LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 

STRIKES 
 
 WHEN TO STRIKE 
 HOW TO STRIKE 
 
 A BOOK OF SUGGESTION FOR THE BUYERS 
 AND SELLERS OF LABOUR 
 
 BY 
 
 OSCAR T. CROSBY 
 
 \< 
 AUTHOR OF "TIBET AND TURKESTAN" 
 
 JOINT AUTHOR OF 
 'THE ELECTRIC RAILWAY IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 3be Ifcnfcfccrbocfcec press 
 1910 
 
<$ 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT, igio 
 
 BY 
 OSCAR T. CROSBY 
 
 TTbe fmfcfcerbocfter press, flew 
 
PREFACE 
 
 CONCERNING Strikes, this treatise in- 
 quires as to what is moral and what 
 ought to be legal. It endeavours to classify 
 the causes that lead men to strike, and 
 to measure the profit and loss involved 
 in a struggle for higher wages, shorter 
 hours, better general conditions, or for 
 recognition of a Union. It points out 
 that this struggle is between different 
 classes of workers, all of whom have an 
 almost constant relation to capital. It 
 seeks to put all men on guard in respect 
 to their leaders, those necessary yet 
 dangerous elements of any organisation. 
 Violence is presented as a proper mono- 
 poly of the State. The boycott, or 
 refusal of all commercial intercourse 
 between commercial contestants and their 
 respective allies, is found to be within the 
 reasonable right of all men, as it is, in 
 fact, within the actual practice of a few. 
 
iv Preface 
 
 No formula is found by which endless 
 contest may be avoided, except that 
 which leads to some form of tyranny. 
 But the true evil of contest is found to 
 flow from violence, lying, and hate. 
 To attempt even a very small diminish- 
 ment of this evil, might worthily engage 
 far greater abilities than have been 
 employed in preparing this book. 
 
 In so far as the reader may discover 
 error in the author's views, it may be 
 ascribed to lack of understanding, rather 
 than to want of experience or of sympathy. 
 
 A shred of vanity prompts the request 
 that crudity of treatment (which the 
 author recognises) should be, in part, 
 ascribed to the fact that these pages 
 have been written in the short intervals 
 of many distracting occupations. 
 
 May this work, in spite of its defects, 
 help a few busy men, wage-earners and 
 wage-payers, to clearer vision and wider 
 charity! 
 
 O. T. C. 
 
 WARRENTON, VIRGINIA, U. S. A. 
 March i, 1910. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. DEFINITION i 
 
 II. MORALITY OF THE STRIKE . 6 
 
 III. Is THE STRIKE LEGAL? . . 12 
 
 IV. PURPOSE OF THE UNION . . 29 
 V. WHY TO STRIKE ... 33 
 
 VI. SPECIAL CAUSES OF STRIKES 
 
 ARBITRATION ... 37 
 
 VII. DOES IT PAY? ... 47 
 
 Mpmm 
 
 VIII. CAPITAL AND LABOUR . . 55 
 
 IX. WHO WILL FURNISH HIGHER 
 
 WAGES? .... 62 
 
 X. CONCLUSIONS AS TO STRIKES FOR 
 
 HIGHER PAY ... 94 
 
 XI. THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY . . 96 
 
 V 
 
vi Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XII. GENERAL IMPROVEMENT OF 
 
 WORKING CONDITIONS . 104 
 
 XIII. THE SYMPATHETIC STRIKE . 108 
 
 XIV. SUMMARY . . . .116 
 
 XV. STRIKES FOR THE UNION Do 
 
 THEY PAY? . . .119 
 
 XVI. How TO STRIKE VIOLENCE AND 
 
 LYING . . . .141 
 
 XVII. THE BOYCOTT AND THE PICKET . 152 
 
 XVIII. OBLIGATION OF LEADERS . 174 
 
 XIX. HOME-BUILDING . . . 1 86 
 
 XX. CONCLUSION . . . .193 
 
 INDEX 199 
 
STRIKES 
 
OF THE 
 
 f 
 OF 
 
 ... 
 
 The Question of Strikes 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DEFINITION 
 
 iNjthe word "Strike" there is some- 
 thing manly, inspiriting violent. 
 
