New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-06
WORR AND WAGES,

Il
who are on strike are about to get more CON-
plete and speedy relief than they had expected
OF asked. But it will not come by means of
the strikes These have not fastened that
relief, but have probably shut ont very many
of them from a share in it. Prices are falling,
and the cost of living is decreasing, but not at
all because the working people who are on
strike have diminished production and thus
have done what they could to make living more
costly for themselves and others. Wheat has
fallen 20 per cent, but it would not have de-
clned if the farm laborers of the West, by COM
bining to demand higher wages, had dimin-
ished by One-half or One-third the quantity
produced Iron has not fallen, and the cost
of living as affected by the price of that article
and of others into which it enters has not de-
clined, only because a great body OF the iron
workers have stopped work for two months,
and thus have greatly reduced the supply. 80
in other branches of manufacture and IN coal
mining, the wOrkmen who have refused to
work have cut down the production and sns-
tanned the price of products, and thus have
contributed to make living more costly for
themselves and others. a great strike newt
ably involves a loss to the whole community,
which the strikers undertake to pay out of their
own pockets. Their hope is to get it back by
higher wages afterward.
This has been most unfavorable season,
however, for such undertakings. Prices had
been pushed very high by the expectation OF
extraordinary prosperity, and atterward by
the scarcity of food and the speculation in
starles. But the unusual advance, while it in
vOlved embarrassment to people who live upon
wages was in itself q sure cause Of speedy
reaction. Thus farmers are certain to put In
more wheat, when they see it selling at un-
usual prices and to raise more beef and pork
and to send more to Market when cattle sell at
II cents and pork at 500 barrel. More fur
naces will go into blast and make iron, If the
price is 500, than if it is $40. When ordinary
potatoes sell at 81 bushel, 1t is certain that
n great many people who have more ground
than they have money will raise potatoes.
Thus any unnatural advance in the cost of
living tends to correct itself quickly. After
q great speculation for advance, when it col
lapses, there comes a corresponding fall people
who have bought great quantities at high
prices, when markets turn, make very low
prices by their enforced sales The working
men who imagined that high prices of iron,
wages have been rudely undeceived. The
same principles apply to transportation. The
workman who helps to make the movement
of food more costly helps to increase the cost
of living for himself and others. But ut time
when labor is abundant, and men accustomed
to European wages can be found for almost
any work, strikers have but little chance except
to embarrass trade for a time, and thus to make
living more costly for themselves and others.
1t is natural that the great strikes meet with
small success thus far. The railroads are NOV
ing all the freight offered, and without the aid
of the old hands. Some of the coal mines and
iron mills are working with new men; others,
in view CT the present state OF the markets,
are in no hurry to work at all. With cotton
selling at 1924 cents per pound for middling
uplauds it is not strange that mills are In no
haste TO make brown sheetings at ga cents, or
print cloths at 37s cents yard. 1t is natural,
too, that the employers should prefer new men
at the same wages to those who struck Tor
higher wages upon falling markets and scanty
business. The strikers who offered to go to
work again at the old wages on the Erie were
informed that no new men were needed at
present. The iron workers who presented their
application through committee to the Cleve-