Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1882-06-09
Injurious Effects of a Strike.


A strike which keeps large number of
laborers unemployed for weeks, perhaps
months, intirts more damage upon com
munity than the failure of crop, and is
worse than an ordinary famine. We calcu-
late that the weekly loss to this country in
productive labor alone from the strikes now
in progress exceeds three million dollars,
and may be reckoned ut over fifteen million
dollars month. 4 fire that should consume
iorty-iive million dollars would be reckoncd
a great national calamity, but people talk
hippantly ofa three months voluntary idle
ness on the part of these strikers as if it were
comparatively Il tritling matter.
ldleness is Il great wastcr, and the loss
will so far beyond the mere item of produc-
tive labor 1t is always demoralizinp too
and the moral waste is even more frightful
than the damage to material interests
Temptations of all kinds find willing instru-
ments i'll idle hands. Active industry is one
OF the best safeguards against vice and
crime. Drunkenness, dehauchery street vio-
lence. wife beating, thetts, robbery and all
manner of otienses against person and prop
erty flourish most when large bodies oflabo-
rers are unemployed.
No matter how much the price of labor
may be advanced. 4 successful strike, if this
success Is long delayed, never compensatcs
the striker for the corresponding loss He
would have saved more at the end of the
year. had greater comfort i'm his service. and
stood higher in his own selfesteem, had he
continued at the old scale. unsuccessful.
the striker has a still larger balance against
him.,
1t is not the many who engineer strike
The large majority are always opposed to it,.
few uneasy, restless or selfish spirits lead
Oft in the revolt, and the mass fall into line
because they think it unmanly or cowardly
to express their dissent or to seem opposed to
those who profess to be working for their
welfare. In strike which took 80 men (every
one of whom we know out of Il desirable
employment where they were earning an
average of over twenty dollars week the
whole revolt was begun and carried on by Il
young fellow of less than p years, who was
inspired by no worthier ambition than
simply TO become q recognized leader The
strike was unsuccessful, the men lost their
places in good service where they had
been sure of steady employment all the
year round, and were left to shift for them
selves, many Of them never obtaining again
gave up so recklessly. They confessed
to us afterward that they were not in
favor of the strike, and they would
willingly, all of them but this overgrown
boy, have kept out of it if they could. His
taunts and jeers were like the crack of the
party whip by leader in Congress, and un-
der a sort of infatuation they followed him
to the ruin of all their material interests
The great mass of the workmen now walk
ing the streets in idleness all over the North
ern and Western States wish they were hap
PLY ut work again at the old wages, and
would confess it, ifthey could without hay
ing the finger of scorn pointed at them by
their selfish and unprincipled leaders. They
know they will lose more thanthey can hope
to gain, and they regard themselves as the
victims of circumstances which they cannot
control
We do not mean to say that the strikers
were wholly satisfied with their earnings
The way Il strike is inaugurated is first to
createa ieelingUf restleSSneSs and discomfort
among the Workmen. A few Inscriptions
leaders, chiefly for their own selfish schemes
and greed ofpower, stir up the masses ofthcir
fellows by one sided representations ofthcil'
relations to their employers until there is Il
general feeling dissatisfaction Ifthe ques-
tion of open revolt could be voted upon in
secret ballot the great majority would be
against it. but the rebellion breaks out in Il
small circle. and the rest are forced to Join
against their better Judgment or appear to
take sides against their own class. The ty-
ranny of trades union leaders and wire pull
lels over the rank and file of their societies
has no parallel in any other form of oppres-
| sion the world over. An effort is now max
! ing to extend the revolt in all directions
Ifthe friends of the laborer would every
where use their influence to secure arbitra-
and to counsel the workmen to keep theil
places and continne their earnings while the
negotiations were in progress. they would
confer vast benefit upon the working
classes, and save the country from loss
which can hardly be overestimated.