The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-06-08
TO PREVENT STRIKES.
LABOR LEADERS PROPOSE TO TRYIr.
Impressed byr the Ensets Of the Iron Strikes
0flesn Of uafons Urge the Necessity Of
Doing SomsthlnE to Have Future i.,'
t9NlJtI Troubles Otherwise Settled. b

PARLIAMENTARY June lot the four thou
sand carpenters In Philadelphia on the fin
OF April last there remain not over twenty
five hundred, Of which number four hun
dred at least are at present out OF work
The strike by a number Of Union men ii
different shops on May for m adyanc,
FROM s. 80 to 50 per day, in which abou
one hundred and sixty men participated
resulted in a partial benefit only TO The
workmen. After large numbers had lef,
the city, going principally to the seashore
resorts, where considerable building is 90.
ing on and where wages range from s. to
s. so a day, the Union compromised with
the employers on the basis OF s. rs n day
as the minimum rate oi wages. Some
tirst-class carpenters in several shops were
then receiving 50 q day, which price
is still being paid IN n few instances. The
backbone Of tho strike, however, as &C.
knowledged by President Allen, OF the Car.
penters Union, last night, was broken, not
by any inability Of the Union to support
the one hundred and sixty men who struck,
but on account OF the general dulness in
the building business and the conviction
that 81 Is was fair price. The sudden
change that has come over the building
prospects within tho last three weeks
causes the leaders in the Carpenters Union
to look back on the strike, small as It was,
with regret. "The building business" !"
said President Allen, Of the union, lust
evening, "has not been SO bad for three
years as it is at the present time. OF
tho four hundred carpenters now out
OF work IN this city large major.
ity arc non.union men. Afew union men
who st uck lust month and who failed TO
get work elsewhere are still cared for by
the union. For the great majority Of
them, however, We found work elsewhere
at Long Brunch and New York
and paid their railroad fare
there, and they are now getting in many
cases g so day. 1 had letter
from two ofthem who are working in New
York. They are getting s. 50.., Carpen.
ters are better in almost any other CITY
Mt this time than they are here One thing
that has prostrated the building trade in
Philadelphia has been the increase iu the
price OF building material. Lumber is
higher this season than it has been for five
or six years. The iron strike in the West is
bad for the building trades everywhere,
When the iron trade is dull everything is
dull It5 si e - -" Q
President Allen, continuing to speak Of
the depressing effect which the iron strike
would have on the laboriug interests, said
that the time was coming when there
would have to be'a change in the whole
system OF trades anions. They would have
TO organize themselves on basis on which
there could be no such thing rs strikes.
which were bad for both employer and en-.
rloyed. Labor would have TO control itself
by combining and raisiug a fund, which
must DC used to maintain a Corner" in
skilled labor, SO that when an employer
wants hands no must 60 10 them and form
an agreement as to the rate OF wages to be
paid for the year. This will do away with
arbitrary action on the part OF the EN-.
ployer, who, MS things are at present con.
stituted, has things all his own way.
This subject has been occupying nv
mind day and night for months past" con.
timed Mr. Allen, sand I am convinced
that We will have TO come to it. We must
do away with strikes. They are always
bad. 1t isn't the laborer only that is
affected by them. hut the employer us we'll.
know this from instances that came
under my personal observation in this cur.
penters' strike. know an employer who
lost fifty dollars a day during the strike.
Now it is as much to the interest OF the
employer to preverta strike as it is 10 the
employc, and il system is adopted by
which strikes may be averted it will be
to the interest OF the entire community,
The plan We are working on now consists
OF the uniting OF all the trades which have
a relation TO each other into single orgaui-
tons, which, in turn, shall cooperate with
other organizations, representing, likewise,
particular trades We are now amalyamat.
ing the building trades. Five trades are
already in one organization and efforts are
being made to bring in the others. The
trades which have been amalgamated 30
tarare the carpenters, plasterers, granite
stone.cutters and brown stone-cutters and
the stone masons. Those which are yet to
be brought in are the painters, plumbers.
slate and ,tin.roofers and bricklayers." 7['