New-York tribune., 1901-08-12
STRIKE TACTICS.

With the opening of new week at the steel
works il may be possible TO estimate how
many of the men called out by PRESIDENT
Shaffer of the Amalgamated ASSOCIATION are
prepared TO follow in his footsteps. once more
the possibility of trusting labor organization
will also be nut TO the test The old complaint
Of employers. both in England and Amer
ics has been that there was no use making
contracts with unions. for they could not he en-
forced Whenever their business could be
made pawn in the game of the union against
somebody else their contract, which they were
faithfully observing, would be disregarded Mr.
Shaffer. in calling for a general strike OF Anal
canated Association men who have previously
signed agreements with the companies employ
ing them. has given employers in general one
more reason not TO bind themselves by assum-
ing obligations which are accompanied by no
recognition of counter obligation on the part OF
workmen to keep their word
Before the general strike is under way the
manufacturers have struck heavy blow. The
dismantIing of the Devices Wood mill at Nc
Keesport is A hard lesson TO the people of that
CITY of the dangers of allowing themselves TO
be ruled by an anarchist Mayor They cannot
expect that a manufacturer will be willing TO
retain his works in a town whose authorities
announce that they will throw into prison per
sons whom he may employ without the consent
of certain other workmen. He will naturally
move where his property will be protected ana
the ordinary rights of American citizens 10
work on such terms as they find agreeable are
upheld. How much ground there may he Tor
the rumors that other steel plants are to be re-
moved and that the steel corporation will turn
its attention TO Tennessee and Alabama as r.
possible new centre Of IT'S industry it is i'm
possible 10 saw The McKeesport removal Is.
however, a warning 10 be needed. There are
limits 10 the extent TO which owners will abdi-
cate control of their own business, and ap-
parentlv the American manufacturers have no
intention Of letting the industry in this country
be handicapped by the tyranny which has made
production uneconomical and competition difh-
cult for the English steel mills. They Will not
let themselves be put at the mercy Of an ir-
responsible organization which does not respect
its own contracts. and will always maintain a
sufficient number Of open plants 20 assure in
dependence either where they are now located
or in regions where trade unionism has not yet
made free labor impossible.
This movement in the direction Of disman-
fling mills must give the most sanguine striker
some anxiety. Ordinarily he may expect, even
if beaten. 10 go back to work and live as he
has lived But if in his town there is no longer
a mill he will find no work, and must tear up
his home, and at great loss establish himself
somewhere else. where his labor will find a
market That is a worse fate than seeing the
mill open with new men, for then there is still
prospect of getting back to work after a little
time When however, an industry on which a
town depends shakes the dust Of that town
from its feet the situation Is indeed calamitous
for the inhabitants. Employers have. however,
shown an increasing tendency to resort to that
policy In the last few years several railroad
and other shops have been novel because of
labor difficulties. A union may stop manu-
facturers work. but 1t cannot make him re-
| sumo under conditions intolerable 10 himself