 It suggests the blacksmith's hammer, 
 the woodsman's axe, the patriot's sword 
 a trinity of tools with which man has 
 made for himself, poor savage that.. he 
 was, a home and a country. He has 
 struck against Nature who would starve 
 and freeze him; he has struck against his 
 fellows who would enslave him. 
 
 From the deep hollows of the past we 
 hear an echo of many blows; they blend 
 into a song of achievement of man 
 achieving civilisation. 
 
2 Strikes 
 
 But the blacksmith has forged mana- 
 cles for the free; the edge of the axe has 
 been laid against the sheltering roof -tree ; 
 the sword has been in the assassin's hand. 
 Men have struck for bad things as well as 
 for good things. It is always so. Every 
 force, every instrument that may be used 
 to help, may also be used to hurt. 
 
 We cannot win the life-long struggle by 
 any easily-made rules; we cannot follow 
 the uncertain path before us by the flash- 
 lights of occasional inspiration. But with 
 patience and courage man has found 
 paths that are fairly pleasant leading 
 from the cradle to the grave. 
 
 Let us then cheerfully, and hoping for 
 a little gain, attack the problem before 
 us, How to strike Why to strike. 
 
 And at the beginning, let us define the 
 word " Strike " as it is to be used in these 
 pages. It shall be taken to mean, " A pre- 
 arranged cessation of work by several 
 employes, intending thus to cause an 
 unwilling employer, through fear of loss, 
 to accept demands made by the strikers 
 on behalf of themselves or others.'* 
 
Definition 3 
 
 This formal definition is compact and 
 hard, like the soldier's emergency ration; 
 but it is not without value. We may at 
 once discover in it several branches of our 
 inquiry. We find: the cessation of work, 
 pure and simple; the prearrangement 
 leading up to such cessation, that is, the 
 union of several employe's; the object of 
 the union; the division into sympathetic 
 and direct strikes ; the opposition between 
 the interests of employer and employe*. 
 
 These are the definite elements giving 
 us the hard skeleton of the strike. Do 
 you not also feel its warm body, made of 
 human hope, despair, rejoicing, hunger, 
 heart-ache, love, hate, selfishness, and 
 sacrifice? These are the very substance 
 of life. They are immanent in every dry 
 legal discussion, or else that discussion 
 has no value. But the flesh and blood 
 part cannot always be kept before us in 
 complete form. We must sometimes strip 
 to the bone, in order to understand the 
 structure of the organism. So it is that 
 if in these pages there should seem to be 
 lack of sentiment, let it be remembered 
 
4 Strikes 
 
 that this is a study of the anatomy of the 
 strike. 
 
 Ligaments, muscles, veins, bones 
 these are not pleasing to the eye, yet is it 
 useful to know something of their com- 
 position. 
 
 The definition 1 does not involve violence, 
 or deceit. These may, and often do, enter 
 into the programme of one or both of the 
 parties to a strike. But they are not 
 necessary incidents to the mere cessation 
 of work which is the strike proper. 
 
 In the following pages we shall consider 
 
 1 Minor objections to the definition might be made 
 as follows : 
 
 First Why is not the "strike" of a single employe* 
 included ? Has he not the same motives as the ' ' several 
 employe's," and may not his cessation of work be 
 sometimes of capital importance in enforcing his 
 demands ? 
 
 Yes, but in this treatise, the co-operative strike alone 
 is considered. It breeds a host of difficult legal ques- 
 tions not raised by the single striker. 
 
 Second Is the employer always "unwilling"? 
 Must he always be injured? 
 
 Usually the strikers' demands have been made and 
 refused before the strike is "on." In the rare cases in 
 which the strike precedes the demand, unwillingness is 
 supposed and injury is attempted, even though the 
 employer be found at once ready to yield. 
 
Definition 5 
 
 the various accessory actions that may 
 be connected with a strike, and we 
 shall try to separate the sheep from the 
 
 goats. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MORALITY OF THE STRIKE 
 
 THERE are many persons to whom the 
 question of the morality of strikes pre- 
 sents no difficulty whatever. These may 
 well pass over this short chapter, unless 
 they prefer to judge the author's moral 
 standards by what he may say concern- 
 ing this particular question. 
 
