STRIKES. 



611 



heavy penalties. The rate of faro was limited to 5 

 cents. It was also provided that new roads may use 

 the tracks of an old road for a distance not to ex- 

 ceed 1000 feet ; and that all street surface companies 

 may nse any kind of power except steam. Imme- 

 diately after the passage of this act, three companies 

 (one being the Broadway) were formed to operate 

 surface railroads in the city of New York. In 1886 

 a new law was passed to secure adequate compensa- 

 tion for the right to construct, maintain, use, operate, 

 or extend street railroads. Stringent provisions 

 were made in relation to giving such privileges to 

 the highest bidder. (p. o. M.) 



STRIKES are combinations of workmen to en- 

 force a demand for higher wages, and occasionally 

 to obtain other ends, by refusing to labor under the 

 rates and regulations of their employers. The word 

 as used in this sense is much more recent than the 

 thing. A strike on a large scale occurred in England 

 after the plague of 1340, with destructive conse- 

 quences to the harvests and to general business; the 

 prevention of similar movements was aimed at by a 

 statute of labor which required the poor to work" at 

 the old rates for any employer, and forbade them to 

 move from one place to another, under various pen- 

 alties. 



In the United States strikes began at an earlier 

 period than has usually been supposed. The jour- 

 neymen bakers of New York struck in 1741, and 

 were tried for conspiracy. An association of jour- 

 neymen shoemakers in Philadelphia ordered strikes 

 for increase of wages in 1796 and 1798 ; these were 

 successful, and one to resist a proposed reduction in 

 1799 was partly so. The sailors' strike in New York, 

 November, 1803, which was long thought the first in 

 America, employed compulsion, and did not suc- 

 ceed ; nor did another of the Philadelphia shoe- 

 makers in 1805. A " general turn-out " was ordered 

 by the New York cordwainers in November, 1809: 

 the term " scab " was at this time applied to the un- 

 faithful member of a journeymen's association. In 

 1815 several cordwainers were tried and convicted of 

 conspiracy at Pittslmrg in connection with a strike. 

 Some ship-builders at Medford, Mass., struck in 

 1817 for continued supplies of rum. The employ- 

 ment of a " rat " or non-union printer, at Albany, 

 caused a strike among the printers there in 1821. 

 In 1822 three hatters of New York were convicted of 

 conspiracy. Sundry strikes of ship-carpenters and 

 calkers occurred along the coast, 1825-30; one of 

 tailors in Philadelphia, 1827, for the reinstatement 

 of discharged comrades; one of laborers on the 

 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 1829 ; and several of 

 carpenters, masons, and machinists, in Boston and 

 elsewhere, for fewer hours of labor, 1830-31. From 

 this date strikes were so frequent that only the more 

 important or significant of their incidents need be 

 noted. The Boston merchants and ship-owners, at 

 a meeting held May 15, 1832, resolved to employ no 

 member of the unions. An unsuccessful strike of 

 women engaged in binding shoes took place at 

 Lynn, Mass., in January, 1834. Schnvlkill mer- 

 chants agreed on a lock-out, May 26, 1835; during 

 this year various trades in Philadelphia were troub- 

 led by strikes. A riot at Rowley, Mass., May, 1840, 

 began among railroad laborers in consequence of 

 detraction of pay for being late. In 1847 a strike of 

 1200 journeymen tailors in Philadelphia lasted four 

 months, and obtained the desired advance ; in 1848 

 one of factory operatives at Allegheny City and else- 

 where, after eight weeks' idleness and much rioting, 

 secured the adoption of the ten-hour system with a 

 reduction of 16 per cent, in wages. A strike in the 

 mills at Fall River, Mass., 1850-51, kept 1300 per- 

 sons idle for nearly six months, at a loss in wages of 

 above 8140,000. One of iron-workers at Pittsburg, 

 1850, was accompanied with violence; many were 



sentenced to fines and imprisonment, but pardoned. 

