Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-02

| meat cutters and metal polishers. There
| are brotherhoods of Oil and gas men, and
also Of painters and paperhangers. Every
householder knows Of the plumbers union.
and every publisher those which deal with
| printers and pressmen.
There are all sorts of railway organiza-
tions, there are saw smiths and sptnners.
shipwrights and stage employees and unions
Of tailors, timers and tin-plate men. In
deed. / might go through the rest of the al
phabet and give numerous unions under
every letter and include only those which
are national in character and cover the
whole United States.
Millions Lost In Strikes.
These labor unions are better organized
than ever before, and their leaders bave
| enormous power to the Inauguration or
the prevention of strikes Their demands
for higher wages and better conditions are
| steadily advancing and within the past few
years the strikes have materially increased.
According to the figures of the labor bu-
reau here at Washington there have been
| more than twenty-five thousand strikes in
the past twenty years, and these have in
yolved a loss to the wage earners and their
| employers of about s4O0. 100000 The losses
of the workmen have been more than twice
those of their employers. They have
amounted to over $500 100000, and have
caused more than 6,0O0,000 Idle workmen.
During the same time the lockouts have
affected more than half a million workmen,
resulting In wage loss of about SoOOoo'-
600.
| OF the above strikes about one-half sue
ceeded; some were partial successes and more
than one-third total failures. The strikes
! Of the past year have been more than
| usually successful. Times have been good.
orders plenty, and the employers could not
afford to stop the factories. They have
given In to the men and wages have risen.
l H. l~@~1
| Establishments are cutting down their forces
and some are reducing wages. Whether
| these changes will cause new strikes re-
mains to be seen.
5000 Factories Against the Unions.
At the same time an association Of manu-
| facturers has been formed to oppose what
| they claim are the exacuons of the unions.
| This Is said to have membership of 5000
| factories, each of which contributes $50
| year toward the movement. 1t is rapidly
| increasing IN size and is extending its work
| to all parts of the country. 1t has estab-
| lshed a publication and information bureau
| at Indianapolis and. like the trades unions,
| 1t is doing missionary work in advocation of
| its principles. The head of this association
| is David M. Parry Of Indiana, who Is also
| president OF the Citizens Industrial Asso-
| citation Of America connected with 1t. These
people claim that the labor union is nothing
more than a labor trust, designed for the
benefit Of its own members at the expense
| OF the public. They stand for the non
union man and for the individual and es
pecially for the rights of the employer
against organized labor. They are for tho
| open shop and against boycotts black lists
| and strikes, claiming that all differences
between employers and employees should be
| settled by any amicable method that will
preserve the rights Of both parties.
The Civic Federation.
Perhaps the most powerful force now or
ganized for the prevention Of labor troubles
| is the National Civic Federation. This is
| composed of prominent employers of labor,
the heads of the great labor unions and
| number of leading thinkers representing the
| public. These men meet together in cohven-
| tons at certain fixed periods to discuss the
| differences of labor and capital and how
| they may be amicably settled. They have
| an executive committee, which tries to
| bring the employers and employees together
wherever there is trouble, and this has al
| ready settled many strikes and prevented
others In 1902 the Civic Federation averted
O strike of 10000 workmen in thirty paper
| mills, and it had settled eleven coal strikes
| before the troubles in the anthracite fields
began. Its members did what they could
| in the anthracite strike, but We're unable to
succeed. During the present year their
work has been much greater, embracing
labor difficulties of many kinds, report of
which, l am told, will soon be given to the
public
Representative Men From Everywhere.
The Civic Federation embraces the lead
| ing thinkers Of the United States. Its ex-
| ecutive committee Is divided into three
| groups of twelve each, one group on the
| part of the employers, another on the part
| of the wage earners and third on the part
| Of the public.
| The representatives of the public are such
| men as ex-President Cleveland. Cornelius
| N Bliss, August Belmont Charles Francis
| Adams, Oscar Strauss Archbishop John Ire
| land, Bishop Potter. President Eliot of
| Harvard and John 6. Milburn of Buffalo.
The employers are headed by Senator
| Mark Hanna, and with him are men like
schwab of the steel trust. Underwood Of
| the Erie railroad, Nixon of the United
| States Shipbuilding Company, Marcus
| Marks, president of the National Associa-
| ton of Clothing Manufacturers; Charles H
Taylor, jr., president Of the Newspaper
| Publishers Association; H. H. Vreeland of
the street railway and others.
| The labor leaders are equally strong
| They are headed by Samuel Gompers of the
! American Federation, and have such mon
| as John Mitchell of the United Mine WorA-
srs, Theodore ]. Shaffer, president of the
| Amalgamated Iron and Steel Association;
| James O'Connell of the American Machin-
| ists Henry White of the Garment Workers
| and John Tobin of the Boot and Shoe
| Workers Union.
| The president of the Civic Federation is
Mark Hanna. The vice presidents are Sam
uel Gompers and Oscar Straus, while Ralph
NJ. Easley is the secretary.
Trusts and Labor Against the Public.
All these combina,. ms are chiefly for
| labor and capital. Their differences are to
| be reconciled What the average man
wants to know is where the public is to
come in. How about the consumer who
pays the bills? Every body's business is no.
| body's business. and while the representa-
| tives of the public in the Civic Federation
are men of great force they have not the
| vital pocket book interest of employer and
| employe. The laborers want high wages,
the manufacturers can satisfy them with
| out personal loss by increasing prices and
| the public carries The burden.
| lnoeed, the combinations of capital as to
prices are now organized as never before
| Nearly every trade has it's association,
| which meets together to stifie individual
| competition. There is wholesale druggist
| combination which represents ninety per
| cent of the jobbing trade of the United
| States The members of this meet and de-
| eide just how much we shall pay for our
| pills, powders and bitters and eenecialIv