Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-25
THE LABOR SUPPLY.
Matthew Marshall MOralizes on the
Modern Monopolizing of It
SOME OF HIS ORIGINAL IDEAS
On the One Topic of Universal Conversation
and Interest.
TIE GENERAL TREND OF HAPPENINGS
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

Marshalls article 1or to-morroWs 8 sun,
which is as follows:
Nothing worthy of comment has occurred
this last week in the world o. finance. The
indisposition of the public to engage in
stock speculation which has prevailed al
most uninterruptedly, both here and in
Europe, ever since the Barring collapse of
$780, is intensified by the usual summer abb
sence of moneyed men, and on Tuesday the
volume of transactions at the Stock Ex-
change was reduced to a degree of attenua-
tion the like of which has not been seen
before, except on the day of the blizzard of
1Sss when scarcely anybody was able to get
down town. Since Tuesday matters have
mended considerably, and che sales OF bonds
and stocks have shown a decided increase
and higher prices. For the sake OF the
brokers who have been having hard times
lately, it is to be hoped that the improve
ment may continue, but the harvests are at
hand, with the usual annual demand for
money to move the crops, so that question
whether a really lively stock market can
reasonably be expected before autumn.
The Richmond Terminal reorganization.
concerning which important news has been
daily awaited, seems to have gone to sleep
for the present, and it is unoff1cially an
nounced that its slumbers will not be broken
until circumstances are more favorable to q
resumption of activity. Certain it is that
none OF the heroes who have been besought
to undertake the rescue of the concern have
accepted the task, and no one now can pre-
olcp who Will accomplfshit
A Dull Week In Congress.
In Congress. the debate on the anti-option
bill has occupied the Ianguid attention of
the Senate, but its final enactment is doubt
ful, and the dread of its injurious effect has
very much diminished. There is no talk of
a renewal of the agitation for free silver,
and the exports of gold have ceased, prob
ably for this reason.
In this dearth of other exciting topics, the
attention OF f1nanciers and capitalists has
naturally continued to be occupied with
labor disturbances at Homestead and else
where. In common with all good citizens
their first desire is that order may De pre-
served and lawlessness repressed, while the
attempted assassination OF Mr.. Fr1ck has
Brought home to them a lively sense of the
insecurity, not only of property, but of
lives of owners of property, if the popular
hostility against rich men, of which wrote
a fortnight ago, be not restrained from
breaking out into acts of violence. 1t is
only just to the workingmen at Homestead
10 acquit them of direct completely in the
attack on Mr.. Frick, but the that fact small
army of soldiers is needed to protect the
newcomers at the mill from similar outrages
shows the spirit that prevails there. Here,
in New York, some Italians hired to unload
bricks have just been clubbed by the men
whose vacant places they took, and one
striker has been convicted of numbering,
last year, a "black sheep" whom he could
work. These incidents, following many
others OF the same nature, recounted by one
OF the Pinkertons in their evidence before
the Congress Investigating Committee,
deservedly alarm the owners of capital, and
excite in them an untriendlv feeling, to say
the least, against those concerned in them
No Resort to Crime Necessary.
Looking at the subject from the point of
view OF philosophical and dispassionate
observer, the violence which so often ac-
companies strikes is seen to be after all
sunerficial and unimportant in comparison
with the underlying purpose it is used to aid
in accomplishing. Attacks upon refractory
employers and their property and upon
workmen who refuse TO Join in strikes will
eventually, have no doubt, be suppressed,
not only by the public authorities, but by
the leaders of the strikes themselves, who
cannot fail, after awhile, to learn that they
injure their cause instead of helping it.
They will discover, as they have in meas
ure discovered already, that they need not
resort to crime to coerce employers into
granting their demands, but that there are
means within their reach more effective and
not prohibited by law.
The strikes of the last few years have in
volved more than the question of wages and
hours OF labor. They form part of a con-
ccrted effort all over the country to combine
into one organized whole the men who work
Tor wages, and thus to deal with employers
as a gigantic monopoly OF the commodity
most essential to tncm. In creating and
maintaining this monopoly moral pressure
upon the workmen who refuse to unite in it,
and strictly legal distractions to the busi-
ness of employers who resist it, are destined
TO play a more and more important part as
time goes on. For example, the strike now IN
progress at Homestead was begun because
some 500 OF tie superior skilled workmen of
Carnegie Steel Company demanded higher
wages than the company was willing to pay.
Besides refusing to work themselves. these
800 men induced 5000 other men, whose
WAGES were not in question, to refuse to
work also.
Possible Extent of the Trouble.
The extended strike having as yet failed
TO accomplish its purpose, other bodies of
workmen Tor the same employers have also
been persuaded to strike work, and, in ad-
dition, at various distant points, men not
directly interested have agreed not to
handle the product of the refractory en-
ployers for the purpose of making its sale
impossible until the demands or the orig
1nal strikers are conceded. Here in this
city, building operations are at this moment
much hampered, ana may soon be entirely
suspended, because a single firm of employ
ers has refused to discharge man in their
employment who has been expelled from
tie union to which he formerly belonged.
As a rule, union men everywhere refuse to
work alongside OF non-union men, and thus
many employers are compelled to restrict
their selection of employees to members of
unions. Since, too, refusal TO join a strike
when duly ordered by the officers of union
TO assist other strikes entails severe penal
ties, ending in case of protracted obstinacy
IN expulsion from the union, an employer
who engages in a controversy with one
union must make up his mind to risk q con-
test with all of them.
This is what the strikes now in progress
are coming to. If they are not settled by
some kind of compromise, and ii the en-
ployers persist in attempting to carry on
operations with non-union men, a trial of
strength will come between these last and
the union men in which both sides will do
their utmost, with the proba bility of an ul-
innate victory by the union.
B'ockades Up to the Present.
Up to this time many things have pre-.
vented the unions from perfectfng the
monopoly at which they aim. Their inter-
nal discipline is far from being SO complete
that they can always hold their members in
enforced idleness long enough to make a
strike successful. Too many workmen chafe
at being prevented from earning the wages
they need for the support of themselves and
their families and insist upon accepting
work when work is offered TO them. Beside
this, in great many occupations there are
as many non-nnion men as there are union
men, and the vacancies caused by strike
of union men are easily filled. This is es-
peclallY true of vocatlons in which little
training is required, as in car driving, coal
handling, and even. as we have lately seen,
street paving.
On top of ali is the vital defect of a lack of
honest and intelligent leadership. The Or
derlng and management of strikes REQUIRE
thorough Information as to the needs of en-
ployers, sound judgment in formulating de-
mands and great personal influence in pre-
venting conduct which, like that OF the
Homesteaders, tends to ALLEVIATE general
sympathy. From a want OF these qualities
in their leaders many strikes have hereto
fore failed, and more are destined to fail If
are lnopportune or unreasonable or accom-
panied either with violence or with a wanton