Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-18
THE STRIKE AT SAN FRANCISCO.

W nateTer tnc grievances OF tiie Striking
bakers and cooks of San Francisco may be
and they have not been SO stated as to be
free from confusion, bat the demand for
enc day of rest in seven is impregnable
and justine strike viii he found to be
bad policy Not one strike in hundred
has resulted beneficially for the wage
winner. The method byvvhich it operates
being unwise, it cannot be otherwise than
that resort to it should punish most Sc
verely those who hope from it the greatest
benefit. At the bottom it would appear,
from certain indications, the present strike
was prompted by the fear of the Trades
Union men that many employers intended
to gradually displace them. As that is
the right of the employer, in resisting die
tation concerning the conduct Of his bust
ness, so it is tie right of the Union men
to cease labor But the economy of the
movement is a question wholly independ-
ent, and as it involves in the present case
a loss of wages in excess of $4,000 per day,
while the employers generally have now
combined under pledge not to employ
Union men, it would seem in this case, as
in most others preceding it, that the YER
dict is to be repeated, the strike does not
pay"
One step has been taken by the San
Francisco strikers that especially is the
hight Of unwisdom. Union men have been
ordered out of establishments against
which no sort of complaint is made, in
| which the demands of the union have
been uniformly and fully complied with.
Of course the argument is, that the injury
inflicted must be made so general that the
presence of necessity will bring all en-
ployers friendly to the union to the aid of
the strikers in the endeavor to break
| down those who resist. 1t would appear.
however, since the employees feel that they
must resort to the strike as a means, and
that nothing else will satisfy them, by far
the better plan would be to encourage
the employers against whom they make no
complaint, and do all they can legitimately
to divert custom to their establishments
and thus by rivalry induce those in oppo-
sition to yield.
While the strike will prove, as have
most of its predecessors, to be futile for the
accomplishment of the ends sought, it
would be less Objectionable if it did not
seek, as it does with amazing injustice, to
involve the whole community in it. Thus.
some thousands of men who had no sort
Of complaint to make have left
positions they have held for
years, in business establishments related
only Indirectly to the baking trade, and
not in any way involved in the specific de-
mands Of the strikers. This ordering out
has been carried to adjacent cities and
towns, and communities not at all interested
in the local contest in San Francisco are
being made to suffer loss and inconvenience
in the hope that thereby they will add the
weight of their influence to that of the
strikers, to compel the resisting employers
in the metropolis to yield The rank in
justice of this policy will raise up opposi-
ton to the strikers they might Tot other
wise have encountered, and will withdraw
from them sympathy they would other
wise enjoy. Those outside of the atmos-
phere of the trade union will scarcely ad-
| nit that entire communities in tba faco of
such injustice can be driven. 1t is not a
weakness of American community charac-
ter; on the contrary, it is inclined to be
pugnacious, and the strikers will find, we
think, that the communities assailed with
out any ofense being charged against any
of their members, will develop resossees
that will enable them to outlive the en-
durance of the strike