 Having clearly stated just what a strike 
 is, we may ask ourselves, in the first 
 place, not "Why to strike?" or "How 
 to strike?" but, "Shall we strike at 
 all?" 
 
 This question can be disposed of by 
 answering three sub-questions about the 
 strike first, "Is it moral?" second, "Is 
 it legal? " third, " Is it profitable to those 
 who strike?" 
 
 A fairly good man is unwilling to do an 
 
 6 
 
Morality of the Strike 7 
 
 immoral act, though it may be both legal 
 and profitable. 
 
 A fairly good citizen is unwilling to do 
 an illegal act, though it may be both 
 moral and profitable. 
 
 A fairly good business man is unwilling 
 to do an unprofitable act, though it may 
 be both moral and legal. 
 
 A fairly wise man is unwilling to do an 
 act which is not at the same time moral, 
 legal, profitable. 
 
 As to the first question, "Is it 
 moral?" 
 
 That is " moral" which is believed to 
 benefit, more than it injures, the majority 
 of men who are our neighbours using 
 the latter word in a very broad sense. 
 
 We have proved the " morality " of only 
 a few general principles of conduct. 
 
 "Thou shalt not steal." This is rea- 
 sonably easy to apply after we have 
 established elaborate rules for determin- 
 ing what is yours and what is mine. It 
 restricts the happiness of a small minority. 
 It even denies to them at times ordinary 
 comfort, and it may require acute suffer- 
 
8 Strikes 
 
 ing or death. But observance of this rule 
 has been found by centuries of experience 
 in human society to increase the general 
 average of comfort and happiness. Hence 
 we insist upon it as one of the moralities, 
 and we pardon an infraction of the rule 
 only in extreme cases. 
 
 "Thou shalt not kill.'* This also is 
 relatively simple after elaborately pro- 
 viding for exceptional cases, such as 
 killing in self-defence, in war, on the 
 official scaffold, etc. The danger in- 
 volved in killing often makes of this 
 "morality" its own policeman. 
 
 "Thou shalt not bear false witness 
 against thy neighbour." This is fairly 
 clear if we can agree upon a definition of 
 "neighbour." 
 
 Thus, it is generally thought good 
 morals to lie to a public enemy, or about 
 him, provided the state to which you 
 belong (you, the liar) is to be benefited 
 thereby. It is also good morals in cer- 
 tain cases to lie in defence of a woman's 
 reputation. 
 
 This "morality" is, as yet, but weakly 
 
Morality of the Strike 9 
 
 established in the minds of many men, 
 even when we consider the mild prohibi- 
 tion quoted from the old Jewish code. If 
 we make it more stringent, thus, "Thou 
 shalt not bear false witness, whether or 
 not thy neighbour be injured thereby," 
 we shall find the number of adherents 
 wofully small. 
 
 The simplicity and finality of even 
 these fundamental rules is thus found to 
 be only in their statement not in their 
 application. When we begin to live, the 
 code presents many doubts. 
 
 But it may be thought that before 
 determining the morality of an act we 
 should turn from the "Don'ts" of the 
 Decalogue to such positive rules of self- 
 abnegation as were preached by Christ. 
 
 Does a strike conform to the principle 
 which requires the right cheek to be 
 turned to him who has struck the left? 
 No! 
 
 Does it conform to the less drastic 
 requirement of the Golden Rule? No! 
 
 It is plainly a contest of interest waged 
 by inflicting injury upon the employer, 
 
io Strikes 
 
 with the hope that this strike-injury may 
 seem to him greater than that which 
 would be suffered by yielding to the 
 strikers' demands. 
 
 In the effort to do harm there may be 
 no hate, no bitterness; but also there is 
 in it none of the spirit which would give 
 the coat to him who has asked the cloak. 
 If that standard of morality be applied, 
 then is the strike immoral and all the 
 rest of the ordinary conduct of life goes 
 with it. 
 
 In our hearts we reject the perfect 
 self-sacrifice of Christ we do not believe 
 that we can live by it here. Possibly 
 such conduct might give us treasures in 
 heaven but not an increase of wages on 
 earth. And meanwhile, we argue, the 
 wife and children must be fed and clothed. 
 They will be in want if we do not make 
 good bargains for our service, or our 
 wares. We must now and then refuse 
 the offer of the purchaser and maintain 
 prices by withholding our goods or our 
 labour. 
 
