Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-07-21
AN OILY DERRICK.
THE FOLLY OF SOClAllSTlC
PHILOSOPHERS
F0menting Disc0ntent-ThcW Workings
Of an Excellent system -Neg0ti.
atng for Permanent Inr.
m0ny and Sweet Con.
tentmcnt.

There are times when one seeks
pastures new in search of wisdom.
During one of these ycarning moods
our searching gaze fell upon the lu-
mlnous editorial page of the OIL Ctty
Nerrich. That's the name of a
paper, And this is what appeared :.
Socialistic philosophers are trying to
foment discomfort with the industrial sit
uation by asserting that something must
be wrong with system under which an
enforced idlessness of Il couple of
months occurs every year with nearly
100000 men. This has reference to the
labor lockout in the iron industry, be
cause the manufacturers and their men
have thus far failed to agree on a scale
of wages for the coming year. That
many of the mills remain idle while the
difficulty is unsettled is true; but to call
this an enforced idleness is "A misappica-
ton of terms. 1t cannot be said Justly
that the men are compelling the manu-
facturers to remain idle, or that the
manufacturers are compelling their men
to remain idle. Each is willing to go to
work or into operation as soon as the
other Will agree to the terms proposed,
or as soon as new terms can be made
which are mutually satisfactory
How ridiculous of the socialistic
philosophers" " to suggest that any
thing is wrong with a system that
permits workingmen to take a vaca-
tlon while they are parleying with
their employers about wages. The
Derrick does well to hoist these fel-
lows at this time.
TO be sure, the workmen are not
particularly well provided with the
means Of subsistence while they are
idle, but starvation can hardly be
called means of compulsion. The
iron workers are not compelled to
accept the terms of the bosses, even
if the latter should refuse to settle
upon scale of wages for ten wears
They can die, and thus triumph
over their employers. This is a case
where death hath Il victory. Not
that the dead workman crows over
t-far from it. Such victory is
too complete to move the victor to
petty eXultatlon.
And the Derrick is quite right
when it says: 1T cannot be said
justly that the men are compelling
the manufacturers to remain idle"
OF course not.
How, for instance, could they
What's to prevent the manufacture
ers from gong to work as long NJ
they possess the tools to work with
Certainly not the men.
Nor do the manufacturers compel
their men to remain idle, as the
Derrick wisely remarks. The men
are too independent to be governed
10y the owners of the mills. They
can 90 fishing, Or attend political
meetings and shout for "protec-
ton"
True, some soclalistic miscreant
may try to foment discomfort by sug.
gesting that fishing don't pay, and
that shouting for protection only
helps the bosses. He may even lgc
80 far as to make the absurd sugges
tion that if the State owned the
mills and operated them on the co
operative plan, the men would al
ways have work. But any one car
see that such condition would de
prIye that select circle, the EN-
ployers, Of the chance to conduc
private enterprise, and foster a feel
ing of dependence in the homes
breasts of the workers-dependenc'
upon their own eXertlons; and tina
is not to be compared with the pres
ent system, which permits the mel
to be dependent upon the bosses.
And can anything equal the wis
dom of the Derrick when 1t says:
GAS to the ldleness which results from
the disagreement, it may be answered
that men who are continually agitatinj
for reduction in the hours of daily toll
who insist that eight hours should be a
many as any man should be permitte'
to work in any one day for economi
reasons, the prevention of over produc