The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-08-17


quantity of employees for the transac-
ton of their business than to lay out a
rule for the management of ones do
mestic affairs. AS common carriers
the transportation companies were
compelled to afford the public reason
able facilities for the transaction of
business, but the court bad no right TO
decide what particular class of men
they should employ nor what remu-
neration they should pay their en-
ployes. The court held that while
their sympathies were with the strik-
ers and the merchants, who were
suffering loss and inconvenience
through the strike, they had no power
to interfere. This long and disastrous
strike of the freight-handlers has re-
suited the same as all other strikes.
The poor men, after great suffering,
and entailing untold miseries upon
their families, have been forced to sue
cunb to the inevitable and return to
work, when they can get it, at former
h"tCo' Al VIC w cSl Uut tti6gTdDD
operators, Q class of skilled workmen,
whose places one would think 1t diff
cult to fill, tried the experiment of q
strike, believing that as a suspension
of their work would entail great in
convenience and loss to the mercantile
community, the telegraph corporation
would be forced into acceding to their
demands. But the result was quite
contrary to the expectations of the
strikers. The companies would not
accede to the demand of the operators,
and the strike came to an end almost
in its incipiency.
Strikes having proved entirely futile
In settling the vexed question of COM
pensati0n, the operatives and employ
ers of certain large corporations have
tried the better experiment of submit
ting the disputes between employer
and employee to arbitration, but even
| this more reasonable mode of proce-
dure sometimes fails, owing to those
stubborn laws of supply and demand
When the operatives of the great Har
mony Mills, at Cohoes, N. Y, pro.
posed to submit the question of pay tC
arbitration, Mr.. Johnston, the super.
intendent, very justly replied that
mo method OF arbitration will in.
fluence prices in the cloth market y
| Here is the whole truth in nutshell
| No method of arbitration will ever in
huence prices in any market. Hence
even arbitration is no remedy for low
wages. The laws of supply and de
mand make arbitration as well as
strikes as ineffective as King Canute's
order for the tide to recede.
Then, what is the poor man to dc
| when his wages are reduced while the
prices of provisions and every neces
sary of life are advanced? The ques
ton may be answered by asking
another. Why are meats, provisions
and food generally so extravagantly
dear in a country where the creates
| plenty exists, and when the crops ar,
abundant beyond expectation Th'
answer Is monopoly.
| Between the monopolist and th'
speculator the price of everything
which the poor man requires has, IL
many instances, enhanced threefold
beef to be selling in the Eastern
markets at from 20 to 40 cents pc
pound, when cattle are abundant OIL
the Western plains, where it goe
begging" at p to cents per pound
The same with butter, cheese, egg
and vegetables, and more particularly
with flour and breadstuffs, which arr
in great plenty, but command ex
orbitant prices in our markets. The
manufacturer, against whom the
laboring man lays all his grievances
is in no way accountable for higf
prices in provisions. In point of fact
the only articles which are now
cheap, in many instances ridicu
lously low, are almost all kinds o.
manufactured goods. Here is a situa
ton for the laboring man to think
over and determine how he will NEE
it.