Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-26
THE COLLAPSE AND LESSON OF THE
STRIKE.

THE COLLAPSE AND LESSON OF THE
STRIKE.
In commenting last week upon the San
Francisco strike of the bakers, cooks and
waters, the REcoRD-UNIoN said that in
the great majority of strikes complete fail
ure results, and that the punishment falls
heavily upon those least able to bear it
the wage-winners. The strike at San
Francisco has collapsed-it is practically
over, and the result is as was forecast. The
wage-earners have lost two weeks of time
and wages and great number of them
have irrevocably lost their places The
Union men not striking have been fined in
assessments upon their wages to support
those out on the strike; the proprietors
have lost heavily by reason of suspended
business; the community has been greatly
Inconvenience a small army of men who
had no grievance, and made no complaint,
are thrown out of employment, and their
places have been filled mainly by nom
hACii AANh hOb Il ucildIu COLI
tended for by the strikers has been con-
ceded-and, finally, the employers have
organized compactly, and, assuming the
aggressive, refuse to re-employ Union men
except pledged to disconnect themselves
with the Unions. No one, therefore, has
made solitary gain of any character !;
hng hoe i, =
done and not a single compensating ben
eft secured.
Now no reasonable man will refuse to
hear the complaints of wage-winners, Or to
grant them, when he can do so. when
grounded in justice. For tyrannous and
unreasonable men there is nothing to be
said neither law nor persuasion will affect
them, and the facts of strike history prove
that coercion has little or no influence
upon them-eertainly not enough in the
aggregate to Justify the strike as a means.
If just claim is preferred and denied, If
arbitration is refused and deaf ear turned
to reason, there remains but one proper
thing for the employees to do, and that is to
seek other avenues for their industry
Very rarely, if ever, does it happen that
they secure their rights by making an as
sault along the whole industrial line and
including the innocent with the blame
worthy. Such was the action in
San Francisco, and it was in its
Dofura viciOrs ard ,,-:al-.L u, -
cooks and walters had no reason to
strlke-they preferred no sort of claim,
they made no kind of complaint whatever.
1t was on their part simply an effort by
threat, so far as they could effect it, to do
great injury to men who conceded all they
asked, in order to force them to use their
influence upon employing bakers to induce
them to yield. These strikers lacked only
the power to effect this injury.
The baker Westerfield refused to his
four employees privileges, some of which
were Just and ought to have been granted
AS, one days rest in seven, tor instance.
The right method in that case would have
been to use all proper agencies to influence
Westerfield. His refusal and the exercise
of the right of the men to leave his en-
ployment ought 20 have ended the matter
instead of stimulating men to resort to
bulldozing methods. On the contrary,
however>the cooks and walters were called
out and efforts made to call out the butch
ers, and other workers. These men re-
fused to see that such action moved upon
the supposition that these outside employ
ers would not receive public sympathy and
had not spirit enough to resist, nor manli-
ness and human nature enough to strike
back with vigor. The action resulted pre-
cisely as the few ringleaders hoped it
would not, and their unfortunate dupes are
to-day either aeceding to the new require
ments of the bosses, living upon pittance
coerciyely wrung from non-striking wage
winners, or walking the streets unem-
ployed. All this is deplorable; it is
shameful; it is the result of resort TO
methods of the stand and deliver" order,
and is but in degree removed from the ex-
action that demands ransom for prisoners
with their torture as the alternative.
We stand for high wages, for fair and
reasonable hours of labor, for only reason
able exactions of physical exertion, for
plentiful days and hours of rest and for
every ondition-consistent with the uni
versal decree that ali men must work
that will elevate the wage winner, produce
the best citizenship in him, and stimulate
him to become an independent home
builder and an indispensable factor IN the
advancement and betterment of the race.
1t is for these reasons that we oppose the
policy that throws him into unrestricted
competition with the cheap living and
labor of the Orient 1t is for these rea-
sons that the sincere advocates of protec-
tion resist efforts to bring the products of
the ll-paid labor of Europe into ruinous
competition with the results Of American
industry.
Workers in America are not slaves; they
stand upon level with the purchasers of
I.lar L-,orv MAJ, with labor caoacify is