These men, like De Armitt's, have no grievances of their own for which they need redress, and it has not been easy to persuade them that they ought to strike for the sake of their less fortunate brothers.
To obtain any such result it is necessary to have a number of speakers constantly talking to the men, and teaching them, and urging them.
The order forbidding speaking and persuading is a hard blow to Debs and his workers.
He, however, declares that he is not discouraged, and that he will win the strike in spite of every effort of the owners.
While the coal trade has been thus agitated, a curious labor difficulty has arisen in Paterson, New Jersey.
There are, as you know, labor unions all over the country. Every trade has its own special union. The members of these unions, when they first join, bind themselves to be guided by the rules and laws laid down by the officers of the union.
The United Broad Silk Weavers' Union held a meeting the other day, in which it adopted a certain scale of wages, and sent out an order that no member was to work for any other wages than those fixed by the Union.
When this order was sent to Paterson there was great consternation. Nearly all the weavers there are members of the union, and when they came to examine the new scale which they were bound to abide by, they found it to be below the rate of wages which they were at that moment receiving.
The Paterson weavers have been enjoying good wages, and are in comfortable circumstances. Since the inauguration of President McKinley they have gone on strike several times. Their employers thought their demands were just, and agreed to give them the increase they asked, so that they have settled their own affairs in a way that is highly satisfactory to themselves.