Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20
HIRsUrE INDEPENDENCE.

THE DISPATCH has often stated its op.
position, on general principles, to strikes.
The grounds of that opposition are so well
known to our readers that we need not re.
peat them here. But some strikes are
justifable; and among that class we hasten
to rank the strike for which the hotel
walters of Boston are massing their forces.
In this position we do not discard the
maxim that strike is industrial warfare.
We rather base it on that principle. War
is so costly and ruinous resort that the
majority of the wars in history were
simply crimes against civilization. But
sometimes war is a duty, and eminent in
the catalogue of necessary wars are those
in defense of independence and liberty.
Supposing that some power should under
take to dictate to the American people
how they must wear their hair or what
clothes they shall select. Would the
American people of course,
that fashionable class which hugs foreign
fetters-be ready to fight for its tonsorial
and sartorial independence? Such an
issue is that which the Boston walters are
preparing to fight for by the warfare of a
strike.
Two hotel proprietors have issued an
edictto their walters that they must shave
off their boards. The beard has been a
token of liberty since the tribes uncon-
quered by Grecian and Roman civilization
were given the name of "Barbaroi," which
survives in its completed sense of 'sbar-
barian." Was it to be expected that de-
scendants of the bearded men of Gaul
and the Allemani, now plying their voca-
ton of eliciting the elusive tip almost with
in sight of Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill
would submit to such a manifestation of
sumptuary despotism. The beard of the
juggler with hotel crockery is as dear to
him as the hirsute magniicence of any
other man. If the hotel walters will not
strike for their boards, we should be op-
pressed with doubts as to their striking
for their altars and their fires. The only
amendment that we can offer to the
walters course is that they should adopt
the method of Iouchstone, and when in
formed that their boards do not suit the
hotel keepers reply with the 'tquip
that their boards are cut to suit
themselves.
It is subject of national mourning that
the cradle of American liberty should
be the spot selected by hotel keepers for
this invasion of the rights of the solicitous
gentleman who makes the warmth of your
breakfast bear due proportion to the
p romptitude of your fee; but it is COM
pensation that Boston still possesses the
spirit of popular independence. We hope
that the Boston walters will emulate the
example of their predecessors not only in
off the. supply of tea, but coffee
and all the rest of the bill of fare as well,
until the naughty hotel keeper who seems
at present to be emulating the pride of his
clerk, learns that mans beard is his
own, whether he be waiter or wayfarer, at
The price of $40 per diem with extras for
fire and washing.
If the revolt of the walters goes to the
length of raising the professional spirit
and eschewing tips, their strike will COM
nand the united support of all the patrons
Of hotels; and the hotel keeper who does
not yield to their terms will find himself
under disastrous boycott.