Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-08-17
aa,lcaster frltelliQerlrer.
THURSDAY EVENING. AUG. II, 1852


THURSDAY EVENING. AUG. II, lss2.
TIE Labor Conflict.
a Pittsburgh paper states that one of
the large steel mills in that section,
which has not been affected by tbe pro-
lonsed strike, paid out in WAGES last
month over SlOO, 900. This is a sugges.
tive item at the present time and one
tha, wOrkmen may ponder over. While
the iron strikers have lost over 81 ,O0O,-
OOo in wages since the LIST of June, the
employees of single firm have earned
over 100000. Should the manufactur.
ers yield to the demand of the strikers
AMI pay the advanced rate for the re-
mainder of the cont tkast Seat. the peu
would not, in June next, be as well off
as they would have been had
they continued ;at work at the old
wages. Therefore, a. The matter stands,
they have not improved their financial
situation, and tho end Is not yet. There
are indications tl~t the manufacturers
are about to adopt and enforce, at any
cost, rigid measures against the ANAL
ganatel association, with the deter
mination either to break up this great
organization Or TO- bring it practically
under their control. The attempt to
carry out such scheme will result
i'm one of the most stubborn, hitter
and costly contests between capital
and labor the country has ever known.
And the struggle will end in a com,
promise of some sort after all. ..,
Strikes never pay. In all such con-
tests one side or the other is seriously
crippled, and nine times out of ten the
workman suffers the most. He cannot
afford to be idle to be without work il
many, many times to be without
bread. Ills employer is embarrassed and
perhaps much inconvenienced, but he is
seldom seriously hurt financially while
his personal comfort and that Of his
family is not materially interfered with.
But how about the workman's family !?
His wife aud children are often com
PEELED to drink from the bitterest cup of
poverty. Sometimes. in despair, be at
tempts to drowa his, troubles in drink,
and then crime, darkens the already
gloomy picture. This is no fancy sketch.
II is not overdrawn. Go through many
of the humber districts Of Pittsburgh
O-day and in the homes Of hundreds of
poor labOrers it will be more than re-.
allied. And should tho strike continue,
instead of hundreds. the sufferers will
number thousands, and public charity
will find an imperative field for action.
Such things ought not to he and would
not be if men would only reason aud he
just with one another. Within the past
fifteen years not less than fifty millions
of dollars have bcen lost in these period.
ical and latterly almost continuous labor
troubles. Pittsburgh alone lost during
the year 1877. directly and indirectly,
not less than ten millions Of dollars.
The remedy, and the only practicable
remedy for this end is arbitration,
and u practical beginning should
be made in Pittsburgh right
now. Let the threatened spirit of
bitterness and revenge give place to
kindly respect and an honest desire to
settle all differences. 1t is evident that
tue manufacturers are really and anxious
to start their mills it is sadly true that
the wOrkmen need to I've at work. Let
us have peace in the labo: world. Il
court Of arbitration is ono of the
needs Of the times in this state, and the
subject should receive the careful, in
telligent and practical attention of the
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