Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-05
STRIKES IN CYCLES
Statistics Show That the Epidemic
Comes Once in Eleven Years.
THEIR CAUSES and bow SETTLED
New York Has Six Times as Many
as Other Cities.
THE STORY OF THE FIRST ONE
Copyright, 1899, by the Author.)

Written for The Evening Star.
The recent strikes in New York, Cleve-
land and elsewhere, of the street car men,
the newsboys, the messengers and the gar
ment cutters, call attention to some re-
markable statistics compiled on this SUBJ
ject. 1t has long been the general impress
sion that Chicago was the greatest of all
strike centers, with the Pittsburg and Allie
gheny regions a close second. This, how
ever, is not the case. According to statis-
tics prepared by Carroll D. Wright, COM
missioner of labor and covering seven years,
New York had 2,614 strikes; Brooklyn, GIL:
making total for Greater New York of
1926 strikes, or an average of about 40
strikes every year. To compare with this
large number Chicago was afflicted during
the same period of time with 52S strikes, or
only seventy-five a year. Boston followed
with PSI strikes, and then came Allegheny
and Pittsburg, where the workmen in the
steel mills have made themselves famous
the world over as industrial fighters, with
251 strikes. Following Pittsburg comes
Philadelphia and other cities in the order
named: st. Louis. Cincinnati Milwaukee,
Lynn, Fall River. San Francisco Baltimore
and New Haven. m II:
But If New York; had the largest number
or strikes in severn years. it can at least
boast that they were not as violent nor as
extended as those Of Chicago. For instance,
in what is now Greater New York the en-
ployers' loss from 35strikes during seven
years was only little over 81. 600, 900, while
Chlcagos loss reached the enormous sum
OF ia 100000, giving a graphic insight into
the comparative violence of the strikers
in the two localities. Ina the same period
the strikers themselves lost in New York
about $15.000.0O0 while In Chicago the loss
was about Sl0,0O0,00O showing that the
strikers of the western city, to use a slang
phrase, got more for their money" than
q Nov Vnrtr ,,t1-
dollar that the New York strikers spent in
loss of wages and in assistance given by
the labor unions to cases of suffering thew
made the employers spend only 26 cents
On the other hand, the strikers of Chicago
for every dollar which they lost made the
employers lose $40; that is they beat them
In the contest of dollars. It may also be
SAID in passing that when Allegheny and
flttsburg have strike, 1t Is usually a
struggle to the death, the losses being Sc
we're on both sides, showing that fighting
comes natural to the blood of the PennsyI-
Naman Although these two cities had only
@oI Strlhes IN the seven years named the
employees lost 50, 100000 and the EMPLOYERS
lost nearly 100000.
Just Like Financial Panics.
Another curious fact which comes to
lght as a result of the present apparent
epidemic or strikes Is what may be called
the strike cycle" A financial panic is
supposed to come once in every twenty
years Statistics would indicate that a
strike epidemic is due about once in every
eleven years In the middle sixties, lust
iollowing the war, there were a large num-
per OF strikes all over the United States.
ABOUT eleven years later some of the BIT
tereSt railroad strikes of the world took
place in the United States This period is
stu known in the histories as the strike
year OF r.. Again, about eleven years
later, In the late eighties, came the famous
strike, beginning with the Chicago
burlington and Quincy, and finally inyoIy-
ing many other railroad lines-a strike al
i,'ost uhequaled in length and bitterness
ana now, IL the eleven-year cycle holds
good, 1t would seem that we are approach
ing another epidemic, and the fever of the
strike situation in New York and Cleve-
land, to say nothing of rumors of disturb
ances elsewhere. would indicate that the
cJ Gle theory was not unfounded In fact.
GIVEN any one particular strike, it is COM
paratlVeiy easy to compute all the chances
IN connection with it; how long it will
last, which side will win and. in a general
way what the percentage of loss will be
10 poth strikers and to employers In gath
9Tins MS statistics for thirteen years, Mr.
wright has shown that the strikers and
employers are about equally plucky az
nshters; that is. that they each stand about
equal chance of winning victory Statis-
t.cs were collected showing how many
strikes succeeded, how many failed, and
cow many partly succeeded The results
reveal the fact that 44.49 per cent of the
strikes We're won by the strikers; A % per
cent We're won by the employers that is
failed. The remainder, II % per cent were
Drawn battles, the strikers succeeding par
tiaiiy. 1t will, therefore. be seen that the
strikers nave just a shadow of better
chance to win any strike that they NAV
UNDERTAKE than the employers, but that
1ewer than half of the strikes are won, SO
mat the game of striking is as clean cut
pee OF gambling as one would wish.
u would seem, comparing American with
6tlIisn statistics, that American strikers,
WINE they are hard fighters. do not wage
glishmen. Their battleiqs sharp while it
lasts, but when it Is over they are willing
TO come together. Shake hands and make
statistics that very mitch larger proper
tion or strikes in England are left unset
tled than In America. Tt6r instance in the
won by the working pedpIe, 334 per cent
by the employers1 while the unsettled
strikes reached the larga proportion of 27.1