New-York tribune., 1901-07-20
TIE NEW FASHION IN STRIKES.

President Shafer of the Amalgamated Asso-
ciation seems to have builded his strike upon
the sands. In his speech at Wellsville he said
that he was not managing strike In the orul-
nary sense Of the word, and it is apparent that
he is not. He is clearly desirous OF preserving
order and of gaining his ends without any dls-
play of physical power or by picketing or by
other interference with the mills He forbade
any attempt to annoy workmen who might take
the place of strikers, and gave his hearers
timely temperance lecture. For this he Is
entitled to credit, not the less because the
course he advises, quite aside from its morality
evidently seemed TO him more polite than the
drunkenness and rioting which so frequently
accompany strikes.
The ordinary strike. however much its leaders
may profess respect for law, is almost bound TO
result in a hand 10 hand contest at the mills
Picketing and boycotting are so necessary, II
the employer resists and tries TO operate inde-
pendently. that labor leaders defend their right
70 take such measures. When, therefore, a
strike is organized on an entirely different
basis II Is probable that other resources are
relied upon for victory than those which the
workmen themselves possess in the nelghbor-
hood Of the plants, when at the last resort
they can do nothing but boycott and pass
on to riot In deprecating such strike ana
avowing his belief in the possibility of victory
without ii Mr.. Shaffer made no secret OF the
foundations of the new order of strike, which
he thought had no need of support from pixies
and cobblestones. These foundations are the
stock market and politics The theory was that
the capitalists could not afford TO see the steel
corporation securities go down, and that the
political leaders might also be reckoned on to
make the steel manufacturers yield. so there
c.ralrn III
that was necessary was TO refrain from work,
keep In prospect a Stock Exchange panic and
political sore spot. The octopus itself. feeling
vulnerable financially and politically, would do
the rest.
The octopus however, is disappointing. Steel
stocks STAY down and the capitalists seem I'M
troubled Mr. Morgan unequivocally declares
that no compromise will be made on the ques-
ton at issue, which is not one OF hours or
wages. but of the right Of the manufacturers
TO continue in their non-union mills conditions
making the free labor endurable as against the
demand of the union that it be established III
those mills on terms which, while nominaliy
permitting the employment of the non-unlon
men, would practically force every man to join
the association for self lfprotection. His decla-
ration disposes of any reasonable expectation
that either stock quotations or timid politicians
can frighten the corporation into apdlcatlng lts
own management Of its own property. The
sands are already sinking beneath the new
fashioned strike. The question arises
What VIII the strikers do when they see that
neither in brokers' offices nor political head
quarters is their fight carried on for them, as
in the beginning they expected 1t would be?
VIII they recur to old methods and attempt by
force to keep the mills tied up? Many Of the
manufacturers plan to reopen on Monday. The
attitude taken then by the association members
will show in a measure if Mr.. Shaffer's new
and reformed kind of strike is anything more
than the old sort under restraint so long and
only so long the prospect of victory by out
side aid was cherished.