Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-06-04
STRIKES AND LEGAL JUSTICE.

STRIKES AND LEGAL JUSTICE.
The occurrence Of the numerous strikes
the telegraph is daily telling of cannot be
viewed without concern by those who wish
well to their fellow creatures and who SYM
pathize with suffering. Where thousands OF
men are led to give up their employment
and voluntarily endure the evils of penury
and the pangs resulting from stinied neces-
saries for themselves and their wives and
little ones, the impelling cause must be
real and very powerful one. The men in
the present strikes gave timely warning to
the employers that, owing to the increased
cost of living, i was necessary they should
receive increase Of pay adequate to their
household wants. The employers reply that
trade is no longer buoyant, that the stocks
on hand are not readily purchased but accu-
Ilula.e, and therefore the situation points
rather to a reduction than to an increase
Of wages. TIE men do not confde in
this statement, and therefore they strike.
The Philadelphia Ledger, a protectionist
paper, published in the State that
is most concerned in the movement, in a
very fair and reasonable article says that
judging by what can be seen of the move
ment Of the workmen at Pittsburg and
further west, tine strike should have been
averted by Cancellation or arbitration. But
little spirit of Cancellation has been shown,
except what was manifested by the workmen
in modifying the scale OF prices they first pre-
scented. On one side the question Is: Can
the trade afford the rate of wages asked by
the worlmen? On the other the question is:
Can the workmen live on the scale Of wages
fixed when the necessaries of life were cost
ing twenty-five per cent. less than they are
now, az comfortably as American workmen
have a right to live? 1t ia evident that, TO
do justice, the workmen's clear duty is to
consider the state of trade, and to ascertain
whether there be such decline in prices as
fails TO justify an advance, or such as to
actually require a reduction, and TO give the
facts that exist all the weight their impor-
tance demands. The employers on their part
are required, on the same principles Of jus
tice, 10 take fully into consideration the
rate Of any increase in the expenses
Oh llNlHS, ANU Il tlItuublduCtb Will JUSTLY
it, to increase wages up to a point
equivalent to the rate of that increase. If
circumstances will not justify that proceed
ing, then the correct course is to ASCERTAIN
what loss is inflicted by the less active con-
dition Of trade, and that loss should be fairly
divided, the employer sacrificing proportion
ately as much from his profit as he requires
IL LII
the loss being borne in just proportion by
both. II the employer endeavors TO keep up
his rate of profit and cast all the loss upon
the workman, he simply acts dishonesty;
the workmen, ALSO would be clearly wrong in
refusing to bear their just proportion. To set
tie upon this principal, the only righteous one,
arbitration becomes necessary, and the arbi-
traitors should have full access to all the
business information requisite TO enable
them to decide equitabIy. The expenses Of
the mems living and the amount of wages
they have TO live with is readily ascertained.
Ii the employer withhold the required in
formation on his side, how can he be justified
in a course that disturbs the community
and endangers the peace, and with what
plea can he demand protection for
his own property, put in peril, for
anything he shows to the contrary, by his
own greed and love of over-reaching and
heaping up wealth by unjust means? In the
present ins lance the Philadelphia Ledger
says: "Too much stress appears to have
been laid on the fact that the iron mills were
in favorable position to shut down. That
is relying too much on the abstract question
OF power to resist, and is calculated to dull
the sense of reason as TO what is sound policy
in the long run" Here is matter for con-
temptation. The employers also complain
of the existence of trades unions, but they,
being few in comparison, can and do unite
much closer and more persistently than the
men can, and the mems unions become inn
plements of necessary self-defense. In many
cases the proportion of wealth grasped by
capital from the whole amount of wealth
produced by labor is theoretically unjust,
and intelligent working men are not slow to
perceive the injustice. In the words of
a Washington newspaper correspondent:
"When Mr.. Hewitt proved the other day
from official documents that Pennsylvania
Bessemer steel company had made divi-
dend in one year of seventy-seven per cent,
and had left over and above that a surplus
of 125 per cent. on their capital
stock, congressman listened to him |
with languid interest. But do you
suppose the workingmen and farmers do not |
read it eagerly and talk it over among them
selves" While these men are making this |
tremendous rate of profit, they pay their |
workmen Just as little as other similar trades |
do for corresponding work, and when bus
mess decreases is there justice in their saying,
in effect, to the men, we withheld from you a
proportionate share of the wealth your
labor created, but now your labor produces
less wealth you must bear the loss? When
men have to seek the protection of the law
in case of strikes, that act ought to give the
magistrate the right to require arbitration,
and the employer should be held bound to
show that the public disorder that had arisen
was not consequence of his own misuse of
power in expressing and inadequately pay
ing his workmen. The employer has a right
to protection when mob violence is threat
NASN, Sue 1AAO IA" A"h d AlSAt, "hlAC SAtehN- 1
ing that protection, to ascertain whether the
danger was provoked by greed and oppres-
sion, or whether the proceedings that led to
the crisis were the legitimate result of the
state of the branch of trade concerned. In
this way the law would give equal protec-
ton to the employer and the employed, and
would preserve each from injustice on the
part Of the other.