Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-08-30
END OF GREAT STRIKES,
An Unfortunate Msvs That Ru-
Insd Thousands Of Families:
Money Power on One Hand, Fanat-
zeal Leaders on the Other.
A Better Understanding Between En-.
plOyers and working People.
A san STORY.

4 New York Tribune. %: Who can
hear the piiful tale Of these workmen
from the Pittsburg iron works without
sympathy? 1t will be said, of course,
thatthey brought their sufferings upon
themselves. But this is not altogether
true. They were members of an or
ganization which they had expected to
act wisely and faithfully for the com
mon welfare. Unexpectedly its recog-
nized leaders and its most intelligent
men we're defeated, and the %associa-
ton resolved upon a strike which
President jarrett pronounced unwise
and i'll timed. But the men could do
nothing except to 60 with the crowd.
With HIN, some saw that the move
ment was exceedingly foolish. But
hey could not refuse to join in it; as
they now say, they find it impossible
to face the cry OF "black sheep" which
would be raised against them. 1t is
the worst and meanest sort Of terror.
ism, aud yet it is SO powerful that a
man whose family is starving declares,
II might just as well leave Pittsburg,
for thenn-if he ~disregarded the die.
tation of his league-"I could never
again work here with satisfaction.
Somebody ito blame, but who? Here
is a mao who has received, he says, only
81 from the association since June |,
wien The strike began, and he has not
a loaf of bread in the house nor a
morsel to eat for himself all day, and
yet he does not dare to rise against the
Tyranny of the league. Another had
a sick wife, and no money with which
to get a prescription filled, and went
in vain TO the league headquarters.
These are but hints OF a vast amount Of
private suffering Of which no account
is published. Many Of the workmen,
especially of the majority that voted
for the strike, have no families, and
yet they are in extreme distress. Be-
ing known strikers, they cannot get
other work. But what is to be said
OF those who care for wives and chill
dren, and cannot get bread for them
to cat? Yet they dare not go to work,
because the association would then
make it impossible for them to live in
P~ittsburg. They endure, with Spar
tan patience, but for what good end2
Only to promote the ambitious aims
of a few self-elected dictators, who
threaten to disgrace and to starve
them if they refuse.
The iren manufacturers have per.
sued a very wise aud patient course.
Making DO boasts and no threats, they
have simply exercised their undoubted
right 70 stop work and keep their mills
idle if they pleased, and have posted
notices in several mills that the old
men will have the preference, if they
see fit to resume work at the old
wages, but otherwise new men will be
employed. If these men stay out any
longer it is on their own responsibility,
and a part Of them, at least, are most
anxious to 60 to work. But they are
restrained, not by free choice, nor by
reasonable judgment Of their own in.
%terests, but by the outrageous terror.
ism of men who have no families at
all, or none for which they care. And
this is Trades Unionism. This is the
system to which working men look for
protection of their interests, aud for
relief in dire emergency. The mistake
Of these men was that they ever bound
themselves to SUCH an association. II
they had held aloof, as independent
WOrkmen, theywould have been able to
make their own terms.
Perhaps no other great strike has
ever been more unreasonable than this
of the iron workers. The business
was dull in the last degree, Not one
Of the employers, it is probable, could.
have paid the same wages that were
paid before the strike, without serious
loss. In demanding larger wages the
men have been virtually demanding
that the employer shall give them a
part ofhis capital. The men have a
right to Judge whether they are right
or wrong. In that respect they differ
from the highwayman who cries,
Stand and deliver" for the highway
man has no right to demand anything,
more or less. But the principle is
painfully near the same, if the work
men demand anything that the sta e
Of trade does not justly them in de-
%mandipg. Then ii is pure extortion
without reason or justice. If they fail,
and thereby involve themselves in
great suffering, bow can civilized So
ciety regret il? If they saw fit to
makeperemptory demands, it was their
duty to know whether those demands
were warranted by the condition oil
business. Unless they we're, have the
meU any right to complain? They ie
sorted 70 force, in order to take from
the employer a part Of bis meaps. i
they fail, what eau be said in their
jusdic .tion?
WORK AND WAGES.
Fargo Argus: The recent strike.
among laboring men are TO be traced
not to the working men alone, nor e
employers, but to both combined
Both sides have shown an undue, and
it seems an unwarranted, eagerness Il
make profits which the Lituation viii
not allow. If the demand for a pro
tective tariff has been in large part 70.
the sake Of securing high WAGES L
2 American workingmen and laoorerI
generally, in other words to protec
American labor from the pauper labo
OF Europe, it assuredly never was in
tended to ecure or to sanction excess
i've pro- IS to capital or immoderatel.
high wages to labor. Yet the question
has gone around of late, whether a re
T duced scale of duties would not hav
9 the needed effect Of cooling off some @
9 this excessive ardor for the receipts
: as this excessive haste to mark up tn
: prices Of all Sort of commodities. tn
bane Of our times is high price,, mad
9 such almost without the lea3t regard {
r, cireumstanp 81, Tf tb;s tor.n III