New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-02-19
TILE STORY OF TIE STRIKE.

The Reading strike Is over. The strikers
have been beaten at every point. The rail-
road company and its rcsoute president stand
Just where they stood before the strike began
and ever since. They demanded that the
miners should attend to their own business and
abandon their claim of right to review Mr..
Corbin's relations with the trainmcn. They
vowed that the trainmen who had been dis
charged for refusing to deliver freight to a
customer on the ground that he employed
"scabn labor should never again be taken back
into the company's service. They refused to
arbitrate and they declined to pay any higher
rate of wages for mining coal than other COM
pctng companies.
This was the situation last December when
labor boss ordered thousands of men to quit
work and give up their only means OF support
for themselves and their families in the dead
of winter, because, forsooth. he was not pleased
with the way Mr.. Corbn ran the affairs of the
Reading Company. During the six weeks OF
the strike the company has lost nothing In
deed, it has probably made money, for 1t had
the seasons coal pretty well mined and down
at tide-water before the trouble began, and
owing to the aggravations in the mining region
il possible to raise the price of coal to fancy
figures. In all probability, therefore, tho
Reading Company is better of than it would
have been had the miners continued at work.
Bat the loss TO the men and TO their wives and
children has been fearful. Their condition
has grown worse and worse as the contention
dragged along. and finally they come back
Starving and worn out and submssively accept
the very terms offered them the day they quit
work. Wages to the amount OF 9l.5OO.OOo
have been lost Many thousands Of dollars,
variously estimated at from S25OOOO to
$500, OOO have been spent in the effort to ac-
compish their point, and spent to no avail
whatever Most OF the men have involved
themselves heavily in debt. They have en-
durcd great privations, and all for WHAT
For absolutely nothingl They have been the
victims and tools Of handful of would DO
leaders. who, with no conception Of the serious
nature of such trust and with no proper
equipment for leadership, are only inspired by
desire TO get themselves talked about and to
,upeaioro. Tho aoI;o;ors cnnsntinn ~
incnce and rank These men rely upon the
ignorant and blind obedience of the Knights by
means of which to control the purse-strings
during a strike They Issue the orders.
.
live in clover. while the great body Of the
strikers arc suffering for food. 1t is passing
strange that men who have wit enough to know
night from day permit this sort Of thing to 20
on Every experience tells the same story.
Nobody ever heard of a strike that accom-
plishcd any good, that did not punish tho
strikers with infinitely more severity than any
one else. It really would seem as if the time
had come for the workmen to take their own
business into their own hands, and to absolvo
themselves from an allegiance which has IN
Hictcd upon them such heavy and general in
Jury, which lacks honorable and usually even
honest motives. and which is doing moro to
deprcss wages, to drive capital out Of the coun-
try. to discourage new industries and to de-
grade the laboring people than any other
agency except rum