 This is plainly an expensive way of 
 
Morality of the Strike n 
 
 reaching the desired results . It is ' ' chari- 
 table" only to those who are near us in 
 interest, whose battles we must fight. 
 
 Is there indeed any Christian charity 
 in any war, in any competition? No. 
 
 Yet when the people of a Christian 
 nation want something very badly they 
 fight for it and square with Christ by 
 calling it a "holy war." 
 
 And as to commercial competition, 
 upon which society now depends for its 
 daily bread, its practical motto is " Each 
 for himself." The ideal of "Service for 
 all" is indeed gaining ground, yet now 
 the community receives only the surplus 
 remaining after the satisfaction of large 
 individual appetites. Such is the general 
 idea and practice of morality this side 
 of the grave; and as judged by it, the 
 strike needs no apology. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 IS THE STRIKE LEGAL? 
 
 THE legal status of all labour questions 
 varies widely from State to State. In- 
 deed, in any one State, judicial decisions 
 fluctuate over a wide range. In en- 
 deavouring to apply old principles to 
 new conditions, society is feeling its way 
 through a tangle of conflicting claims. 
 
 The general object of this treatise is 
 gained not by discussing the present 
 legality of any of the acts considered, but 
 rather their wisdom; their fitness for 
 being made legal, if they are not already 
 so; or their fitness for being prohibited 
 if they are now permitted. 
 
 If the reader be helped to form an 
 opinion as to what ought to be legal, this 
 "ought to be" may be turned into "is," 
 when that opinion shall have been 
 
 12 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 13 
 
 adopted by a majority of his fellow- 
 citizens. Their formally expressed will 
 is law. 
 
 To ask, "Is it legal?" is not the same 
 as if we should ask, " Is it moral?" We 
 call those things immoral whose bad 
 effects are so generally recognised that 
 they would be condemned by public con- 
 science whether prohibited by statute or 
 not. 
 
 There are immoralities, most impor- 
 tant immoralities, which cannot be made 
 the subject of written law. How shall 
 I be compelled to be kind to be respect- 
 ful to be charitable ? 
 
 On the other hand, many legal require- 
 ments are without moral character in 
 themselves. They are mere regulations. 
 The determination of the form and colour 
 of ballots does not raise a moral question, 
 but it is an important subject of legal 
 enactment. 
 
 We know, too, that in the slow process 
 of " guessing" at what is good, our law- 
 makers must often err must often pro- 
 hibit things which should not, for the 
 
14 Strikes 
 
 common good, be prohibited. Hence, 
 an act may be illegal which, in itself, 
 is righteous enough. 
 
 And again an act may be prohibited 
 by a small majority of law-makers while 
 a large minority declare for just the 
 opposite course. In such case it is 
 clear that the public conscience is not 
 yet formed in respect to the matters in 
 question. 1 
 
 Hence as against mere legal enactment 
 men are often tempted to follow their 
 individual opinions, and more particu- 
 larly their individual interests. 
 
 If in adult life one cannot classify a 
 desired action as falling somehow within 
 the morality-prohibitions which were 
 
 1 Morality also may be said to vary in time and place. 
 It undoubtedly does vary in the sense that a list of 
 moral prohibitions, if made up for France in 1900 A.D., 
 would not be the same as for France in noo A.D. ; or 
 for Rome in 400 B.C. Legal codes, however, fluctuate 
 so much more violently than the moral code that the 
 latter seems relatively fixed. Men may experiment 
 legislatively for ages before elaborating a single new 
 principle that will take its place among the moral 
 principles whose sovereignty is recognised by the 
 national sense of righteousness. Meanwhile, the law 
 gives and withdraws her favours most freakishly. 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 15 
 
 learned in childhood, one is tempted to 
 gratify the desire, and spurn the restraint. 
 The man's conduct is governed by the 
 child's conscience. 
 
 Yet withal, there is some uneasiness 
 felt in the mind of the enlightened citizen 
 when he runs counter to any of the laws 
 of his country. 
 
 There is a taint of immorality in all 
 illegality. The law may be esteemed 
 foolish, but obedience to law is at the root 
 of the tree of social life. If I base obe- 
 dience only upon my approval, I am 
 standing for anarchy, against government. 
 Protection for life, liberty, and the pur- 
 suit of happiness can be given to me 
 only within the conditions set down by 
 the law and only at the price of general 
 obedience to the law. 
 
