The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-04-15
LABOR TROUBLES.

Strikes at quite a number OF manufacturing
points throughout the county are in progress,
but the cases are so scattered and isolated as to
show that there Is no movement on any widely
concerted plan. In most cases the strikes are
against reduction of wages, claimed by the
employers to be rendered necessary by gen.
eral depreciation In the price of goods.
THE LAWRENCE STRIKE.-This is distinct
ly the ground on which the reduction is placed
in the Pacific mills at Lawrence, M sss, where
5000 persons were thrown out of work A
majority Of these have left the place, and when,
on Monday, the mills were re-opened after
lockout of a month, $3.50 women and children
presented themselves as ready to go to work at
the reduced figures, and most of them were
employed. The mills claim that they pay from
10 to 10 cts. more per cut than any other mills
in New England and cts. more than any 9TH
or in the country.
ROCHESTER,, N. Y.-One of the most gener-
al strikes is that at Rochester, N. Y, under the
control of the Amalgamated Union, embracing
all the trades IN the city. The strike includes
the carpenters, cotton splnners, shoemakers,
timers, and one or two other trades, and the
employers maintain that while they are not
averse to increasing wages they will shut down
TIL doomsday rather than be dictated to as to
whom to employ and what wages to pay by
the managers Of the Union"
CLEvEIAND.-The carpenters are on strike,
but seem to be reasonable and orderly. The
same 1t is said, however, is not true of the
$50 men In the works of the Powell Tool Com
pany, who are on strike. After grossly NAL.
treating others who refused to JOIN the strike,
they are accused Of having kindled the fire by
which on Saturday night the works were burn
cd. When the iron workers in the rolling
mills in the same city on Monday struck,
the works were Immediately closed for the
season, throwing $50 men permanently out of
work.
CHICAGO.-Several strikes are in progress,
the most notable being 1000 quarrymen at
Lamont who demand $500 per day. The en-
ployers claim they paid $3.50 all Water for 8
and hours day on an agreement that the
men should work all summer at the same rate
1t is understood, however, that work will be
resumed at a compromise on $1.75 per day.
The employees of the Sycamore Cotton Mills,
Fall River, are still on strike against re-
duction of wages.
At Glassboro, N. j., 400 men in Whiting
Bros. glass works are on a strike against store
pay
Several hundred coal miners at Cambridge,
Ohio, have struck against 52l9 cts. per ton.
Milwaukee is IN o ferment over an ugly
strike among the cigar makers
The sawyers at Muskegon, Mich, are on a
strike demanding 81 day for 10 hours The
employers insist on II hours.
The cotton mills at Cohoes, N. Y, have CIV
en- notice OF reduction on the Gath, which Is
expected to result in strike throwing 10000
people out OF work. The company is said to
want strike to enable them to get rid of a
large stock on hand.
And this last idea may involve the key to a
good many other strikes. Wooden goods, cot
ton goods, coal, most kinds of manufactures
of glass and iron, and numerous other manu-
featured goods that were unreasonably rushed
up during the "boom" last year are receding
to their normal level, and the employers are
calling a halt, to enable them to reduce stock
on hand AS Mr.. Hewitt recently SAID to
newspaper interviewer: "Capltai can always
protect itself. At the time of the last panic,
when the manufacturers Of iron found sudden,
ly that they were producing at loss, what did
they do? The cost OF production for long
time was largely above the prevailing market
price. The remedy was very simple. we
stored our iron away and waited till the mar
ket recovered itself; we had money enough TO
do this; and ultimately the iron was sold at a
profit covering tine loss of interest, so that in
the end there was no loss"