The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25
THE cosT oF nIc sTRIxEs.
Anlazing Faets ana Figures About Labor Disputes Here and Abroad.

AMaMDk88 E&GtH ana Et8GKfA A00Mt
 Labor Disputes Here and Abroad. Tit-Bits.
 The conclusion of the engineers dis pute. which has lasted seven months and which cost the mems union 32,000 pounds, not to mention $6S6.000 loss in wages, recalls the famous engineers strike of 1897.
 The strike just ended affected only 14.000 men, who fought against an all-round per cent. reduction In wages. The result of the light is that they have prevented half thls reduc- ton. and if this half, which amounts to SIP pounds los per week Is counted as gain to the men, 1t may be reckon ed that it will take them over thirty three years to make up the amount they have lost In obtaining 1t.
 In the 1897 affair 10000 men laid down their tools to try to enforce an eight-hour day.
 They failed, aSer a seven months try between 6,000,000 and 100000 pounds. while the Amalgamated So- ciety of Engineers paid out strike money at the rate of bttween 10000 and 50.000 pounds per week.
 Another record engineers strike e was that which ended in 1885, after lasting two and a half years. This strike, however, only affected the en- Rineers of Sunderland, and cost over 100000 pounds.
 The present dispute in the cotton trade Is the biggest that has ever oc- cured in Lancashire. No fewer than 123,000 operatives are already affected, and the dispute, if prolonged, must lead to the stoppage of 10000 work CTS.
 The strikers have huge funds, the war chests of the two unions amount ing to three quarters of a million. For the first week of the strike, however 50,000 pounds must be disbursed in strike pay. so that the unions win be seriously crippled If this industrial war continues.
 In 1897 the masters. as in the pres ent case wanted to reduce wages by per cent. The men resisted. and af ter a couple of weeks the demand was abandoned by the masters.
 In 1878 the masters demanded re- ductlon of 10 per cent. and a strike and lockout of 12o.0o0 ensued. It last ed a month. and is estimated to have cost the workpeople over 2,00O,OOO pounds in wages.
 This was the Penrhyn affair, which lasted from October. 1900, to Novem- Der, 1903 and was a complete failure. AS a matter of fact the quarrel be- tween the late Lord Penrhyn and his puarrymen had begun as long ago as 1863. and there had been numerous partial strikes previous to the great one.
 During the three years s64,OOO pounds was lost in wages alone and, whereas at the beginning of It we imported no slate into this country, at the end ships were bringing in over 1900 tons of foreign slate a week.
 The dispute between variety artists and music hall agents recalls the strike of 1908. when over 1000 artists. musicians and stage hands struck ow- Ing to disputes about contracts. This strike cost over 5O.000 pounds. while nearly 32.O00 pounds was forfeited in wages by the strikers.
 Although twenty years have passed since the great dock strike, when S0,- 900 men went out for one penny an hour extra wages, London has scarce ly recovered from the effects of that strike even now, while the strike on the Caledonian and North British Rail- ways in 1S90-91-when the police and military authorities wtre in conflict for hours together, day after day, with thousands of infuriated men and wo- men driven to desperation by starva- tion and the threatened loss of their homes-is a foretastt of what might happen in the case of general rail- way servants strike.
 The States have furnished us with even more remarkable examples Of the disaster which follows coal and railway strikes.
 The coal war of 1902, when 250, 900 men were Idle and coal famine en-