 Not many of us would refuse to escape 
 from the death penalty, as Socrates did, 
 for fear of cheating the state; but most 
 of us feel mean after lying to the customs 
 officer? 
 
 Have we not given false witness against 
 the interest of our neighbour, who ardently 
 
1 6 Strikes 
 
 desires us to pay taxes for the general 
 good? Have we not broken the law? 
 
 If, in their folly, legislators should ever 
 declare strikes illegal, we shall find it 
 easier on the conscience to use our votes 
 for changing the law, rather than to 
 break it. 
 
 Not only can the right of striking be 
 preserved by agitating and voting, but 
 we can see to it that no other than a 
 money damage shall be assessed against 
 an employ6 who, in order to strike, 
 may have broken a contract for service 
 during a fixed period. Such a contract 
 must be classed with other commercial 
 engagements. 1 If made and broken 
 without fraudulent intent, no commercial 
 engagement carries with it, in its break- 
 ing, any punishment running against 
 
 In this view of the matter, unions which order 
 strikes in violation of contract obligations should be 
 required to have such legal organisation as will permit 
 penalties to reach their treasury funds. This is already 
 the case in some countries (Canada, for example) and 
 no other condition is consistent with fair dealing. We 
 should not try "to have our cake and eat it too." The 
 effort to indulge our appetites in that way always fails 
 in the long run. 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 17 
 
 the body of the delinquent, but only 
 against his property. 
 
 An exception to the rule that an 
 employe's contract should be considered 
 as purely commercial, is to be found in 
 any contract for service involving quite 
 directly the lives or the comfort of many 
 persons who have rightfully placed them- 
 selves within the power of the employe*. 
 Such engagements cannot be broken in a 
 manner that would seriously imperil or 
 discommode third parties without intro- 
 ducing an element of criminality. 
 
 Thus, a locomotive engineer should 
 not be permitted by society to quit his 
 engine save at the end of his run. His 
 contract must be understood as being 
 in part with the public, not solely with 
 the railway company. The loss, dis- 
 comfort, and danger suffered by a train- 
 load of people when left between stations 
 cannot be compensated by any money 
 award which the engineer could pay. 
 Hence we must punish a man who would 
 do such an evil thing, as one punishes a 
 naughty child. 
 
1 8 Strikes 
 
 Imprisonment is properly decreed 
 against him who, in immoderate self- 
 seeking, gravely imperils the happiness 
 of others by cessation of his accustomed 
 work at an untimely hour. 
 
 Save for this condition, complete con- 
 trol of any man's labour must be left to 
 himself. 
 
 Much folly, much wrong toward him- 
 self and toward others will result from 
 the exercise by the average man of this 
 simple right. He will often inflict serious 
 monetary losses for which a damage suit 
 offers only theoretical compensation. 
 
 He who has liberty without property 
 resembles a man with fleshless body he 
 may strike without fear of his foeman's 
 steel. He may cause inconvenience, 
 pain, illness perhaps death a whole 
 series of wrongs which cannot be ex- 
 pressed in terms of money. They must 
 be borne for liberty's sake. 
 
 Lacking wisdom, this average man of 
 the populace must often wound his own 
 interest with the sharp knife of unfettered 
 liberty. His wife and children will be 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 19 
 
 stricken down by the blows of his own 
 folly. And in his course of errors he 
 will not be alone. On his right hand 
 will be the rich man; on his left hand the 
 educated man. Only a little wisdom is 
 given to any of us. 
 
 The old ways of childlike docility 
 are definitely forsaken. We know that 
 Superior Intelligence, if enthroned over 
 an inarticulate multitude, soon degen- 
 erates into Tyranny, which ceases to be 
 wise and remains selfish. 
 
 So it is that we prefer to stumble 
 painfully along free paths rather than 
 to be led by the hand of a Fixed Superior. 
 The safety to which he brings us is servi- 
 tude. Our study, therefore, should ever 
 be to leave as much freedom of action 
 as is consistent with the maintenance of 
 order, which is the solid foundation of 
 society. 
 
