The Lafayette gazette., 1902-08-02
The Great Pis Strike.

Washington Post
It's a long lane, says the proverb, that has
turning, and history cannot hereafter
record that the r lie industry has been with
ont n strike. One began in New York this
week, the local Pie Bakers Union deciding
that It's members might better he withou,
work and wages than get up and go at their
tasks at midnight, as the employers insisted
they should. The employers declined to relax
their rule because if they did not begin turn
ing out their ,oothsome products till 7 in the
morning, the union demanded, they could
not supply their customers in full by noon,
and some of the pies would be stale before
the rext days crossed the meridian.
This last touch shows that the human
conscience must be in it's renaissance in one
industrial field.
Now, a strike in the pie market of a great
city is pretty serious thing. We are wont
10 make sport of this one Wand. probably
because it has a monosyIlabic name that
makes almost as much of a mouthful the
| substance itself when one eats for love.
| Blu. it is really serious part of the daily
diet of millions of good American citizens.
1t would not be dangerous wager that
more men eat pie than read the Bible
| regularly. Even those pernickity folk who
swear that they could never abide pie
because it is SO vulgar must be watched lest
they indulge themselves the sly.
We do not know whether Eve tempted
| Adam with raw apple or with one sliced
and cooked in pie, but should not be
astounded at learning from the sacred
archaeoogsts that fruit whose allurements
he could withstand in its natural form might
| have proved too seductive for resistance
when done up with sugar and cinnamon
between layers of laky crust. Blu, whether
it goes back to the Garden not, is of very,
very ancient origin. Out of the Dark Ages,
! for example, comes the tradition which
links n,nce pie with Christmas, doubtless a
survival of primitive Christianity. which
taught great religious truths chiefly through
symbols. The meat typied the flesh of
| the at the blessed stable in Bethlehem,
and of the sheep which were herded where
! the star was fiI ST seen: while the species and
| fruit sympolic of the frankincense and
myrrh of the Magi and the food of the earth
for and beast. 50 strong the
popular impression of these occult mean
ngs ,ha, for a long time the c,,ng of mince
pie was a standard test of orthodoxy.
In more modern history ard letters pie
! has played most important par. One
! English King died of ealing too much of
/ it. There stories that Washingt, n 5 soul
fort,tie,! Valley Forge Ivy the pies
easi: ,nally sent from home, made after the
favuri,e recipe brought to him by Martha
Gusts l''rt 't her wedding dowry and sill
pres, rvei >acrcdly in the Lee family:
Emerson, perhaps the greatest moral philo-
sopher and csSayis, America produced,
, devoted to pie that he ate il for
) brc rkfast. Miss wilkins has the
witcher> of romance abont it. We have
| male it 1h. emblem Of everything delicious
| in politics which comes the result of stall
wart work and timely standi ng around.
But to return TO the strike. Here is a
where dscontentcd labor holds the
! public at its mercy much the ba, Der holds
| the millionaire with razor at throat. 1t ran
make crusts that will not break under the
| hammer. 1t can put CustarI where currants
ought 10 go, and prick the lid of dried
peach medocrity to make it sell for Il
cherry dream. 1t slip tartar emetic
into the pantry shelves of scab factory
If it stops production, there is no last year 5
| reserve in the country for the employers to
draw upon, for the dining car has practically
abolished the railway restaurant of
childhood.
We certainly commiseraie New York.