STRIKES. 



613 



ily in the former case, in the latter after a month. 

 During the spring a strike of 13,000 coke-workers in 

 the neighborhood of Pittsbnrg, members of the K. 

 of L., failed after ten weeks, with a loss in wages of 

 nearly $1,000,000. Mr. Powderly condemned this 

 strike as unauthorized. In May, 2000 bookmakers 

 in Pittsburg lost a week and gained nothing. In 

 June, 1200 carpenters of St. Paul and Minneapolis 

 were idle nine weeks under authority of a trades un- 

 ion; the matter was compromised. In July, 4000 

 operatives of the Harmony Mills, at Cohoes, N. Y., 

 struck for higher wages nuder direction of local 

 leaders of the K. of L., who prolonged the struggle 

 for two months by sending many of the hands to 

 work elsewhere ; the mills procured new operatives, 

 and the strike failed. During the first half of 1887 

 BrntlttreeCs reckons 607 strikes, involving a greater 

 number of workmen than the corresponding period 

 of 1886. The failure of two-thirds of these move- 

 ments caused a diminution in the following months. 

 Jnly 11, 106 engineers and firemen of the Brooklyn 

 Elevated Road struck, giving but an hour's notice ; 

 their places were speedily filled, and the Brotherhood 

 of Locomotive Engineers was signally defeated. In 

 Angusf, 2500 men in the rolling mills of Pittsburg 

 struck because of an alleged violation of a rule ; 

 after a month they won their point. A similar con- 

 test began shortly after at Youngstown, O., involving 

 3500 men, who were successful after a fortnight. At 

 the same time 2500 miners in the Hocking Valley, 

 O., struck for a semi-monthly pay-day, and won in 

 two days. In that month at Brockton! Mass., W. L. 

 Douglas, a State senator and active member of the 

 K. of L., locked out the workmen in his shoe-factory 

 for resisting the nse of labor-saving machines, dis- 

 missed the Knights in his employ, and made his 

 shops ' free," having therein the support of local pub- 

 lic opinion. In August and September, 1100 cotton 

 spinners at Fall River were out five weeks, and then 

 accepted a compromise. Sept. 13, 1000 cigarmakers 

 struck on a question of apprentices, and.wero de- 

 feated after nine days. A similar difficulty kept over 

 2000 glass blowers, in various factories in the East, 

 out of work for a month or more, and was generally 

 settled by a compromise ; the usual result was a re- 

 turn from the K. of L. to the trades union. A very 

 extensive and disastrous K. of L. strike among the 

 Pennsylvania coal miners of the Shamokiu, Mahanoy, 

 L"high Vallf-y, and other districts began, Sept. 10, 

 lasted till January, 1888, and involved .some 27,000 

 men, whose efforts to gain an increase of pay re- 

 sulted in an estimated loss of 82,500,000 in wages. 

 In October the brass-workers of Brooklyn struck for 

 a Saturday half-holiday without loss of pay, claiming 

 that their employers had broken an agreement ; they 

 were locked out, and defeated after a month of idle- 

 ness. At the same time the ale brewers and book 

 printers of New York struck ; the latter demanded 

 increased pay, a regulation of the apprentice ques- 

 tion, and the turning of every office into a union or 

 " card " place. Their typographical unions, backed 

 by the Central Labor Union, were opposed by the 

 employers, who organized as "Typothetfe." After 

 three weeks a compromise was effected, the first 

 claim being granted and the last denied. In October 

 and November, 500 shoemakers were locked out for 

 five weeks in Philadelphia, and brought to submis- 

 sion. A similar case occurred in Rochester ; aunion 

 had attempted to dictate to employers, and 3500 

 men were locked out through December and half of 

 January, 1888, with the same result. 



