Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-20
Strike Benefits Manufacturers.

0LTlkc 6eueutS manufacturers.
| In some respects the present strike will
be of advantage to the manufacturers, for
nearly every company has it's warehouses
! filled with manufactured goods for which
| there Is comparatively no market, and
| this respite will give them an opportu-
nifty to overhaul their machinery and
avoid the pay roll while waiting for bust
ness to improve. The depression began
| last winter and has continued for more
| than nine months, with scarcely half the
normal demand for goods. Sales have
been limited TO the actual necessities of
! the retail trade. and for the year will ag-
gregate about 30 per cent of the average
of the last five years.
notwithstanding these conditions very
few factories have shut down. Manu-
factnrers over here are much more con-
siderate of their employees than those of
he United States, and they have con-
tnued to pile up goods in their ware
houses rather than discharge their oper-
atives. All of them have been working
on more than half time, and to reduce ex-
penses have given furloughs wherever
there has been more than one member of
the same family on the pay roll In that
way they have given their operatives
something to live on and at the same
time kept them together.
Unions Resisted Wage Reduction.
About the LIST of July the Employers
Federation decided it would he only fair
for their employees to share with them the
consequences of the depression of trade
and asked them to consent to a per cent
horizontal reduction in wages. The prop
| osition was promptly refused by the Of
ficers of the several labor unions. 1t was
renewed with notifications so as to take
effect on the 1st of January next. The
total pay roll of all the factories belong
ing Il. the Employers Federation is about
s7I0.fO0 week, SO that the proposed re-
ductiOn was only S7JOO, comparatively
an insignificant sum.
The employees belonging to the labor
unions. who are chiefly men and represent
only about ~ per cent of the total num-
Der of operatives in the mills. voted twice
by ballot. Nearly - per cent of the total
number Interested. consisting of women
ami girls were not allowed a voice in
the matter. but are supposed to have
been represented by their fathers, broth
ers and husbands. who cast their ballots
almost unanimously against the reduc-
ton. When the first ballot was found to
be overwhelmingly in the negative. the
proposition was modified so as to leave
the question Of d restoration Of present
wages to be determined by the state of
trade on the list of next January. If
there is an improvement wages will not
be cut down: ii there is no improvement
the operatives from the highest to the
lowest are asked to share the loss with
OF their earnings all around.
Many refused to vote On both occa-
siOns. fearing the resentment Of the union
leaders and agitaors. The results of
the two ballots were as follows:
LIST ballot. ID ballot.
Total votes It.Glt lI,SOt
Against reduction l'.9l6 1857
| In favor OF reduction. l,:al 4.l0t
Majority against. -.-... l4.6l3 S.l14
Labor Congress INTERVIEWED.
| proposition would have been accepted
| with pledge from the employers as
| ISOLATION that the present scale should
| be restored soon as the market would
permit but for intervention from out
| side unions The annual national labor
| congress met at Nottingham while the
vote was pending. and the delegates. who
represented almost every line of indus
| try in the United Kingdom, made a
unanimous remOnstrance and used all
| their influence against any agreement
| whatever. for fear that manufacturers
| elsewhere would follow the example of
| those in the Manchester district and a
| general reduction of wages would occur
| throughout the kingdom
| This was perfectly natural inference.
and from their point Of view the labor
congress would have invited universal
| reduction of wages if it had done any
| thing to encourage the Manchester spin
| uerS and WeaVerS to yield.
General Reduction Going On.
| 4 general reduction is going on all over
| Great Britain. caused by the commercial
depression which prevails everywhere in
Europe Other strikes are threatening
! in various trades. The Labor Gazette
| shows that during the month of Septem-
Der the wages of 1:?.90D workingmen and
| women in the kingdom were cut down
| from :; to 10 per cent. The managers of
| the great industries are not only reduc-
| ing their payrOlls but are discharging
| many of their hands. The stationary en-
gineers after a struggle. have submitted
| to a reduction of a shilling a week and
2E, per cent on time rates. The boiler
| makers. the united machine workers and
| other trades are now considering demands
| from their employers for a ) per cent re-
! duction. which will undoubtedly be in
| sisted upon. The tendency OF wages is
decidedly downward, and II the ecployes
| of the cotton mills had submitted without
| fight it would have been useless for
| any of the other trades to resist.
Three Million Incomes Affected.
Hence. following the advice of the OH
Gals of the federated trades. II 900 of
the 10000. or a little more than 10 per
| cent of the persons involved. refused to
have their wages reduced and struck.
| This involves SpinnerS, Weavers. bleacherS,