Evening star., 1925-04-07
The Building Trades Strike.

The local painters, paperhangers
and decorators are on strike. Inc
plumbers and steamitters threaten
strike, effective next month. Strikes
in the building Observation-Disclosures at
all times-are particularly unrortu-
nate in Washington now. The build
ing of new homes and apartment
houses gives promise of relieving ef-
fectively the housing situation which
has had the Capital City by the ears
ever since war descended upon the
Nation, in 1917. The promise of new
building is very great this Spring
and Summer. A new record has been
set for the first quarter of the year
in the matter of building permits is
sued
Wrapped up with the building prob
: lem is the question of rents and of its
corollary, the high cost of living. The
cost of building operations has been
an important factor in the increase
in rents and the mounting cost OF
homes to the prospective home owner.
ing costs labor has demanded share
of the increase, and has obtained 1t.
In the present situation labor is fight
ing, not a decrease in wages, but is
demanding an increase. From the
point of view of organized labor, the
time is ripe for such demands. There
is plenty of work. Leaders in the past
have recommended that no strikes be
called when workmen are walking the
streets looking for jobs. The time to
strike, they held, is when work is
plentiful and workmen scarce; which,
after all. is comparable to the belief
z of certain employers that wages can
De lowered with impunity when busi-
ness is slack and workmen are numer-
Gus.
1t is the consuming publics-the pa
tient public, generally-which suffers
end continues to suffer during indus
trial strife in Washington, as in other
cities of the country. 1t is the public
that pays the bill, one way or another.
in discomfort and in increased prices.
1t is for the public that The Star ex-
presses the hope that the present con-
flict in the building trades may be
short lived If the people of Washing
ton are to enjoy the comforts of home
in a measure comparable to conditions
which existed here in pre-war days,
then there must be continued building.
1t is the only real remedy, beside
which governmental control of rentals
can only be regarded as makeshift.
A demand for the 'outlawry Of
war is widely current today. In this
demand many OF the Industrial work
ers, or their organizations, have joined.
The strike and the lockout are the
weapons of industrial warfare-they
are, in fact, industrial warfare. With
out suggesting the outlawry of either
the strike or the lockout. the demand
may well be made by the public that
either weapon be used only as a final
resort-that every effort TO adjust en-
ployment differences through arbitra-
ton shall be made prior to their use.
Two facts stand out with increasing
vividness in the mind of the public as
its views labor disputes today. Where
the strike is employed it is up to labor
to show just excuse for its usage.
Where the lockout is employed it is
up to the employer to do so. In the
present instance. involving large pub
lie interests, the public will demand
5 that the striking unions prove to it's
satisfaction that theirs is a just cause.
If they cannot do 50 the strike will be
properly doomed to failure.