Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-07-08
The Outcome of Strikes.

lucTe Will COue udy Wuou tuat luiAoIiOy
Of the people which inaugurates strikes
will be compelled to relinquish this pastime
for the good of all concerned. Even now
the rank and file of the trade organizations
are heartily sick of the business, and are
forced with ever.increasipg reluctance to
relin quish their work out Of loyalty to their
leaders. If it were not for the master work
men and walking delegates who are every
where stirring up antagonisms between the
laborer and his employers for the sake of
magnifying their Office and manifesting
their Importance the strikes would be few
and far between. The workingmen of or.
binary intelligence has already come to
know both from observation and his OWL
bitter experience that his interests are not
promoted by contests of this character. All
the community suffers and the struggle is
often costly one for the employer, but the
heaviest part of the burden in every case
comes upon the laborer thus driven into
idleness.
In summing up the expenses of strike
it is customary to count the unemployed
hands and the wages that might have been
earned; then to add to this amount the loss
of profit and interest on capital supposed to
represent the cost to the employer, and
finally to estimate the damage to the public
interests in the suspension Of the business
thus checked by the withdrawal of the work
men. But all these items together some
times make but small part of the aggre-
gate suffering from the paralysis of ser
vice upon which the community is more or
less dependent. Take strike on railroad
leading to the stoppsge of trains on promi-
nent line of travel. The loss of wages to
the brakemen, switchmep, conductors, en-
gineers and fremen who are laid aside and
the cessation of receipts for The conveyance
of passengers and freight often make large
sum beyond question, but there are other
deprivations far beyond any arithmetical
computation. Not only large material in
terests are involved when business men are
cut off from the facilities of travel, and their
freight, often perishable, is left in piles I'M
moved at the depot, but the agony of friends
summoned to attend the sick and dying or
to bury the dead who cannot answer the
call and thousand other considerations,
some of them dearer than life itself, make
up an aggregate of suffering which cannot
be expressed in words.
No man who employs union hands is
safe in any kind of business. He may SUBJ
NIT to the most extreme dictation, hiring
only such help as a committee from the
lodge permit him to engage, turning out of
his service every old, faithful hand who has
not a union card, buying all his supplies
from union dealers who sell only the label
ed articles, and carting them to his place of
business on union carts with union drivers;
one day it will all 60 for nothing. He has
committed no offense; he has swallowed ev-
cry loathsome morsel prescribed, and borne
with patience every offered indignity. There
is not a flaw in his record from the initial
page to the period of the last entry. What
is the matter? Why, there is a quarrel
over something Thousand miles away and
general strike has been ordered. The head
centre has spoken and the men must all
leave his service. Down go their tools, and
out into idleness marches the whole process
sion. And if single man is fool enough
to be faithful to his employers interest and
to keep his place, he must be discharged
before any of the rest will return.
The public are becoming tired of this
everywhere, and there is but one remedy.
No man who employs labor of any kind can
feel a moments safety as long as his help
belong to union whose officials may order
them out of service at any moment. He can
make no binding contract with them. They
are not free to consider only his interests
and their own as intertwined in their SER
vice. They are working for him, but are
virtually slaves to another and very i'm
perious master who rules them with rod
of iron. This whole system must be brok.
en- up and the serfs must be emancipated.
1t is utterly intolerable that set of work.
men may not continue in the service of an
employer if this is their mutual desire. The
union enters the premises of man in bust
ness and says to him, "You must discharge
every workman who has no permit from US
and take on lot of hands of our choosing;
aud you must buy all your supplies from
concerns on our list; and you must recog-
niZs our orders in the entire conduct of
your establishment; and if you fail in any
particular we will ruin you if we can &C
compish it." Our fathers fought for more
freedom than this, and if there is any love
of liberty in their children they will not
much longer submit to such rasping tyran-
ny.-N. Y. Journa. of Commerce.