Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-03
THE STRIKES.

a great disturbance of the labor market
has already been caused by the strikes.
and the country is only at the beginning
OF the trouble. The Trades Unions have
now such extensive organizations that they
are able to command far-reaching move
ments, and it is evident that they are pre-
pared for a comprehensive operation at
present. What they hope to gain by it is
however not comprehensive. They are
making fatal blunder at the very outset,
by striking upon falling market. The
afford to stop work than to continue manu-
featuring, and that being the case, the
strikes cannot possibly help the working
men. The latter have much to lose by
their ill-considered suspensions. Even if
the striking men can be supported by their
comrades in other branches OF industry,
the only effect of the strikes at such
juncture can be to consume the surplus
capital they have stored up. They are in
fact literally squandering their accumu-
lated earnings, and this without the least
prospect of obtaining what they demand,
The present prospect is that they will
have to accept the current rates OF wages
after they have remained several weeks out
of work, and meantime they will have so
wasted their reserve fund that they will
not be able to take advantage of any rise
in the market should it occur. The
tyranny of the Trades Unions in this con-
nection is only equalled by their folly. 1t
is true that they may be able In some
cases to infict more or less injury upon
the employers, as for instance where works
which have large orders to fill are COM
PEELED to close. But there are no. many
works in this condition at present, and the
greatest loss must therefore be borne by
the strikers themselves.
One OF the principal reasons why organ
ization has done Labor SO little good hith-
erto has been that the leaders OF the
Unions have nearly always been shallow
demagogues, incapable of perceiving the
true interests of the men, or only careful
to benefit themselves. The workingmen
would long since have freed themselves
from this bad leadership but for the fact
that they are always suspicious of whatever
advice is given them by those who are not
of their own order. They have in fact
been so educated in the fallacy that capital
is their enemy as to be incapable OF &C.
cepting even the plainest truths from out
side. Whoever tells them that they will
ipjure themselves by striking upon falling
market loses his labor; because they at
once jump to the conclusion that this is
said in the interest of capital. They could
if they would easily ascertain that such
strikes as the present have always failed il
the past; but they apparently prefer TO
buy their experience fresh in every case,
and certainly they are accustomed to pay
dearly enough for it. In the strikes Just
begun there is no element OF prudence or
business Judgment. When the demand
for manufactures is declining it is absurd
to suppose that more wages will be paid for
making those things. And though it is
no doubt true that the increase ID the cost
of living bears heavily upon the working
classes at the East, it is equally true that
." half loaf is better than no bread,
and that those who try the experiment of
no bread are sure to suffer for their folly,