Near the end of 1887 fears of a coal famine were 

 aroused by an attempt to compel the Reading Rail- 

 road to discriminate against firms obnoxious to cer- 

 tain parties, as employing non-union men. The 

 company declined to permit this interference with its 

 business, and the E. of L. called out over 6000 of its 



employes on Dec. 24, and threatened to extend the 

 strike to all the coal-carrying roads and coal mines 

 of Pennsylvania. But many of the Knights refused 

 to obey ; their authorities declared the strike illegal, 

 and most of those who had taken part in it, having 

 no prospect of support from the general fund, re- 

 sumed work on the 27th. A smaller attempt on the 

 next day proved equally abortive ; but the matter 

 assumed more serious shape in January and Febru- 

 ary, 1888, through many strikes of coal miners, partly 

 in sympathy with the railroad employes, partly in 

 search of 8 per cent, advance in their own wages. 

 President Corbin of the Reading R. R. was involved 

 in a contest with the Executive Board of the K. of 

 L., which represented and directed the miners in the 

 company's collieries. Ultimately these returned to 

 work at the old rates. The losses were estimated 

 at no less than $3, 620,000 in wages to full 30,000 

 men, $1,000.000 to the company, and $700,000 to 

 consumers in increased prices of coal, besides con- 

 siderable sums to private collieries. 



An even more momentous and alarming strike, at- 

 tracting general attention for many weeks, began 

 with the engineers of the Chicago, Burlington, and 

 Quincy Railroad, who sought an adjustment of \vages 

 similar to the schedules of other roads. For a time 

 trade was nearly paralyzed in portions of the West, 

 gross disorders were perpetrated at points far apart, 

 and lawless confusion seemed to triumph. The af- 

 fair is too recent for an accurate estimate of what it 

 cost the country. 



Of the 884 strikes commenced in 1887, 247 were 

 successful, and 115 partially so : these two classes 

 concerned 128,234 employ6s, or 38 per cent, of all 

 nearly twice the proportion of 1886. Of them all, 542, 

 or 63 per cent., were for increased wages or a shorter 

 day's work ; 225, or 26 percent., came from trades 

 union demands of other kinds ; 68, or 8 per cent., 

 were " sympathetic strikes ; " the small remainder is 

 unclassified. Pennsylvania and New York were most 

 affected, with 111,317 strikers and 62,656, respective- 

 ly. The trades chiefly concerned were coal and coke, 

 with 70.450 men ; transportation, 62,379 ; building 

 trades, 56,560 ; iron and steel, 29,989 ; leather, shoes, 

 etc., 28,805 ; textiles, clothing, etc., 25,328; patterns 

 and machinery, 10,000 ; tobacco, 8,000. The building 

 | trades lost the greatest number of days, 1,492,078 : 

 boots and shoes follow, with 1,291,943. The entire 

 ] number of days dining 1887 employed in successful 

 1 strikes was 1,'774,694, while 5,081,315 were thrown 

 1 away on failures. Some 3,000,000 days must be 

 added for strikes still in progress at the end of the 

 ypar, making 10,000,000, or about a month for each, 

 of near 350.000 strikers. If these earned an average 

 of $1.50 a day when at work, the total loss in wages 

 for 1887 would be some $13 500,000. The loss to 

 ' business interests in general, and to consumers in 

 | increased prices of goods, cannot be estimated with 

 i any degree of accuracy. 



It cannot be said that strikes are never beneficial 

 to the striker : the figures prove the contrary. More 

 than this, the fact that they are frequent and always 

 possible may go far to check the rapacity of some 

 employers, and to win respect for the hand that 

 wields so dangerous a weapon ; yet it seems as if 

 civilization might have devised some less cumbrous 

 and costly method of coming to an understanding. 

 The problem is more difficult in an ethical than in 

 an economical view. Under free institutions the 

 right of the workman to better his condition if he 

 can, and to combine in order to that end, is unques- 

 tionable ; and no less so the right of the employer 

 to manage his business in his own way, and to em- 

 ploy such pei-sons and under such regulations as he 

 sees fit. The natural jealousy between Labor and 

 Capital tends to make each careless of the other's 

 interests and claims : employes have sometimes de- 



