The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1900-06-07
The OfhCial Paper OF San Juan County.
THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1909.
CUTTING PROsPERITY's THROAT.

"The people who cannot let well
enough alone are ever with u.s." OBJ
serves the st. Paul Pioneer Press
whenever a goose is found laying gol
den eggs, there seems always somebody
at hand ready to kill it. Whenevera Ger
tain class of manufacturers find all
their machinery busy, all their shops
full of workneii, and the demand fol
their products larger than they can
supply, they remain no longer content
with the fair margin of profits which,
with big sales, is making them rich,
but they forthwith proceed to advance
prices, check the demand-which III
most cases is found to have been SO
large only because previous prices were
reasonable-and so invite a return OF
stagnation. And now, when certain
enthusiastic trade unionists find that
their wages are higher than ever be-
fore, hours shorter and the conditions
of employment pleasanter, they forth
with proceed to organize strikes to inn
pose new rules upon their employers,
without considering that if said rules
shall be enforced the employers will
generally prefer to cease doing bust
ness, thus depriving the strikers not
merely of the high wages before cur.
rent, but of any wages whatever.
"The past eight or ten months have
been marked by some of the most ex-
traordinary developments of this pro-
pensity to sacrifice real, solid and pros.
pectively long continuing prosperity tC
u thirst for rapid gains. or to the prOpa.
CATION of absurd theories, ever known
in American history. Among manu-.
featuring industries, the most prom.
nent instance is found i'm the iron and
steel trade. Prices have been forced to
such extortionate figures that building
operations all over the country have
been checked, and countless projects
which could have been carried out at
the prices prevailing year ago, and
which were high even then, have been
indefinitely postponed or altogether
abandoned. Iron and steel prices are
again declining and it is not improb.
able that they will reach a point which
will render it possible for man who is
not capitalist TO build q home.
"NeXt to those aimed by corporate
greed, the blows directed To prosperity
by great strikes for the propagation OF
certain extreme theories, as to the
amount Of control to be exercised by
worlingmen over the conduct of their
employers business, are the most no.
ticeable. Take, for instance, the strike
of the building trade at Chicago.
There, with an eight-hour day con.
coded and wages at figures named by
themselves, some forty thousand work.
ingmen have voluntarily remained idle
for more than three months in order to
secure n certain kind of recognition
and the enforcement of certain rules
which the employers almost unanim.
ously declare would he fatal to their
business. No objection is made by the
latter to union labor; they even agree
to recognize each union separately, and
to contract with its representatives
But they will not recognize the "build
ing trades council" or agree that con
tracts made with individual unions
shall be rendered void by sympathy
strikes The direct loss of wages t.
Chicago workingmen since the begin
ming of the strike cannot be less than
ten millions of dollars. The loss to the
business of Chicago has probably bee,
ten times that amount. And all, prac
tically, incurred in support of mere
theory-a theory, too, which I'm it
practical outcome, if admitted, would
mean the subsection of the whole bust
ness of the country to the control o
the trade-union organizations"