The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-03-25
LABOR TROUBLES.

q sumption of outdoor employments and genera
q business activity, the usual trouble in edjus,
ing the wages of labor for the season with a,
=, tendant threats of or actual strikes come one
more to the fore.
The first serious strike OF the season wa.
operatives in the iron establishments. Will,
> matters there have 50 far quoted down that NJ
serious breach of public order Is unprecedented
. the strikers have thus far gained nothing
while in most cases their places have beer
filled by outsiders
> The next serious strike was that which oc
CURED some ten days ago among the coal min
ers in the Cumberland (Md) coal region. The
strike includes about $500 miners, and among
It's incidents throwing out Of work 200 men
employed on the railroad coal trains and 900
boatmen on the Baltimore Il Ohio canal. The
strike covers the whole George Creek coal re-
gloD, in which all business Is stopped and the
daily support of $4,000 people Is more or less
affected The strike promises to continue for
months.
Next in importance is the strike in the Pa
cifc Wool u Cotton Mills atLawrence Mass,
by which 1900 operatives are thrown out of
work, and most of them rendered homeless
and destitute. The mills are the largest in the
United States, and have usually paid trihe
higher wages than any others. The late fall
OF wooden and cotton goods in the markets
compelled them to ask their spInners to sub.
NIT to reduction of about ten cents day,
against which they struck, to the number of
about 700; but the stoppage OF the spinners In
cluded all the rest, and on Monday evening
the fires we're drawn and the mills closed. The
corporation say they will loose nothing, as it
will give them much needed opportunity to
make repairs and put in new machinery, and
may enable them to dispose of their large
stock on hand at better prices.
On Monday the Coal Exchange at Plttsburg
notified the miners of reduction on the 1st of
April OF p a cent bushel, against which the
opinion is there will be q general strike.
| Movements In the anthracite coal region IN.
dlcate general strike in that quarter IN
April
Ons hundred and fifty labOrers on the water
works q; Topeka are on strike for $3.50 in
stead OF S1.38 day; and 80 painters in Indi-
annapolis have struck for 80 aday; while there
are movements indicating strike among all
the leading trades in New York City about
the LIST prox.; and uneaslness among the iron
operatives throughout Pennsylvania looks in
the same direction.
While these annual labor troubles" seem
to come as inevitably as spring itself we be-
lieve 1t has become settled question among
the more Intelligent labor organizations that
strikes are always to be deprecated and scarce
ly ever fail to be more disastrous to the opera
tives than the employers. Common sense
teaches THAI all great mining or manufactur
ing industries must be conducted on strictly
business principles is, that the capital
invested must produce certain profit rang
ing from o to IL per cent. aud that when it
can no longer do so, it wishdraws itself and
work must stop.
Thus during the past two years the manu-.
factories of steel rails, for instance, have been
working with a rising market, and realizing
from 10 to 20 per cent. profits. While doing
80 they have been inclined to lberallty in the
payment OF their operatives, in many cases
voluntarily putting up wages, and IN Others
showing exceptional len,ency as to time, pune
tual attendance, etc. But within the last go
days steel rails have fallen at least $40 per ton
This covers nearly the whole profit heretofore
on their manufacture, and it Is obvious that
the mill owners must tighten up u little on
their men-here and there lop off lndulgen.
ces and extras; as we'll as also to insist on II
reduction on pig iron, on coal, etc, which in
turn involves in the squeeze other great in
dustrlcs.
Thus it may be accepted as a fixed fact that
where employers are realizing ~ per cent.
profits or higher, they never think of reducing
wages, and II their workmen are meagery
paid they will not resist demand for higher
wages, or If they do strike is justifahle and
generally successful; but when profits sink
to or per cent. or lower, demand Of lower
wages Is inevitable, and in that case strike
can only be disastrous, and the chief disaster
Is to the operatives themselves; for the caDl-
talists can withdraw their money and employ
1t to better profit otherwise, but labor in such
times which are generally attended by strIn-
gency all over, can not hope as readily TO turn
to other pursuits, and suffering IS inevitable.
| From which we conclude that the only true
method of accommodating the differences be.
tween capital and labor lies in an intelligent
understanding of the situation on both sides
full mutual comprehension of the cxigencies
of the case-of what the employers can stand
and what the employed can bear-and then
no difficulty need or can exist to arrange the
matter satisfactorily 10 both sides. This is the
method now largely pursued in England and