The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-08-29
AND STILL THEY STRIKE.

A press association dispatch in yester-
day mornings TRIBUNE thus reads:
mine hundred men will be out on a
strike tomorrow in the works of the
American AK and Tool company"
While the dispatch does not state the
cause of the strike it must be assumed
the question of wages is the moving one.
Now it will be remembered the special
industry in which this company is en-
gagged is one of the most highly protected
among those favored by MI. Mckinley
in his tariff. And then it will again be
remembered that it virtually has a mo-
nopoly of the ak and tool manufacturing
business in the United States. Putting
these two facts together it is surprising
to the average observer that the employees
of the company should find cause to
strike. The company being the head
and front of a gigantic trust and in a
measure controlling the business of a
highly protected industry should GER
tainly be able to give it's workmen liberal
wages or, if they ask it, fewer hours of
labor for a days work. But it has done
neither. 1t probably proposes to reduce
wages. At all events nine hundred men
have struck and are out of employment.
Speaking in horse parlance it may be
said that strikes are sired by grasping
corporations and monopolies, and they
by a high protective tariff. Monopolies
like the American AK e. Tool company
backed by unlimited capital and strength
ened by an unequal tariff are in a posi-
ton to name the amount of wages their
employees shall receive. When trade is
brisk and everything goes all right,
which means that the regular per cent
dividends are declared and paid, the
scale of wages are kept at living rates
and workmen are supposed to be con-
tented, if not happy. But when bust
ness becomes depressed, the markets
dull and trade slow, the first thought,
object and care of the monopoly are of
its dividends. These must not be di-
minished. They must be kept up. TO
do this a pruning down of expense is in
order, and this means a notice to work.
men that a reduction of 5 per cent or 10
per cent in wages will be made. A strike
follows, the works are either shut down,
or run on short help, or with a full force
OF "scabs' supported by a sheriff
and his deputies or ! corps
of Pinkertons. in the mean
time the glutted protected market is
of its surplus, overtures are made
to the employees for a compromise, the
half-starved workmen accept the offer.
terms are made satisfactory to each
party, and the works reopen at full blast,
the company having maintained its divi-
.ends, while the poor laborcrs must
work for months to square up debts in
Cured during the strike, This is a COM
mon everyday picture, not overdrawn
in the least, but true to nature in every
particular.
That strikes are the legitimate fruits
Of a high protective tariff is shown by
the fact that a labor strike or a tramp
Was not known in this country before
the enactment of the war tariff of 1861
That tariff and its successive amend
nents; each made upon the rising in
stead of the falling scale, have bred mill
onaires, tramps, paupers, and strikes.
The Mckinley tariff will increase the
Of each, for the cry is: "Still
come!'