strikes of the Fall River opera tives and the Chicago pork packers, both of which ignominousIy failed.
 The present is 8 good time for those who work for wages and who think those wages should be raised to consider whether they can profit by engaging in strikes. A great deal of light has been shed upon this matter within the last few years, and the more searching and comprehensive the inquiry, the plainer does it grow that discontented workingmen, as gen. eral thing, can do better than to strike for more pay. Powerful support of this state ment is furnished by the result of an examina- tion of the strikes which have occurred in Massachusetts since 1880. This examination was made by Carroll D. Wright, chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, whose fitness for such work is unquestioned. MT. Wright finds from careful study of the strike history of Massachusetts during period of fifty years that:
 1. Strikes generally prove powerless to ben eft the condition of the wage classes. By far the larger part of the strikes that have taken place in Massachusetts during the last fifty years have proved unsuccessful. The same is true of strikes in Great Britain, and in other parts of the world. A few strikes in Mas aachusetts have been successful, owing to the state of trade existing when they were under taken, making it polite for employers to sub- init for time, and not to any inherent force in the movements themselves.
 2. Strikes tend to deprive the strikers of work. All those strikes which have caused 8 change of industrial population, the original employees being forced to seek other employ ment or emigrate to other localities, are of this class The difficulties in the shoe trade in Massachusetts growing out of the Crispin organization caused some manufacturers to remove their business to other towns where they might be free from troubles of this kind, and even to other States The shoemakers' strike in North Adams in 1871 was the direct cause of the introduction of Chinese labor, to the displacement of workmen already engaged in that trade. Another instance is found in the gradual substitution of other methods for mule spinning in cotton factories. The chief
 
 the spinners, who have heretofore held the key of the situation. The ''ring frame" gives mill owners the advantage of mule spin ners, and the spinners by an unwise use of their power will hasten the adoption of the 'ring-frame."
 3. Strikes lead to improvidence, and are de- moralizing in their effect upon the working men. In the Fall River strikes last summer the enormous snm of $1, 400, coo was volun tarily forfeited by the idleness of the opera tives. And. besides this sum, large amounts of which no record can be obtained-the sav ings of months of toil-were contributed by sympathizers in other cities, and deliberately thrown away in fruitless struggles The whole was wasted, for in no instance was permanent advantage secured. Had the strikes been successful every spinner would have been obliged to labor two full years at the increased price before recovering the amount he had lost by his idleness. The de- moralizing effect of strikes shows itself in the police court records and elsewhere. likeness, poverty and hard feeling are not favorable to an improvement in morals.
 The effect of strikes upon employers varies WItu Iu0 StAt6 OI LEHU6 u 4S SOLuotlIco h positive advantage to close the workshop or mill. But these cases are the exception, and strikes, which usually tend to impair the re- sources of employers, must react upon the employees
 It is obviously for the interest of working men to reflect upon such facts as are given above, and to remember that though they may feel themselves victims of injustice a strike is likely to involve them in more seri- GUS difficulties than at present surround them. But employers also have an interest in dimin- ishing the number of strikes. This they can do by treating their employees like men and not giving them good cause to distrust them. Employes are not apt to rebel against a low rate of wages if they believe their employer is dealing fairly with them, and has, as every employer should have, a real regard for their interests as well as his own. The spread of practical Christianity in the office is quite as much needed as the spread of knowledge in the workroom in order that strikes may become fewer or cease.