The weekly examiner., 1901-06-15


 been enormous already and will be greater as time goes on. But that loss, immense though it is and will be, the striking mechanics should bear in mind, these manufacturers can endure and still have enough left on which ''to fare supmtuously every day. ' With the laboring man, daily dependent for his food, his clothes and the support of his family on his daily wages for his daily work, the case is far different. He may, it is true, by union and through con- bining with his fellows, make demands on his employers which are just and right and which if not granted he can force by strike-the very conditions in which our mechanics now find them selves condition of enforced idleness and dependence upon the allowance by the union of weekly charity for the necessaries of life for wholly uncer- tain period-au of which of course en- tail at the same time immense loss in a business way to the employers of labor. But, after all is said and done, it will re- suit if the strike continues longer, in a much greater, more serious and disas trous condition for the mechanics them selves When the end comes, the me- chanics will find themselves, in very many instances, hopelessly in dept for provisions, back rent, and the thousand necessary items which ordinary living RTo oF II stipend will, even when the concessions asked for are granted, pay up these back debts. For those who then return to their employment in the shops it will take them many years of study, en- ployment and closer economy to pay up back. debts and get even again, while there Winbe some of them who will never recover. But, in the changed conditions of things, when the order of the uDion is that the strikers return to work, the strike being settled, what shall be said of the condition of those for whose hands the strike has left no employment What of the thirty or fifty per cent of those now out who, when the order to return to work is giv- en, find that there is no work for them to do? Will the union be in condition to aid such members to live until they find work? These are practical ques- tions which those now on strike should consider, when our manufacturers offer terms of compromise in their favor, and before they allow or direct their con- mittees to reject them. They cannot live forever on the sympathy of The Examiner, or of the general public, or the union in other cities, or the words of encouragement from the union heads in Washington or Montreal, or any or all of these. They are simply useful bridges to tide over in an emergency.
 The laboring man must, in the long run, depend upon his wages-upon the result of his daily tol1-for the support of himself and family. If he fails to secure employment his condition and theirs at once and forever becomes pau perized. He must, therefore, in a sell fish world, look out for himself and his own interests. He cannot afford to trust everything to union or a combi- nation, splendid aids though they are to forward his wishes. He must rely in the main upon his own senfible judg- i ment as to what is for his best interests, 1 and act upon it. He knows that manu- 1 lecturers can stand loss and live. He knows he cannot do either.