336 LAND AND LABOR. 



minded selfishness and unreason, madly thrown away 

 their great opportunities and become weaker and 

 weaker ; whilst the capitalists, insignificant in num- 

 bers, but powerful in unity and wise in their methods, 

 have as surely increased in strength, and never more 

 rapidly than at the present time. 



The workmen have literally forged and placed upon 

 their own limbs the shackles that bind them and so- 

 ciety prostrate before the monopolists of capital. 



During the past summer we have had forced upon 

 our attention the fact of strikes of gigantic propor- 

 tions, said, by intelligent observers, to include more 

 than one hundred thousand workmen, ,a large portion 

 of whom were among the best paid of all the skilled 

 laborers in the United States. 



The average wages of these strikers, before the 

 strike, was not less than one dollar and fifty cents a 

 day ; but we will call it one dollar only. This will 

 give a loss to the strikers of one hundred thousand 

 dollars for every day the strike continued. There was 

 a continuance of at least fifty working days, which 

 means a loss to these men and their families of at 

 least five million dollars. Who can estimate the dis- 

 tress thus brought upon these people and their de- 

 pendants ? The mere money loss alone to the strikers 

 can never be recovered, and the increased weakness of 

 the workmen is very manifest. But there are at least 

 two other classes who also suffered from the same 

 cause, and to nearly an equal extent. The producers 

 of all the necessaries and comforts of life which went 

 into the sustenance of the strikers when at work, 

 found the demand and market of their products lim- 



