Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-08-23


ever grown up under the sanction
and protection of the laws. Its
treatment of its employees has been
so niggardly that they have been
literally forced to enter a formal
protest against a long series of
abuses, and, in order to obtain some
redress, a general strike among its
$4,000 operatives was deemed to be
the only expedient that presented
itself \ month ago the order was
given to strike all along the line,
and was obeyed to such an extent
that some portions of the country
have been practically without any
reliable and efficient telegraphic SER
vice for that length of time. The
strike has been an expensive expert
ment to the operators, and has fail
ed of success, for several reasons
that ought to have been anticipated
from the beginning. The strikers
were at a great disadvantage in the
contest because nearly all of them
have to depend on their monthly
wages for the support of themselves
and their families, and few weeks
of enforced idleness is certain to
bring privation and suffering. They
began the strike at the dullest sea
son of the year, at the very time
when the company could best get on
without their services, and when the
general stagnation in business made
it possible for all the old operators
out of employment to turn in and
supply the vacant places Then
there was lack of discipline among
the brotherhood, and there was no
lack of characterization in the ranks,
added to a great number of desert
ers to the enemy Lastly, the strike
failed because $4,000 laboring men
are always at great disadvantage
in contest with rich corporation
which has only half dozen persons
to consult as to its policy, and which
is practically under the control and
guidance of one shrewd, powerful
and INSCRIPTIONS man. 1t was a
contest between concentrated power
backed by millions of capital on the
one side, and few thousands of
poor men and women, anxious about
their daily bread, on the other, and
| it is no wonder that the latter have
been pushed to the wall.
No doubt the strikers said ito
themselves before taking this step
that the necessities of the public
would aid them in securing their de-
mands, and in this assumption they
were justified on the start, but only
to find that the corporation was as
insensible to public opinion as it is
to the rights of those who are COM
PEELED to wear its badge of servtude.
The sympathy of the vast majority
of the people has been on the side
of the strikers, from the first, and
the complaints on account of inefii-
cient telegraph service have been
loud and bitter, but all this has had
no more effect upon the company
than the blowing of the northeast
wind. 1t has again proved by its
conduct the truth Of the old adage,
that Corporations have no souls"
1t has been publicly asserted the
loss to the Western Union Company,
in consequence Of the strike, has
been 100000 per day, and the loss
to the operators must have been as
much more, while the loss to the
public will never be accurately com
puted.
Now that the strike has ended SO
disastrously to the employees, it re-
mains to be seen whether the com
pany has the magnanimity and liber-
ality that are naturally associated
with the victors in fight. 1t has
been semi-oflicially given out that
only the most valuable experts in
the business will be taken back,
even at the old rates, and then only
on the humiliating condition that they
viii abandon the brotherhood organ
ization and promise never to unite
with one like it while in the emplo y
of the Western Union. If that is
to be the policy, and if that is the
way the victors intend to use their
advantage, it is needless to say that
a generous public will look upon the
terms of the surrender with disgust
Possibly two good lessons win be
| derived from the results of thi,
strike, namely, that strikes Of all
kinds and among all classes Of work
men are generally disastrous to those
who are directly engaged in them
and, secondly, that public attention
has been directed to the importance
of establishing postal telegraph
system in this country under thu
supervision of the Federal Govern
Chicago Journal.
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