Morning journal and courier., 1884-02-05
SINGLE COPIES TWO CENTS.
Tuesday, February 5, 1884.
THE STRIKE IN FALL RIVER.

THE STRIKE IN FALL RIVER.
 A strike was begun at Fall River, Massa- chusetts, yesterday morning, the progress of which will be watched with interest by great many besides those directly concerned Ten of the thirty-seven mills were selected as ''s starter" by the strikers. The mule- spinners, who are less than one tenth of the total number of operatives, decided not to submit to the proposed reduction of their wages even if they had to throw nearly thirty-fiv hundred operatives out of work. They held meeting Saturday evening and adopted resolutions setting forth the reasons why strike was necessary. These resolu- tions say that the print-cloth market is in- proving; that the corporations have made dividends during the past year and increased their plants and that 8 reduction in wages is unnecessary. A prominent officer of the labor organization in Fall River made the general statement that the wages under the new schedule will be some lower than they are at other manufacturing centers where similar work is performed, so far, at least, as the net amount of profit to the operatives is concerned. But whether they were higher or lower was not the question. They were too low; and if operatives in other places chose to submit to imposition, it was not reason why those in Fall River should. He had advocated curtailment of production by running on short time as means of im- proving the market; and the operatives would willingly have agreed to that. But the manufacturers would not adopt that course. Experience has shownpP he said, s'that reduction of wages will be followed by reduction in the price of print cloths, and no possible benefit will result to the opera tives"
 This is the position of the strikers. The manufacturers say that they have followed reluctantly the course adopted by manufsc- turers elsewhere in reducing wages instead of combining upon a reduction of time until the curtaiIed production should have inn proved the market But as other print-oloth mills have reduced their schedule of wages, the Fall River mills cannot continue in the business without reducing their expenses also. In arranging the new schedule an effort has been made to equalize wages as well as to re- duce them. Therefore the rate of reduction is not uniform, but on graded scale; and as it now stands the manufacturers say it is, upon trustworthy and exact information, above that adopted for the same class of work elsewhere The greatest reduction is made upon the weavers, who are about one third of the operatives in number, and re- ceive nearly half the whole amount of the weekly payroll. They are cut twelve per cent.
 The spinners say they are we'll organized and prepared for long fight if necessary. The union will pay single men who are mem- bers $4 week, and married men $4 50 and 25 cents additional for each child. There is no fund except for the benefit of the spin ners, who are members of the union. If the strike is long one there will, of course be much suffering and bad feeling. The strikers have taken great risks considering the rres- ent condition of business, and it would not be surprising if they should utterly fail to enforce their demands