Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-20
THE STRIKE IN SAN FRANCISCO,

The restaurant proprietors of San Fran
cisco, in mass meeting assembled, have
resolved not to yield to the strikers and
IL stand out against the employment of
Union men until the hereafter is clad in
ice. The cooks and walters, they say, had
no complaint to make Of their employers;
their wages and hours were regulated by
their own Unions they struck simply and
solely because three or four bakers had
row with their employers concerning
hours Of labor and wages. The employ
ing restaurant keepers certainly make
strong case, and no one sensible of the
tendencies and impulses of human nature
will blame them for declaring that they
will not hereafter employ Union men,
since these employers had supported the
Unions and are now made 10 suffer while
non-union restaurants are untouched and
prohting by the strike. The Union has
shown that it can he unjust and tyrannous,
and resistance to these is right and a
duty. On the other hand, the strikers
having "gone out" and entertaining
small hope of being restored to their old
places under present demands, are consid-
ering plans of establishing cooperative
bakeries and restaurants. That is more
sensible. 1t is their unquestioned right
In this land the avenues OF business are
open TO all men. If they can, by capital
izing their skill and labor, serve the public
as well as did their old employers, they
will command a fair share of public
patronage The American public is lib
eral; it cares very little for the quarrels
of employees and employers, SO long as the
service it demands is adequate, for it will
always bestow its patronage where it gets
value received. In cooperating to estab-
lsh competitive eating and supply houses,
the walters, cooks and bakers will
be doing good work in illustrat-
ing the value of cooperation. If
it fails with them, it will not
be chargeable to the principal involved,
but due TO their possible lack of unanimity
and devotion to the cooperative faith. If
the establishment and successful and perrna-
nent conduct of several good cooperative
restaurants and bakeries shall follow this
trouble, it will stand out as a notable in
stance Of strike that resulted benefcially
to the strikers, making them independent
and provident. All fair men want wage
winners to do we'll We believe in high
wages, fair hours, justice to all, and the
attainment of the best possible condition
by all workers, whether with hands or
brains. But in attaining these ends there
can be no justification of the methods of
the strike such as are employed in San
Francisco now. For defense of these
methods of necessity commits those who
make 1t to defense of like methods il en-
ployed by proprietors against werkingmen.
That which upholdS the strike" cannot
refuse support of the lockout" or the
conspiracy among employers to deprive
workers of the reward OF their labor, or TO
Cypress and degrade them, or by black
listing" to prevent them obtaining en-
ployment at all. The workingmen, in
protection of their own inalienable rights,
must stand for such rights in others; they
cannot invoke remedies sgainst employers
that they would deny TO employers against
themselves. We are too much the friend
of the workingman to approve courses that
experience has demonstrated end in his
discontinue.