 Salisbury, Mass., was much injured in 1852 by a 

 strike of the mill-hands, caused by the abolition 

 of a fifteen minutes' recess for lunch. The Lynn 

 shoe-makers lost $200,000 in wages by a strike, 

 Feb. 22, 1860. The coal-miners in Western Penn- 

 sylvania and elsewhere struck in 1859, and 1862-63. 

 In 1863 strikes were numerous. That of the Pitts- 

 burg stove-moulders in January, 1867, resulted in 

 breaking up their union. The Pennsylvania legis- 

 lature passed, in 1868, the eight-hour law ; non- 

 compliance with it on the part of the Mahanov valley 

 colliers produced an extensive strike in that region ; 

 the prjce of coal for many years has been largely 

 affected by movements of this kind. The business 

 of Schuylkill county was greatly injured by the con- 

 test of 1870, the miners refusing to accept the basis 

 of $2 per ton and then that of $2.50, fixed by the 

 firms, and successfully demanding S3. During this 

 year there was much trouble in the shoe-shops of 

 j Massachusetts, and Chinamen were introduced afc 

 i North Adams. In January, 1871, a strike of miners 

 began at Scranton, which extended throughout the 

 whole anthracite field ; it was settled by arbitration 

 in May, but further increase of wages was gained in 

 the fall. 



The famous railroad strikes of 1877, which were 

 attended by gross violence, immense destruction of 

 property, and considerable ioss of life, began at Mar- 

 j tinsburg, W. Va., on the Baltimore & Ohio R. B., 

 and extended to the Pennsylvania Central, the Erie, 

 and many other roads. The lawless element of tho 

 community joined the strikers, and largo mobs for a 

 time had their own way at Pittsburg and elsewhere ; 

 the militia in some cases refused to act, and in others 

 ! were worsted. The loss at Pittsburg, July 21-23, 

 [ was estimated at $5,000,000, $2,000,000 of which was 

 borne by the railroad ; some 1600 cars with their 

 I contents, 126 locomotives, and nearly all the shops 

 were burned, and much property stolen ; traffic and 

 travel were interrupted for a week. Disorders oc- 

 curred somewhat later at Reading, Scrauton, and 

 other towns, as also at St. Louis and several places 

 in Ohio. 



These acts of violence, the destruction of the prop- 

 erty of railroad companies and other employers, 

 and the odious terrorizing and compulsion practised 

 on men who wish to work, are frequent accompani- 

 ments of strikes, rather than properly a part of them ; 

 but they must be expected and reckoned with in 

 considering the subject. 



Volume XX. of the Tenth U. S. Census reports 

 the strikes and lock outs of the year 1880 as number- 

 ing 762, of which 304 were in Pennsylvania, 104 in 

 New York, and 93 in Ohio. Five hundred and 

 twenty-four affected mechanical and manufacturing 

 industries, 182 mining, and 50 trade and transporta- 

 tion. In estimating 813 causes and results, Mr. J. 

 D. Weeks assigns 539 strikes to questions of wages 

 and 71 to other difficulties : of 85 lock-outs, 78 re- 

 lated to wages ; 118 causes were unclassified or 

 mixed. Of the strikes 143 were successful, 70 were 

 compromised, 156 failed, and 241 were not reported; 

 of the lock-outs, the corresponding numbers were sev- 

 erally 10, 8, 34, and 33 ; of the cases unclassified, 16, 

 7, 37, and 58. The strikes in the mining region of 

 Ohio, 1869-80, which attracted great attention, and 

 frequently required the help of the militia to enforce 

 the law, have been discussed by the Ohio bureau of 

 labor statistics. The whole number of strikes and 

 lock-onts recorded in the United States prior to 1881 

 is estimated at 1491, of which 1089 related to wages : 

 316 succeeded, 154 were compromised, 583 failed, 

 and the result of 438 is unknown. 



The statistics of this subject from 1881 to 1886 are 

 very fully presented in the Third Annual Report of 

 the Commissioner of Labor (1888). In 1881 2928 es- 



