The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-08-27

M EM ~ I " ter lifted TOR ORA
= :; e 8 8: !: !; !: !:
\ NM&ALl matte effects, and
N v we do not see the
W. : ~ the stage is that
it is such ticklish subject for the play
wright to handle.
The strike is quite modern affair.
In the olden time the workmen were
actually OF virtually slaves. A strike
was an instruction, and instruction
meant death certainly and torture prob
ably. Nevertheless, though they had no
strikes, they got up some very respecta-
BILE limitations, as for instance that of
Spartacus.
With motley army of gladiators and
slaves he held the Romans at bay for
two years, defeated four consular armies
and only failed Of final success because
of the intractahle nature Of his troops
The French revolution first took active
form in strike. When the workmen
in paper manufactures in Paris struck,
early in 1880, wealthy capitalist told
them they, could live as well as they de-
served on fifteen cents day. There
upon they mobbed his works and burned
them, and the example was contagious.
Labor movements IN England are usu-
ally dated from Wat Tyler's rebellion.
The movements of Jack Straw, John
Ball and Jack Cade are also counted
'.labor troubles" During all the ages of
aespotism it was the custom to send
such agitators and conspirators as were
not executed to labor in the mines, and
fugitives often went there for conceal
ment. They continued their planning
and plotting under ground, and the re-
suit was that the miners were first and
most thoroughly organized of all la
borers.
Thus did Gustavus Vasa organize the
miners of Sweden who helped restore
him to power. In England the miners
of Cornwall were SO early and SO thor
oughly organized that Cornish mob
was long a national terror. It is be-
lieved that some of these organizations
centuries old continued with only a
change of name till they became the
Mollie Maguires of Pennsylvania. In
1850 the British parliament passed the
famous sStatute of laborers"-the first
of long series of acts to prevent rise
in wages.
After the great plague, all old con-
tracts being at an end and lands calling
for cultivators, the wages of men rose 80
per cent. and those Of women 100 per
cent. in a few years. Then a long and
in the end terrible struggle began. The
first rage of laborers seems to have been
directed against machinery, and the first
sawmill set up in England was torn
down by the whip sawyers. This move
ment against machines went to such
lengths after the Napoleonic wars that
it amounted to rebellion, and $4,000
"Luddites" were in ranks at one time.
A half witted lad named Judd, who
had been leased by some boys, pursued
them into shop, where they took refuge
behind lace mill. In his rage he broke
the machine to pieces, SO the proprietor.
in order to fill his contracts, had to re-
employ the women who had been dis
placed by the new invention. There
upon the other women of the lace dis.
trict gathered in mobs and smashed the
rest of the lace mills, the men followed
it up on all machinery which had dis
placed their labor, and the once famous
'Luddite war" was begun. One fact
must be acknowledged-all the advance
laborers have secured has been the re-
suit of their combining and resisting.
It is humiliating, but it is fact.
In 1884 the great strike of the London
tailors occurred, but they were beaten.
The next strike, in the Stafordshire pot
teries, was won by the men after des-
perate struggle. The great Preston
strike of 1853 attracted the attention of
the world. Forty-nine cotton and other
mills were closed, and before the strike
ended 1879 paupers were added to the
list. The men were defeated.
During all these years parliament was
investigating and legislating, and the be-
neficent ''factory acts" and colliery laws
were passed. Women and boys under
fourteen were no longer allowed to be
put in the mines. Child labor was abol-
ished in many trades and greatly limited
in others. Wages rose slowly but stead
lily for twenty years, and the percentage
of pauperism declined one-half.
Thomas Cooper, known as the "Last
of the Chartists," died July last. In
early life he was prisoner in Stafford
Jail two years for advocating 'The
Charter yet for the last twenty years
of his life he had enjoyed far more priv
ileges than he asked for at the start. At
the time of the queens jubilee it was es-
timated by the most conservative British
statisticians that the common people
were 80 per cent. better fed, 40 per cent.
better clothed, so per cent. better hous-
ed and 250 per cent. better educated
than when Victoria was crowned.
Still there were strikes-of 10000 col
Tiers in 1867, of go, 900 Welsh laborers in