The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1882-06-15
The Great Iron Strike.

Early last April the workingmen in the
iron and steel works at Pittsburg, Chica-
go, Cincinnati and other prominent
points submitted to their employers
revision of the scale of wages to take
effect upon the first of June. The man.
ufacturers rejected the proposed scale, in
forming their men that the advance in
wages which they demanded would in
crease .Le cost of producing iron to such
degree that there would be no appreci-
able profit ii The business. Sc the mat
ter rested for time, the operatives re-
naming immovable in their demand for
increased pay and the employers resolute-
ly declining to make any concessions.
At length the operatives submitted a
modified scale whose chief feature was
demand for an advance of fifty cents q
ton for pudding. This being refused by
the manufacturers, the workingmen fell
back upon their original scale and an.
nounced that if it was not acceeded to
they would strike on the first Of June.
The scale was not acceeded to, 80 on
the first the men made good their thrt IT.
The result is one of the largest strikes
that has ever taken place in this country.
It is roughly estimated that some 100000
men are in it. A dispatch from Cincin-
natl states that the puddlers of every
rolling mill in that city have quit work,
and that all but two of the mills have
shut down. At Pittsburg the fires in
every iron mill except one have been put
out A similar state of things is report.
ed at Chicago and Youngstown and other
iron centres. This is not unlikely to be
the most important struggle between Or
! ganzed capital and labor the country has
seen, for on each side the participants are
out part of united whole, and the
struggle is not so much to settle the i'm
mediate question of pay as to determine
which shall take the general mastery.
The iron mills are comparatively few in
number, are bound together perhaps more
closely than the separate parts of any
other great manufacturing interest in the
country, an in this matter large part of
them have taken a stand together against
q common enemy. This enemy is the
amalgamated association of iron and steel
workers, which claims membership of
100000, and includes the men in all the
important iron works of the country,
those in the Lehigh Valley, at Reading
and Pottsville, Pa, and Troy, N. Y, only
excepted. 1t is very perfectly organized
and we'll officered, and is one Of the most
powerful trade.unions in the world. This
association directs strikes and supports its
members during their consequent idle
ness it has been successful and its mem.
bers are consequently full of confidence
in its power, and there has grown ul
among manufacturers feeling that its
authority must be crushed if they are to
continue business There was q bitter
struggle in Cincinnati last summer which
lasted four months and ended in com.
promise with the association substantially
the victor, and this strike is in some sense
continuation of that, for the manufac
turers in other cities blamed their Gin.
cinnati brethren for giving in and the
workmen were only half satisfied with
the results
How long the fght will continue ol
how it will end nobody can tell. Practi
caily all iron workers in the country are
united on one side aud all manufacturer!
west of the Alleghanies on the other, ant
there is, besides the old enmity, dea
meat on the one side and cheap iron on
the other. There is confident talk on tn
manufacturers side that the strike viii
continue for year, while the workIneI
are confident that it will be ended in
month, but much may depend upon the
condition Of the iron market or upon thu
great army of workers who will have the
idlers to support. These 10000 met
! who to day are idle cannot afford TO turI
!, aside from work for an indefinite period
} Many of them have saved up something
for a rainy day, but it is sad to think tha
} their little saving, which ought not to b
! drawn upon save for sickrsss or relatet
contingency, will disappear while they
: stand out for higher wages, which in tn
5 end they may not get. 1t is announce
, that some 100000 is in the treasury c
the strikers. That is O good ora: o
4 money, but it will not last long whe
: 100, 900 men come to depend upon it TO
support.