Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-09-07
The Causes of Strikes
BY Frederic \. Haskin

Washington, d. c., Sept. 4.'-One Of
the most important features Of the
strike problem is the different causes
that bring on strikes and lockouts.
because they are the point that must
be attacked first in any attempt at a
solution; they are also worth study be-
cause they are changing with time,
and any element of live problem that
changes from decade to decade is like
~ to give key to the forces back of
the whole and a hint of the future as
well.
Practically all the early strikes were
wage strikes pure and simple, Most Of
the strikes of today are wage strikes
also. But the proportion of wage
strikes to all other strikes is great
deal smaller than it once was, and 1t
is getting smaller steadily. In other
words, while wages are still the big
issue, other points OF difference have
come up from position of negligible
Importance to one where they cause,
taking them all together, almost half
the strikes. If the past is any key to
the future. these other issues will be
increasingly important in the future.
All the very early strikes in Ameri-
ca were wage strikes except few
that might be classed under the head
of strikes over working conditions"
Most of these were freak strikes and
most of them were successful. For ex-
ample, the workers in a New England
shipyard struck with great indignation
n w hni
discontinued the daily allowance of
whisky. This ration of grog was a
time established institution in some
trades and the size and number Of
drinks which the shop was expected to
serve out would make a twentieth cen
fury advocate of local option open his
eyes. Cutting off the grog was a step
received as stoppage of the supply OF
drinking water would be received in
an Office today. Nevertheless, the high
principled shipbuilder carried his point
defied the strikers, and launched a
vessel into the laying of whose keel
no drop Of alcohol had entered.
When the first employers organiza-
ton began to be formed in the early
years of the last century, a new cause
of industrial warfare came UP in the
question of unionism. 1t was the force
back of number of lockouts, a lock-
out being unders God to mean a condi-
ton equivalent to strike, except that
the employer shuts down instead Of
being forced to shut down by the &C.
ton of his men. The employers or
CARNATIONS used the lockout as 4
weapon against the unions, which were
just beginning to take root in the
laboring class. While, as stated before
the wage question has been the princ-
pal cause Of strikes the question Of
unionzation has always been the prin.
cipal cause Of lockouts.
The bare figures and statistics show
that strikes have been very much
more frequent than lockouts. The data
collected by the federal bureau of la.
Dor shows that there were $1,000
strikes as against 1,50O lockouts for
the period under observation. The
figures as they stand are not fair to
labor however. An employer can often
force the burden of aggression on to
his employees, even when he is the real
cause of the tie up. For example, if the
dispute is over wages. he can hold to
the old scale, or meet a demand for
an advance with a reduction He can
thus practically force strike, but so
long as he keeps his shop open and is
willing to work on his own terms the
tie up can not be classed as a lockout.
Up to the last quarter of the nine
teenth century wages and unionism
were thus the most important causes
of strikes and lockouts. Two-thirds of
the strikes in this period were wage
strikes. Another cause was arising.
however. in the new issue of hours Of
labor The change in manufacturing
conditions, the step from the home or
the small shop to the big factory. nat.
urally brought up this dispute. Hours,
moreover, we're very long. There are
records of several strikes for the
right to stop work at shutdown; and
the ten hour day became common
issue. Labor did not fare we'll in the
early years Of this new controversy,
owing chiefly to the continual influx
of cheap immigrant labor from Europe