The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-17
NO SYMPATHY FOR UNJUST STRIKES


This strike, which began three months
ago, involved no question OF wages. It
was ordered because the Jackson Archi-
tectural Iron works declined to discharge
an engineer, who had been fined $50 by
the union for some alleged infraction of its
rules. The union asked the iron works to
discharge the man, the company refused
and the strike was ordered. The fine was
finally paid and the strike declared of.
Then new strike was ordered against the
company because 1t employed some nom
union men in its shops, and the men were
ordered out ON all buildings on which the
firm had a contract for IRON work. Then
the Iron League took up the fight for the
Jackson Iron Company and resolved to
lockout all the housesmiths and take back
only such men as were not union men.
Then strike was ordered against
all buildings in which President
Cornell, of the Iron League, had contracts.
The public cartmen and engineers were
ordered ont on their buildings. Then the
Building Materials Dealers Association
ordered general lockout of all public
cartmen. Then strikes were declared
against the Building Materials Association,
and Is, 900 people were thrown into idle
ness and l25 buildings tied up. The brick
Layers who refused to join the strike were
forced out by the non-delivery of material.
Finally the trainers returned to work in
body; the public cartmen threatened to
do so, so the walking delegates declared
the strike off, seeing they could no longer
hold the men. Nothing was gained by the
men in this purely sentimental strike to
offset the loss of from $500. 900 to 81, OO0, 600
in wages, besides the exhaustion of the re-
sources of some of the unions through
payment of strike benefits. There was no
question of wages or hours of labor in
the strike from beginning to end. nor did
the workmen complain of any grievance.
The walking delegates subjected the men
to all this loss and suffering simply to
satisfy the tyrannical determination of
the walking delegates to discipline the
employers for refusing to discharge a
faithful servant who declined to pay his
fine.
These sixty-six walking delegates, who
wantonly inflicted this loss of million OF
dollars in wages on 10000 workingmen
have been drawing from $50 to $40 a week
apiece for six weeks, or almost $14, 900,
which the men have had to pay in addi-
ton to their loss in wages. The walking
delegate alone profits by these strikes. In
v,Io ErO liSh III doll
gate is the worst kind oftyrapt; an incom-
petent despot. 1t was the story Of Mar tin
Irons and the great Southwestern strike
of 1856 over again on small scale. Fiji
teen thousand men without q grievance
threw themselves out Of employment SIM
punish an employer for refusing to dis
charge man that union did not like.
The failure of the great building trades
strike and the failure of the strike among
the Carnegie workmen are fresh illustra-
tons of the lesson that no great strike can
succeed which is not sustained by public
sentiment. The position taken by the
managers of the strikes was so completely
indefensible that when the general public
clearly understood the cause of the quarrel
they lost all sympathy for the strikers.
The contention of the strikers has been
that trades union has a right to control
the business Of the employer; a right to
dictate whom the employers shall employ,
to III the rate of wages, and prevent by
resort to force if necessary non-union men
from working on any other terms.
When the public found out that 10000
workmen in New York city had been
ordered into idleness because an employer
would not discharge a faithful employee at
the demand of a "union," all fair-minded
men lost all sympathy with the strikers.
So at Homestead when the men published
an official proclamation insisting that
they had a right to continuous employ
men. on their own terms the decent pub
lie had no further respect for their strike.
The American people know that the de-
mands made by Martin Irons. Powderly
and Gompers are inconsistent with
the maintenance of business and
social order, and whenever great
strike has been based on the
right of the workman to manage and
direct the business of the employer and to
prevent the employer by force if necessary
from hiring non-union men, that strike
has always failed because it has insulted
the decent opinions of the American
people.
The American labor unions need to get
rid of that most expensive aud oppressive
tyrant and incompetent despot, the walk
Ing delegate. who orders sentimental
strikes on the basis of injustice and per-
secution TO the employer SO palpabie that
from the start the strike is foredoomed 10
failure, OF the necessity for reform in
labor organizations. which are now under
the control of the worst elements, the New
York Ersnin9 Post says:
There ought to be associations of working
men. They have proper province. They can,
IL wisely managed, not only DO OF great Serv ice
to their members through cooperative efforts
for mutual advantage, but they eau also bring
employers and employed nearer together pro-
mote better understanding by each side of the
other, and prevent disputes from developing
into warfare. But this is only possible when
wisely managed-that is 10 say, when they are
conducted about differently from the prese Mt
must learn how TO remodel the union. or the
union ''must CO."
The utter dishonesty of the advocates
for free coinage of silver is illustrated hy
Texas, rabid free coinage state, which.
while determined 10 make other people