Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-07-01
THE LOGIC OF IT.

Some days ago we published trenchant
extract from an Eastern contemporary,
wherein it was suggested that just so far
as the right and justification of a strike by
workers 10 compel an employer to dis
charge some one obnoxious to the workers,
or TO reinstate a discharged employee ex-
lists and has justification, just so far there
exists and is justified the right in the en-
ployers Of workers to combine together
also, and lock out all employees because
some one or more of their associates have
refused to work for their employer We
had not supposed that so soon as this, or
that upon this coast the first practical
trial of this philosophy would be made.
But so it is. In San Francisco the logic
Of the strike has been invoked, and there
can be no answer to it. It's simply invul-
nerable. If a. B, C may refuse to work for
D because the latter will not engage E
also, why may not d. and all of his class
as reasonably refuse to employ A, B and
c, and all of their class, because one of
that class refuses to work for D, or one of
his associates? There was a strike at the
Union Iron Works, in San Francisco, the
other day. 1t was not because of INSULT
cient wages, or the unwarrantabIe exac-
tons Of the employers regarding the hours
of labor or against the unhealthfulness of
The shops, or the unsanitary condition of
the grounds, or the refusal to allow holt
days il was because the managers of the
concern refused to discharge from employ
ment four men out OF 400 employed The
four were not members of labor organ
ization to which the 800 belonged They
had been in the employment Of the firm
for several years, and were faithful and
satisfactory to their employers. The
strikers went out, as was their right
but it was exercised as force, neverthe-
less, to compel the concern to accede to
their demands in order to get sufficient
skilled laborers to carry on the business of
the house. After some days the strikers,
as was their right, applied to the managers
Of the works through the medium of of
fetal representatives of labor organizations,
for the formation of board of arbitration
to settle the whole difficulty. To this pro-
position the employers now reply, as is
their right, in the phrasing of the precise
logic we have reeited. They say-and the
response is trenchant and paralyzing-if
this was question involving labor hours,
labor wages or workshop rules, we can see
how We could consent to arbitration of the
issue, and how it would be wise for US to
do so, but we do not see how it IS possible
for us to consent to arbitrate this other
matter. Suppose, they say, in effect, we
should arbitrate as you desire, and the
arbitrator should decide that you had the
right to demand the dismissal Of this, that
or the other man from the shops because
they refuse to join, or do not belong to
Your Union or association, and that you
had the right to Withdraw all the men of
your organization from our employment
and suppose that we should comply with
this demand, then would not the sane pro-
cess of arbitration grant Us the same rights
by which We could demand the expulsion
Of any member of your federation who
might, from any cause, be obnoxious to us.
and would We not have the right to lock out
all your members who might be in our en-
ployment, because our demands were not
complied with And they leave the strikers
to answer the question for themselves, and
to digest, as best they may, the wholesome
truth contained in it, We are too much
the friend of the wage-winner and the
toilers along life's way to attempt to dis
guise the truth of this matter, or to offer
speeious excuses for the application of a
rule of human rights to one class from
which another class shall be exempt. We
anticipated the failure of this iron work
ers' strike, and the signs of it are already
patent. 1t was seuseless and foolish Bit
OF bravado, and viii result in nothing else
than the punishment of the men by depri
walton of labor, and the consequence must
be suffering in their families, or the aeon.
mutation of sufficient capital by them tc
establish cooperative shop in opposition
to that against which they have struck
and the result would be to divide the pat
ronage of trade that has doubts of it
ability to compete with the great East, an,
that is not at all certain of profitable re
wards.