The weekly examiner., 1901-03-23
LABOR IN SLAVERY.
Result of the teHigh Presgures syy
 tenn In the United States.


 A fact which Is very clearly com prehended by the British workman is what he considers rightly or wrongly his better position as compared with that of the workman of America. Per haps the very first change which will facing up to the iron competition of America and Germany is a reduction in the high wages paid in this country at present in the iron trades, through all its phases from the miner to the finisher. But one thing the masters British workman to do, and that is to work at the high pressure required of the American. To speak plainly, the conditions under which the American operative works are regarded on this side as involving a kind of slavery. Let not the American people think for a moment that the Briton considers himself inferior to any other In ability, speed or thoroughness. But when he reads some boast Casually of some em- ployer or trade paper on the American side) that the American operative at tends to four looms where the British CT only has two and that the output of iron per man employed is so and so much per cent greater in the United States than here he only exclaims, "Poor devilsr' He believes they do not achieve this result of their own good will. In fact, the Briton has body of direct statement to fall back upon from comrades who have been in America and claim to speak of what they have seen and felt.
 Now, in all this he may be wrong or partly wrong, but certain it is that be fore the British worker consents to
 work at such pressure as uses him up by the age of B many other expedients | will have to be tried. At this moment
 the cotton mill operatives in certain town are appealing to their employers through their trade organizations to
 close the factories at 1 o'clock on Sat urday afternoons instead of 2 o'clock, and, though it is denied, still there is
 good ground for believing that one Of the chief reasons for the demand is that the best places in the grounds for the famous football matches are all occupied in advance by the workers at other trades who are freed at o'clock. This illustrates one of the most striking and most persistent traits of the British workman, his love of sport and recreation. It has attained to such a point that now be claims recognition for it's exercise as a right. He will not consent to be a workman and nothing else.
 Also very notable as a sign of the growing consideration for all labor in this country is the motion made in the house of lords by the lord chief justice of his intention to ask the house to in-s quire into the number of hours which the shop assistants work. In this mat ter of pressure by oyerseers and hard driving by masters the intelligent Brit ish workman acquainted with the con- ditions on both sides of the Atlantic
 undoubtedly considers the American on lower level of liberty than himself
 That may not sound well in the ears of people who have been taught that l in energy and intelligence they are l bound to dominate the world, but neY- ertheless the Briton considers that en- ergy exerted beyond the limit of will- 1 ingness and human capacity based in l the duration of life is a confession of 1 slavery, and undoubtedly the trades 1 unions in this country have succeeded l in establishing, not by express order, l but by a common understanding among | the workmen of most various pursuits,
 standard of output which no new l conner can afford in the end to over l pass.
 The overdriving of the operative in America. the banding together of ern- ployers to crush out trade unions and
 the force of legal authority and power
 which can be brought to bear upon | strikers and discontented workers
 must eventually bring about social
 revolution in the United States; so say
 the best instructed British workmen, l to whom the America of the forties
 and fifties is no longer 'the land of
 the free" The immigration statistics of the United States, taken in conjunc- ton with these observations. are held l to be very eloquent. The British con- tribution of souls decreases, and if the contribution of goods declines little
 also that is a question of tariffs. the ! operation of which also profoundly af- l fects the American and British ways of regarding trade and It's movements. If to the ever growing preoccupation of a mighty empire Britain were to add protective tariffs with their com l pIications, such as those now affecting | the United States and Russia, heaven
 only knows how she should get through l.the days work. From that oppression free trade liberates her. and the Briton believes and fears that the peaceful l development of the United States may yet call for simpler tariff on her part. London Cor. New York Post
 No Militia For Strikers.