Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-22
LEARNING A LESSON.
Matthew Marshall. Sees a Benefit
Resulting From Labor Troubles.
PRECAUTIONS ARE NOW TAKEN
Against Possibilities of Violence in Strikes
and Lockouts.
THE PROPER ADJUSTMENT OF WAGES

NEW YORK, Aug. 21.-'The Adjustment
of Wages" is the title of Matthew Mar
shall's article for to-morrow's Sun, which is
as follows:
Profiting, evidently, by the lesson of the
Homestead labor disturbances, the author
ites of this State have taken timely ant
effectual precautions against a similar out
break at Buffalo. To the cavilers who com
plain that the means employed are dispro
portlonateiy large for the end, it is enough
TO reply that in such matters it is better tc
err on the safe side. When force is brought
in TO prevent or to subdue riot it must be
sufficient for the purpose. or it is worse thar
useless Unless it can overawe and crush
resistance, it only stimulates it and make:
necessary in the end a greater effort thar
would have been successful in the irs
instance. The public peace at Buffalo has
been preserved and the property of the lail
road companies has been protected, and
whatever the cost has been, it is not so gresi
as might have been that of repairing single
nights damage by a mob.
The discouraging fact connected with the
troubles at Buffalo, as with similar troubles
elsewhere, is that any force at all should
have been required to maintain order
Strikers for higher wages always have the
sympathy of the mass of the people, and il
the demands of the Buffalo switchmen had
been we'll founded, the Inconvenience re-
sulting from their attempt to enforce them
by refusing to work would have been cheer
fully endured.
Friendly Feeling Killed by Fore.
When the men went beyond this and be-
gan to burn cars, obstruct trains and threat
en- to destroy tracks, they killed the friendly
feeling with which they were at first re-
garded, and now that their acts have COM
PEELED some thousands of their fellow citi-
ha
hardships of military duty, they inspire
positive enmity. II they shall, in addition,
be able, by threatening demonstrations to
intercept the food supplies of their seaboard
fellow citizens, they will make themselves
still more odious.
This danger OF q revulsion of public SYM
pathy, whenever q strike produces wide
spread Inconvenience, seems to have been
overlooked lately by more than one Govern
ment official The Sheriff OF Allegheny
county and the Governor of Pennsylvania
both had to be impressively warned of it
before they took the neediul steps to restore
order at Homestead. The Governor of Ton
nessee was so bound to it that he ignobly
surrendered to the armed mob that was mak-
ing war on the State troops. The Sheriff of
Erie county needed. too, considerable urg-
ing before he decided to do his duty. In
cheering contrast tn these examples is that
of our Governor Flower, who has acted
promptly an efficiently, and has thereby
saved lie and property to an untold amount,
as NClA as tuS leputatlOu vi StAtc
Nothing Can Blot 1t Out.
While, however, we have thus demon
strated the possibility of restraining strike
of large dimensions within its legitimate
limits. nothing can blot from the record the
TACT OF the strike itself, nor repair the losses
which have naturally resulted from it, both
20 the strikers and TO their former employ
ers. The strikers have lost the wages thoy
might have earned and their employers the
profits of the business which the strike has
partially destroyed. Add to this the ex-
pense to which Erie county has been put,
and the personal sacrifices of the soldiers
and it makes a total which it is not gratify-
ing to contemplate.
In view OF it, and in view of the losses
caused by the greater strikes in Pennsyl-
vania, Tennessee and Idaho, as well as by
the less extensive ones which, have just
ended in this city, it is not surprising that
the ingenuity of kind-hearted and thin king
men should be stimulated to devise means
Tor preventing the recurrence of snch
caIamities in future As poihted ont last
Monday, the difficulty OF the problem oon-
sists in the difficulty of concilisting the two
Numerically opposed interests of buyer
and seller, which, from the beginning of the
world, have been in conflict. The buyer of
labor wants to pay for it as little as possible,
and the seller of it to get as much as pos
sible. In small transactions the difference
is adjusted by some sort OF compromise be-
tween the extreme demands of the two
parties or by what Adam Smith calls "the
higgling of the market"
Difference Between Labor Troubles.
When a single workman throws up his en-
ployment because his employer will not pay
HIM the wages he asks, or in some other re-
spect refuses to comply with his demands,
he is in principle as much of a striker as
when he is one of thousand men doing in
concert the same thing. The only difference
is that the single employe can talk over the
matter with his employer, and if the two
cannota agree, they usual y disagree amica bly,,
whereas in the case OF a large numDer OF
men this is impracticable, and the negotia-
tion has to be conducted by a committee,
which are not so easy to deal with.
When, too, a single seeding employe in
dulees himself, as sometimes happens, in
assault and battery, malicious injury to
property, or arson, he is universally pro-
nounced criminal and punished accord
of men join in committing similar crimes it
seems to paralyze the sense of Justice, and
an effort 10 punish the criminals is by many
regarded as persecution. Arbitration in
most cases is suggested only after a breach
OF law and order has been committed and
not before, in defiance of the plain common
sense of the fact that men who have severed
their relations with their employers and
have commenced hostilities against them
have no valid claim to the benefit ofa pro-
ceeding, the very foundation OF which Is a
willingness to settle dispute in u friendly
manner.
Beside the difficulty of adjusting disputes
about wages where large numbers of men
are concerned, caused by the very fact OF
their numbers, further complication has
of late arisen, growing out of a dissenina-
tion of the idea that the wage-earner is in
some sort partner in the enterprise for
which his services are purchased, and enti-
tied to a share of its profits, either liz the
form OF a percentage OF these profits or in
that OF an increase of wages beyond those
that he would otherwise receive. Thus
Senator Palmer, OF Illinois, propounded
upon the floor of the United States Senate
chamber the astonishing doctrine that the |
Homestead mill men had become, by virtue
the Carnegie Steel Works, and had right to |
the possession of them as against the COM |
pany that built them and paid for
them: This same proposition was
by the Christian Union of this city. |
1t is also formally recognized by President |
Ingalls,, OF the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- |
way Company, who, in his annual report to |
the stockholders, graveIy suggests that the |
employees of the company should receive of |
its surplus earnings q percentage upon their |
wages equal to that paid upon the capital |
stock. |
The idea upon which all these propositions |
are founded has long beon familiar to labor |
agitators. 1t is expounded at length by |
famous work. Capital" and noticed only |
q day or two ago prominent strike mana |
ger is reported ms saying that "workingmen, |
As the producers of wealth, are insisting |
upon being larger sharers in it,"
No Adjustment as to Profits.
The proposition is true so far as the de-
mands of workingmen, for higher wages and |
shorter hours can only be met out of in
creased profits, but that wages are properly |
to be adjusted by reference to those profits |
peremptorily deny. That n wage-earner is
in 20 respect whatever a part owner in his |