Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-12-20

l
He says that 1871 strikes were won. 233
compromised. 1914 lost and It's are pend
ing The cost to laboring men is fig
ured at $2,SOO,0OO Mr.. Gompers says:
| Much gleeful speculation has been in
dulged in by our opponents in what
they are pleased to characterize as
| slump in the organization Of wage
earners. They would hail with joyous
acclaim. could they record the total ex :
| tinction and destruction Of our move
ment. They take JUNCTION to their souls
that the slight falling Off in member
| ship of the trade union movement for
a brief period was the beginning of the
decline Of the organized labor move
ment of the country"
During the recent labor convention in
| San Francisco, before which Mr..
| Gompers made the report from which
| we have quoted, the Socialists made an
effort to capture control of the Ameri-
can Federation. They cid not succeed.
but they have started campaign
against the organization which may re-
suit in things Of great Importance.
Without exception the Socialist papers
are now denouncing Gompers and
Mitchell as tools Of the capitalists"
meaning that they are in favor of
maintaing the present economic and in
dustr;al system, which,, according to the
leading Socialist organ of Chicago. ''can
never give justice to the wOrkingman"
| Mr. Parry was more than cheerful in
his New York address. He thought
the country had reason to rejoice in the
growing numbers of the open shop be-
cause 'if trade unioniS.n should become
dominant in this land, cur industries
would languish and our streets would
be filled with idle people" He quoted
from a recent report by the government
bureau of labor which showed that
during the past 20 years there have
been $1,000 strikes Involving a loss Of
over $500, 100000 to employees and em-
ploycrs the greatest proportion being
to the employees" and he asked the
country to think Of :his enormous loss
to its industrial interests and see II any
offsetting benefit can be seen for the
cause of labor.
II will he noticed that these rival
leaders. in speaking of the losses ssuf-
fered as the result of strikes, mention
ONLY the loss to employers and employ
es. These losses are large enough,
even in these times when, as Andrew
Carnegie said in his address before the
Civic Confederation, eve note with
satisfaction that peace reigns in six
sevcnths of the industrial world" But
a greater loss in almost all strikes is
that which feeds upon the innocent
third party, the public. Little is said
about this loss when a strike is in pro-
gress. but it is nevertheless real loss
arG one that often causes widespread
hardship. If the lois to employers
and employees hy the strikes Of the past
20 years has been 800. O00, Cno. this vast
Sun; would have to be multiplied sew
eral times to find out the loss to the
general public.
To emphasize this point. the Kansas
City Journal brings up the case of the
commission which examined into the
great coal strike Of two years ago.
Tl:at body gave the cost Of the strike
by adding together the wages lost and
the value of the coal that might have
been mined. But this total was trifiirg
when compared to the real cost Of that
curately known. How many industrial
enterprises Mere shut down during the
prolonged struggle? How many work.
irgmcn wholly unassociated with the
coal industry found themselves idle?
How great was the cost in physical
suffering, in the advanced price Of coal,
and in the general disruption Of bust
ness? No man can answer these qucs-
tons with accurate statistics, but
every man knows that the sum total Of
loss was many times more than the
loss to coal employees and coal employ
ers. Neither side to the irrepressible
conflict between employer and employe
pays the slightest attention to the pub
lie. Indeed. the strikes are usually
forced just at time when these inter-
ests can be most greatly damaged. on
the idea that the more the public suf-
fers the quicker it's power will be ex-
erted to make the employers come to
terms. And the thought which ought
to take possession of the popular mind
} is that labor troubles are more the con-
Germ of the public than of either en-
) ployers of employees and that the pub
} lie ought to keep them under control.
Moreover the money loss to the en-
ployers. the employed and the public