New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-03-29
HOMES OK STRIKES.

Near every city or considerable town in this
favored country may be seen thousands of little
| homes The houses are not large, but afford COM
Portable shelter for happy families. One is the
home of carpenter. neat. thrifty, not without
| shrubs and flowers to make it homelike. An
other is the home of a laborer, whose narrow
wages with economy and care have blossomcd
into vine covered cottage. These homes like
many thousand more, have been bought from
the Wages of the workers. If the husband had
smoked one more cigar or drank couple OF
glasses of beer each day for ten years, and the
wife had preferred other comforts instead OF
saving all these years, the home might not have
been possible But thousands are there with
the home-lif and children in each. Whoever
pleases can find multitude of such homes not
far away In New-Jersey outside three cities
not one family in ten is without dwelling 10y
itself, and great proportion of them are owned
by wage eaners and the same is true IN other
States all over the country. That is one side
of the picture. 1t shows what men who please
can do with the wages they already receive in
this country.
The other side of the picture is the strike IN
certain Eastern textile mills and shoe shops, the
struggle at the thread mills near by, the rcduc-
ton of wages in many iron manufactures, the
disastrous strike of colSe-worlers which seems
TO be defeated, the struggle which has lasted a
year in which the mouders of San Francisco
have been beaten. Sometimes the battle Is for
higher wages or for new rules demanded by
labor organization. Sometimes II is TO resist re-
duction or regulations deemed oppressive. BE
the cause what it may, the result is always loss
just and kindly men are constantly asking
themselves on which side their sympathieS
should be- The life OF the laborer is toilsome
and hard. His advancement is the gain OF all
others because he is able to consume more free
~ Of the products Of others With wages enough
to become self-reSpecting citizen and to cd
ucate children in comfortable home, he be-
comes valuable member OF society. But the
most warm-hearted philanthropist knows also
that there is somewhere a limit in every oc-
cupatiOn. at any time or place. beyond which
wages cannot be pushed without disaster to all.
The natural presumption in favor OF the work
ers in such a c0ntr0vcrsy--nuSt it not be an
error, unless based upon knowledge that the
occupation can bear the wages which the work
erS ask?
Many branches of the iron manufacture have
DCei nnUCn ucptS>Fl ol Idtf, Hot DcN'i'S' VI IN
ces sive foreign competitions but because sudden
slackening in the demand for iron products. pant
| " the result of an unnaiufally great increase in
previous years leaves many establishments I'M
able for a time to continue production without
dmnuion of cost. The facts are not 70 he
! disputed, and vet the workers sometimes anGrily
| resist, and refuse TO believe that they are not
entitled TO as high wages IS they earned last
year SO in multitude Of disputes there is al
most always mere than one side Is it not worth
while 10 remember the thousands Of homes, a
| spectacle seen in no other country and to con-
slider whether the savings by which these homes
were created were not from wages lower in
nearly al past years than those now paid? Can
| it be said that labor is oppressed and ground
down under the system which prevails in this
land while these homes continue to multiply for
those who are thrifty and CAREFUL?
Arbitration ought to settle most OF these con-
troversieS, and would if the people directly in
| tcrcscd would consent 10 select arbitraorS who
have no personal or political or factioUS end 10
| serve. But il must be confessed with sadness
that arbitration hitherto has too often failed
Sometimes the employers are in fault. and some
times the workers have refused to abide by de-
cisiOnS Of the very arbltIatOrS they proposed
But two facts ought always to be kept in mind
and to make for peace in every controversy.
| War means loss for both. Peace. even as wages
have been in years past, means millions OF com
! fGr'ablc homes owned ly workers