Workmen's advocate., 1890-05-24
STRIKES.
VIEWS OF LABOR COMMlS-
 SlONER CHAS. F. PECK.

The New Theory of Rights and Duties
 Modern Morality Justines Su.
 blime Discontent-Passiyity En.
 cOurages Eyil-lnter-capitalistic
 Sympathies, Etc.
 We made brief reference in our last issue to the coming report of the New York State Bureau of Labor Statistics and gave from advance proof sheets some interesting figures in relation to strikes during the last year. We now present the views of Commissioner Peck on this form of resistance to wrong under the capitalistic system. They will be found in some respects suggestively radical, and a marked progress as com. pared with previous utterances from the same source:
 The strike is war measure and has often achieved result, when appeals to liberality and good feeling have been utterly useless while the employer, who in times past would have peremp- torily dismissed as impossible an appli- cation for an advance of wages, reduc. ton of hours or easier shop-rules, has found the machine run more smoothly, and his profits quite as good, often bet ter, under system more in harmony with the new idea as to the rights of labor. It is not out of place to remark that the worklngman's newly recognized rights and the newly born theory of the employers duties, find at this time their place in all governments and are the most prominent social develop ment of recent years,
 In past times it used to be enioined on the laborer that his duty was to be content with the position in which he had been born. Ambition for self advancement was forbidden; it was kind of resistance to higher authority. The only ambition permissible to the poor was to join the clergy. Later mor- alists have justified sublime discon- tent" In these days, when a govern ment or business firm commits injus- tice or tyranny and will not redress grievances, we ask "what are we going to do about it?' Of course we know that there is duty of submission to law. But is authority acting legally, when it is perpetrating wrong? Submission to evil that cannot be redressed is a result of prudence or resignalion--not of equity or morality, All movements for redress of grievances are in the nature of quar- rel, within or without the limits of law, according to the nature of the contest and the relations of the parties. Those who submit to all wrongs for conscience sake are thought to have reached the highest plane of human motive; but there is a counter idea that passivity under injustice only encourages evil, which we are always bound to resist.
 AS war is the last argument of rulers, so the strike is the last argument of workers. It may not always be logical, but as forcible mode of assertion, it is eminently natural. The world moves and society moves with it. The work men, the producers whose skill and in- dustry contribute so enormously to the general good, think themselves entitled to better share and more equitable apportionment of the temporary result An extra quarter or half dollar per day Is not much to the employer, who can fall back on his customers or on society at large, but it is of value to the wage earner-while the reduction of labor hours means relief to the labor unem. ployed.
 A cause of strikc that arose in Pitts burg, Pa., this year, illustrates the easy indifference with which inter-capital. istic sympathies will shift the load to the back of labor. The natural gas con- panies finding 1t inconvenient or costly to keep up their service suggested that foundries could do more of their work by night. The foundry employers cheer fully consented to accommodate the gas companies. But the men refused to take any more night work than was absolute ly necessary and struck against the pro- posed change.
 Without seeking to excite prejudice against employers, it is evident to the fair minded observer that the question of ''rightful" or righteous wage rarely enters into the employers mind. Out side the factory he may be a philan- thropist. In the counting room he is a committee of one on ways and means.