New-York tribune., 1920-10-06
TheHgh Cost of
Strikes

duced. William B. Culver, Of the Fed
eral Trade Commission. publicly reports
that there Is sufficient coal and there
are sufficient fat cars to handle our
peak production of coal"
But during this spring these same
men have had coal just dribbled out
to them because of this half starvation
strategy of the outlaw railroad stri}<-
ers. For months they have had barely
enough or not quite enough, and al
most every day they have faced tn
spccter Of having even The dribble en-
Oh,
They realize that their having coal
or not having it depends on the whim
OF strike leaders, who are utterly ire
sponsible and without scruple. Such 4
condition is bound sooner or later to
get on the nerves of men that nave to
rave coal to run their business and
are willing to pay almost anything to
be sure of having enough coal at least
for a while.
Exactly the same situation existed
IN regard to most other goods and
materials. Thousands of manufactur.
ers never knew from day to day
whether or not tomorrow they would
have enough raw material to keep their
plants going. Thousands Of them had
their warehouses packed to overAowing
with balance of goods they could not
deliver, and so could not collect the
money on which they needed to run
their business. Such men, too, inevi-
tably sooner or later reach state of
nerves where they will pay anything
to get such raw material as is avail
able
Thousands Of carloads of ordinary
freight were sent at express rates
which further cut down the freight
traffic that came through and further
increased local shortage
There are many other industrial nerve
centers, and professional strike leaders
are learning more and more how to
pick them out with unerring accuracy
Here's one Of the simplest cases right
at home and right now.
The Painters Strike
Painters are rated only as semi
skilled labor, and they work more in
doors and more regularly than most
other building trades. 1t is fundamen-
tai doctrine in the building labor field
accepted by the men themselves as
axiomatic-that all the other more
skilled and less sheltered workers should
get more than the painters. If the COM
paratively small number of semi-skilled
painters win their strike for SO day,
that very fact will mean that tens of
thousands Of other more skilled workers
will be put in a position where, accord
ing to all fundamental labor ideas of
justice, they can demand at least s12
day.
Of course that is exactly the real in
side reason back Of that strike.
The public Is used to big, conspicu-
Gus strikes, like the clothing or the
coal or the steel strikes, where hundreds
Of thousands of men openly quit their
work and the issue and consequence
are conspicuous. Public opinion is
able to understand and Judge and deal
with such a strike.
But in q strike where seldom more
than a few thousand men are on strike
at q time, and they are scattered
where who the strikers are and what
the issues are are almost unknown, and
because Of that fact purposely mud
died, how can public opinion be aroused
or organized? Yet Chamber of Com
merce officials and other conservative
men familiar with the results all speak
of the cost of the outlaw railroad strike
in terms Of billions of dollars-far
more than the coal strike cost.
You can't always tell by the looks of
strike how far it's cost will jump.
(To-morro1o's article: "Strikes and tho
T., * >1~~< ns.5~>,hrt.o~ 81 1bo~Dl