Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-10
About strikes.

About Str1keS.
There are two ways of looking at a
thing-as the ancient Scots and Picts
found out after years OF disputation
over the composition of the shields
which, marking the boundary line
that neither might trespass, were
golden on one side and silver on the
other. The railroad strike in progress
brings out the following reflections
from two of our contemporaries:
Laying aside the question of hidden
differences which may underlie the
Burlington railroad strike, one point
seems very plain to the public, viz
That rates OF wages which prevail for
locomotive engineers, tiremen, brake
men and even grade hands on the
Union Pacific and on the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe, operating in
the identical territory in which the
Burlington competes, should also pre-
vail on the last named road. This is
only fair to the other systems OF rail
way and the wonder is not that the
agitation for equality has finally come,
but that the officers of the Burlington
have been able to postpone it for
so long.
The G. B. and O. is an old incorpo-
ration. 1t has always paid its en-
ployees generously and promptly,
and there has been that mutual re-
spect which exists on the one hand
when men perform faithful service,
and on the other when that service is
promptly paid for. But the matter
has ended there. The brain and
hand have performed their functions,
but the heart has not been touched.
Suppose, now, that when the first one
thousand miles OF the sys,em had
been completed; when the profits
amounted to say, generous interest
on $30,000,000, the company had
attached school to one of
their machine shops, and said
to their employees: "You are
good men ; you have good
children; we want those children, if
their tastes run in the same channels
as your own, to succeed you when you
retire. We understand perfectly that
intelligence is valuable; send your
boys to our school, we want to give
them the opportunity to become eff
cient men. 1t would not have cost
very much. The company would
never have felt it, and about fifteen
years ago hundred of these young
men would have been ready to enter
the service of the company as engin-
eers, conductors, clerks, and in other
departments of the company, the
number would have been increased
every year, and by this time there
would have been two thousand Of
these men employed. Does any one
think there would have been any
strike?
The first of the above views is
simply an appeal for an equation Of
pay as between employees in general
who perform the same or similar
duties; the second is very delight
full patriarchial theory. Neither is
what is wanted. The technical point,
or rather, the patent cause which led
to the strike of the Brotherhood of
Engineers fails of conveying the re-
motest idea of the underlying feeling
of discomfort which prevails among
the workers, and which made the dis
Of wages the pretext for
the monopoly which en-
ployed them. The Trade Unions of
the United States have openly de-
clared war against capitalistic corpor-
ations, monopolies and combin-
ations-war to the knife-and a
strike of a conservative labor
body like the Brotherhood
means more than appears on the sur
face. 1t means that labor will not
rem ain contented while it receives
but $1.50 a day, while the profit of
the same days work, which is $3.50,
goes into the pockets OF the employ
ing corporations. 1t means further
that the Am erican workingman will
remain discontented, and rebel often
until he has a hand in the profit
sharing-until he has fair and pro-
portionate share of the immense
profits which he creates by his labor,
and which is garnered by organized
capital. Cooperation is the future
weapon with which labor will attack
and resist the aggrandizement OF
capital and proft-sharing is the
genesis of it's growth. This is the
handwriting on the wall.