The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-27
The Losses by the Building strike

The Losses by the Building strike.
The total direct and indirect expense
and loss caused by strikes in the building
trades Of New York city during the last
two years is beyond calculation. The loss
extends to the lumber forests and into
the coal mines and the iron mines. The
quarry, the brickyard and the limekiln
are affected. Potters, glass makers,
iron founders and makers OF paint have
all been losers Business has suffered
through the loss of sales as result of
the idleness Of thousands of wage earn
ers. Indirect but still appreciate loss
has fallen on cotton mills, hat makers,
shoe manufacturers, and real estate
owners who rent their property to the
laboring classes. Even the producers
of food have not been exempt from the
general burden. Transportation COM
panies have had to bear their portion.
Nor does this mean that the burden has
fallen solely upon those whom labor
sometimes sees fit to call its enemies -
the proprietor class The thousands OF
wage earners connected with these and
with many other lines Of industry have
also been victims
This is the story of The building strike,
and in greater or less degree 1t Is
the story Of all strikes. In all of them
the general public pays the bill, Some
day society will waken to full under
standing of the fact that it is not merely
a disinterested spectator watching an
arena in which dispute is going on be-
tween a certain group of wage payers
and a certain group Of wage earners.
Society will find that it has something
to say in the matter, and will say it. 1t
will find that most of the missiles used
in the contest reach the grand stand and
the "bleachers. Meanwhile, strikes and
lockouts are the whips which are flashing
society out of it's sleep and indifference.
Out of all the tangle and cross-pur-
poses Of the trouble in the New York
building trades, few features stand
forth prominent. Notable among these
is the fact that both sides, employers as
well az employees, are culpable. On
the part of the wage earners there has
been stupid, laundering and even crimi-
nal leadership supported by the folly
OF misguided adherents. On the part
of the wage payers there has been
blameworthy effort to utilize certain
groups OF organized labor TO serve theiI
own selfish ends. Unionism has sought
to establish labor monopoly by which
the non-union man would be debarred
! from work, and the employers have es.
saved cooperation with the unions tc
establish local monopoly of building
contracts. Society has watched the
game without understanding it and has
paid the bills.
The immediate financial loss has faller
on the wage earners rather than on the
wage payers. The former group has
lost the wages it might have earned
The loss can be counted in millions Of
dollars. The latter group has in many
cases been entirely or in part protected
bv strike clauses" in their contracts
The loss then fell on property owners.
Another object lesson is in the expert
enoe furnished to all three of the groups
concerned-to employers, to wage earn
ers and to the public. The business
of the employing contractors has beer
hard hit by the hating Of projected
building enterprises. II property own
ers dare not build, contractors must &C
out of business. Unsettled labor con
ditions inevitably cause losses agains
which strike clauses" cannot entirely
protect the contractor.
Unionism has suffered through the
losses sustained by its members, and b,
the fact that il has lost ground in its
struggle for the union shop 1t ha'
lost ground in that Organization o
labor in trade unions" in which Mr.
SAMUEL GoMPERs has declared that "ths
most benighted of greedy monopolists
of rapacious capitalists, sees the opening
OF new era in the progress of the move
ment for justice to labor" Societ,
measures unionism by it's visible fruits