The Labor Strike
The greatest movement of its kind in history is the strike which has been declared during the past month by the anthracite coal miners of Pennsylvania. Its purposes, among others, are to obtain an increase in wages and to limit the working day to eight hours. If, as now seems possible, the bituminous coal miners shall join in the movement, not less than 450,000 men will be directly involved. Besides these, such a vast number of women and children and other dependents would be affected by the strike that its supporters might easily reach into the millions.
As coal may fairly be denominated as the food of all manufacturing industries, this sudden and severe restriction would threaten something very like business starvation.