El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-19

age can De employed in a store after 10
o'clock in the evening or for more than
10 hours per day or 81 hours in a
single week. They are also prohibited
from working before a. m. or after
10 p. m. in any factory. workshop
manufacturing, mechanical or mercan-
tile eSta Enlistment. barber shop, boot
black stand. public stables. brick OF
lumber yard, telephone exchange. tel
egrapn or message office, or in the con-
struction or repair of buildings. or in
any wage industry carried on in tene-
ment or other houses.
Do STRIKES PAYs
The recent bitter labor struggles in
Leith, Dublin and Cornwall have
aroused all England to a sense Of dan
ger from the use of the strike as a
indianapolis News Labor conditions
IN England are not so satisfactory as
IN the United States. Discomfort among
the trades unions has been widespread
strike several years ago. when the
government deemed it necessary to call
out the troops, there has been a feel
ing Of intense bitterness between the
unions and what they mistakenly term
the "capitalistfc class" When the
Dublin riots were in progress not long
ago, England became greatly agita ted
lest a general strike should develop
This fear led to a discussion in the
newspapers as to whether strikes
paid, and if so to whom were they
profitable
Naturally a vigorous defence came
from considerable section of trade
unIonlsm- But even in this quarter the
opinion was against the employment
of a general strike. Two of the most
SagaciOuS contributions to the London
Morning Posts symposium came from
Prof; William Smart, member of the
FACULTY OF the University of Glasgow,
and A a. Mitchell, free lance" econ
omlst These writers analysed the
strike question and discerned what Ia
N ell ~
estS OF employer ana employee are not
antagon1stlc, but mutual, and that
what harms the one harms the other,
no matter what Immediate appear
that England's wealth consists not of
stores, of boards of gold and Jewels
capable of being confiscated and dis
tributed without diminution in value
England's wealth is its going value
Its productivity Its capital is in
vested largely in productive enter
prises and to continue to be capital
this wealth must make returns. a
constant flow of income is needed, not
only to remunerate the investor, but
to recompense the workman for his
A strike stops this. and a general
strike aims at the stoppage of the
entire productive flow of the nation.
a strike Injuries the productive instru-
ments, and the injury is reflected in
rent. profits, interest and wages. Prof.
Smart says:
w nile every educated person agrees
to the entire desirability of rising
wages, and, think, expects that wages
will rise with the natural growth of
wealth as they have done in the last
century, 1t is very questionable wheth-
er they can rise by a method which,
for the time, puts a stop to the Droduc-
ton of wealth altogether, and, what
IS more, Injuries the very sources of
that wealth. It is a little like miners
forcibly preventing the pumping and
Yentilauon Of gold mine, with the
idea that, when the mine is unwatered
and cleared-months later-they NAV
get as wages a larger proportion Of
the gold which wil9 again come up
the shaft. OF all the fallacies with
which we economists have to fight
perhaps the most persistent is that
which thinks that wages come out of
employers pockets"
Mr.. Mitchell points out that the pub
lie. whether in the case of an individ-
ual OF general strike. is the sufferer,
and the striker is a part of the public
The encouraging agreement reached in
nearly all the letters-those from
economists and Iaborers alike-is that
the general strike is Injurious to all
This comes as a comforting assurance
to England, which of late years has
been sorelY harried by sympathetic
strikes which verged on demonstra-
uonS of general proportions The
consensus of opinion. as far as these
letters are concerned is that general
strikes, sympathetic strikes, even
strikes Waged in many single in
stances, pay neither employer nor EN-
ploye, but constitute a national loss.