Principles of Political Economy

by Arthur Latham Perry

The large percentage of establishments represented in this table, in which the strikes were ordered by labor-organizations, is particularly noticeable. In New York 94.26% of the establishments had strikes which were ordered, in Illinois 83.96%, in Massachusetts 81.91%, and in the United States 82.24%. The "walking-delegate" so-called became the principal personage in all these strikes; he brought the orders to the men from the "central-union" of their special organization, and became in most cases the sole means of communication between the two. "You are the strike," exclaimed the Lord Mayor of London the other day to Mr. Burns, the walking delegate of the dock-laborers now on strike in that city. That the daily bread and home comforts of tens of thousands of men depend on the secret and irresponsible decision of a little knot of agitators, sending out their verbal and often ambiguous written orders by a walking-delegate or two, is one of the monstrosities of Strikes often witnessed in the United States. The laborers sometimes do not know even the causes of the strike. There has been great want and suffering for three months past among the striking coal-miners in the State of Illinois; and a brief editorial in the "Springfield Republican" of Aug. 24, 1889, describes the state of things so justly, that we quote it:—

"Ex-Congressman William L. Scott, who owns coal mines at Spring Valley, Ill., has offered to pay 75 cents a ton for mining to the strikers who in their destitution have been subsisting for some time on public charity. This is 2½ cents a ton more than the miners have asked for, but it is coupled with the condition that each man must seek work individually and not through some outside union committee. Although the men have been reduced to a state of abject want it is said the conditions imposed will prevent a settlement. In that case we may conclude that a few well-fed walking delegates are acting for the men and not they for themselves. It is a strange time to quibble over such a matter. The worst and most oppressive enemy of labor is the parasite who lives upon its distresses."

A strike is a state of war, and like war, there are two parties to it, and it cannot be expected that the party of the other part should not strike back. The "lock-out" is the counter-stroke of the capitalist to the "strike" of the laborer. Lock-outs, however, are comparatively infrequent. Capitalists, as a rule, are conservative and forbearing. Massachusetts took the statistics of lock-outs as carefully as those of strikes, and the following is the table:—

States.	Employees' Loss.	Employees' Assistance.	Employers' Loss.
Lock-outs.
Illinois,	$533,497	$5,374	$347,065
Massachusetts,	952,310	136,626	550,675
New York,	3,150,123	392,316	845,262
Ohio,	848,829	231,870	493,100
Pennsylvania,	712,956	77,038	237,735
Other parts of the United States,	1,960,002	262,814	988,424
The United States,	$8,157,717	$1,106,038	$3,462,261

Like war too, strikes and lock-outs are wasteful and demoralizing to both parties. Why should there be a resort to force to settle an industrial dispute any more than to settle any other private dispute? Will such a resort be long tolerated by public opinion in civilized countries? The Legislature of Massachusetts in 1886 provided for a State Board of Arbitration for the settlement of differences between employers and employees. The statute was crude in some respects, and the basis of it not very firmly fixed in the nature of things, but the Bureau of Labor reports that it has been justified by the results in its practical application during the short time of its operation. The broad truth is, that the value of Commodities and the value of Credits is now left to the safe action of Demand and Supply under free competition in every country in Christendom: why should not the value of Services be left to the same safe and inexorable action? Governments gave up long ago all idea of regulating directly or indirectly the prices of merchandise and the prices of commercial claims of all kinds: will they not shortly give up also all idea of regulating directly or indirectly the rates of Wages? They will. The three kinds of things bought and sold are on an exact level in the nature of things, so far as Government is concerned. Wages are abundantly able to take care of themselves in the ordinary way, as goods do, and stocks and bonds; and an enlightened Public Opinion is fast coming to see, that a man's personal service rendered needs no more the oversight of the State in its sale than his horse, or note of hand at interest. Strikes, and lock-outs, and all extraordinary courts or boards to settle quarrels between a labor-giver and a labor-taker as such, since it is a case of ordinary buying and selling, are foredoomed to pass out in the good time coming.

Towards this good end works strongly the common futility of strikes and lock-outs. Carroll D. Wright, chief of the Bureau of Labor in Massachusetts, now the head of the National Bureau of Labor, in his State Report for 1880, gave a succinct account of all strikes in that State from their beginning in 1830. They were 159 in all, of which 109 were unsuccessful, 18 apparently successful, 16 compromised, 6 partly successful, and 10 "result unknown." In Great Britain during the year 1878, there occurred 277 strikes, of which 256 were failures, 17 were compromised, and only 4 were successful. The following table taken from the Massachusetts Report of 1888, gives on a broad scale the results of Strikes in the United States for six years:—

General Summary of Strikes in Five Principal States for 1881-1886.
Percentages.

Classifications.	Illinois.	Massachusetts.	New York.	Ohio.	Pennsylvania.	Other Parts of the United States.	The United States.
Strikes.
Ordered by labor organizations,	83.96	81.91	94.26	71.21	61.59	73.06	82.24
Establishments closed,	70.70	79.10	51.01	81.21	70.11	57.57	60.13
Causes:
Against reduction of wages,	5.35	6.23	2.50	20.73	22.65	8.61	7.77
For change of hour of beginning work,	-	-	3.86	-	-	0.05	1.61
For increase of wages,	41.54	35.28	39.09	52.42	46.97	45.01	42.32
For increase of wages and reduction of hours,	17.85	0.50	9.37	1.85	1.06	4.96	7.59
For reduction of hours,	18.35	42.71	24.31	5.32	5.32	17.23	19.48
For reduction of hours and against being compelled to board with employer,	-	-	7.32	-	-	2.19	3.59
Other causes,	16.91	15.28	13.55	19.68	24.00	21.95	17.64
Results:
Succeeded,	54.16	35.28	*51.05	49.44	32.60	42.69	*46.52
Succeeded partly,	10.33	45.93	*8.14	8.87	17.57	17.27	*13.47
Failed,	35.51	18.79	*40.65	41.69	49.83	40.04	*39.95

* In 15 establishments the results were not ascertained.