The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-10-27
BOLTON HALL TELLS
HOW TO WIN STRIKES
Strikes Have Helped Labor.
Better Conditions Have Been
Secured by Them.
Fear of Strikes Has Perhaps
Profited Labor as Much
as the, Successes.

Bolton Hall, the we'll known friend
Of labor and writer on economics, in
recent letter to the New York Journal,
said:
To say that strikes have not helped
labor is almost to stamp one as on the
side monopoly, because the wish is so
often father to the thought.
The fear Of strikes, with their dis
turbance of business and attendant
anxiety, has perhaps profited labor as
much as the actual successes.
On the other hand, it is stupid to
deny that strikes are imperfect wea-
pons against organized monopoly,
which can wait while labor starves.
Like the hunger strikes Of Russian
political prisoners, labor strikes usu-
ally involve more suffering for the
strikers than for their OPPONENTS. \
In the time of peace we must pre-
pare for war, and if the sum that will
De spent by labor on the next great
strike were expended now in acquiring
lana the success Of the strike would
be assured, and the necessity for more
strikes would be largely avoided.
unemployed for the last ten years in
Philadelphia and in other places, and
this year in New York City, shows that
not only men, but even women and
children, many of them incapable of
other work, can draw a years living
from a little patch Of land during the
summer months
This is in spite of the uncertain ten
ancy and the small size of the lots.
which make it impossible to have hot
beds or greenhouses, or properly to
fertilize the land
Each labor union might buy 2 farm
or farms containing 10 acres for, say,
each 20 Of its members. Such farms
could be used at once for the out-of
work and superannuated, and be made
to pay their way.
Ihls is not new idea. About 1898
Typographical Union No. of New
I ork did lease a farm at Bound Brook
N. J'' Tor their unemployed It did not
pay probably because it was worked
comparatively instead of giving eacb
Individual the entire proceeds Of his
own labor, but it did cut in two the
ulllon mat year, besides saving the
members from the competition of their
fellows and from the continual small
loans which 1t is impossible to re-
luse-or recover. The farm was aban-
ooned only because there was chanee
ol administration In the union, and the
next management repudiated the old
one and all its works together.
When the union owns the land and
strike comes the unmarried men
ana those who have a taste for gard
enlng, or who have large families can
be sent out to the farm and at once
become independent, beginning at anv
tlf'e from March until July. Where
ellere IS good management a part of
the Land can be used to produce food
for those who remain near the far
tories.
Other uses may be found for some If
the land, as stone quarries, CLAW nits
gravel beds, timber lots, oyster pla MT
ing or clam digging. Supplies and
tools can be bought comparatively. 81
tnat, with rent cut out, the living ex
penses OF the strikers will be inmens-
ly reduced,
Suitable land with buildings can ho
nau IN abundance within 80 miles Of
new York City and within a mile or
less from railroad stations at from $50
10 SloO an acre. Easy terms can be
mad, and, if wisely selected the sale OF
part of the land in a few years will
pay for the whole of it.
AS an immediate practical step each
| union should appoint a committee to
examine and report upon existing ex-
per1ments In the cultivation of vacant
lots with reference to the avai1ahi,i+v
| OF the principle to the aid of labor
ooi'eohe must make a beginning ON
every new idea.