 As to just what restrictions are necessary 
 for the preservation of this social order, 
 we must guess our way in detail. The 
 light of absolute knowledge never shines 
 very far ahead or very deep into the 
 
20 Strikes 
 
 darkness on the right hand and the left 
 hand. 
 
 We do not now doubt our course in 
 respect to the question, " Shall a man be 
 legally free (save in the special cases of 
 peril above noted 1 ) to cease work when 
 he chooses?" To this we answer, "Yes, 
 he is and shall be free." 
 
 But let us change a little the question 
 just answered. " Shall a man be legally 
 free to solicit others to quit their em- 
 ployment with a view to some benefit 
 which is to be gained only by injuring 
 the employer?" 
 
 This is a right that has been questioned, 
 yet without it the strike, as an organised 
 effort of many, would perish. 
 
 He who solicits me to leave my work 
 may cease his own employ without in any 
 way passing the long-established bounda- 
 ries of freedom. The injury which he 
 may do to another, the wrong he may 
 do to his own interests by his isolated 
 action, have been accepted by society as 
 
 It will be seen that important service of the state, 
 military and other, falls within this exception. 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 21 
 
 the price demanded by shrewd Nature 
 for the jewel, liberty. 
 
 But is this further license of soliciting 
 others to be likewise excused ? 
 
 We have learned that no great and 
 general harm no great and general good 
 can be accomplished by any one of us 
 acting alone; we have learned that co- 
 operation gives us the big results; we 
 have learned to apply an ugly word, 
 Conspiracy, to such co-operation as seeks 
 an end by us condemned. And for 
 co-operation seeking what we call good 
 ends, we reserve the inspiring word, 
 Union. 
 
 Union means strength, and it means 
 leadership strength of many voluntarily 
 placed at the disposal of one; hence, 
 danger danger of that very servitude 
 from which we have determined to escape 
 at any price. 
 
 Against this we guard by reserving 
 free choice of leaders. They must be 
 subject to dismissal. That is the secret 
 of successful democracy. It must have 
 leadership; it must have that which 
 
22 Strikes 
 
 imperils its very life. ELECTIVE leader- 
 ship solves the problem. 
 
 It may be asked "What has this to 
 do with the question as to the right of 
 Smith to solicit Jones for his co-operation 
 in a strike?" And the answer is this: 
 The co-operation which he establishes 
 through his solicitation is, in fact, a union. 
 It may be temporary; it is generally 
 permanent. 
 
 The desire to strike may have given 
 birth to the union, but once formed, the 
 union becomes the father and the mother 
 of future strikes. The question "How 
 and why to strike?" becomes "How and 
 why to form and conduct a labour union ? " 
 
 Hence it is that no inquiry such as our 
 title suggests can be made without making 
 a study of the unions. 
 
 Substantially, the organisation of em- 
 ploy^s into a great union becomes a state 
 within a state. The comfort of society 
 is largely affected by this smaller state. 
 Its action may be opposed to the will of 
 the larger body, the true sovereign of all. 
 There is here a possible danger Shall it 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 23 
 
 be avoided by crushing the egg from 
 which may be hatched a bird powerful 
 for good and evil? No!! 
 
 The same principle which permits us to 
 form democratic governments, will per- 
 mit those governments to view without 
 alarm the establishment of various 
 "unions" among their citizens. 
 
 Reduced to its skeleton, the argument 
 may be thus constructed. Free govern- 
 ments are based upon the principle that 
 majorities shall rule themselves, and the 
 minorities. This rule is, for convenience, 
 placed temporarily in the hands of a few 
 men legislators, judges, and executive 
 officers, who govern in the name of the 
 majority until dismissed. This principle 
 is now the basic one controlling the public 
 life of England, 1 the United States, 
 France, Italy, 1 Holland, 1 Belgium, 1 
 Sweden, 1 Norway, 1 Switzerland, and with 
 some restriction (constantly lessening) 
 Germany and Austria. 
 
 These are included, although in form the executive 
 is not subject to dismissal. For the most important 
 matters the Prime Ministers of these countries are the 
 real chief executives; and they are subject to dismissal. 
 
24 Strikes 
 
 It is believed to be a guide between 
 tyranny on the one hand and wild 
 license on the other. Its application to 
 minor organisations will render them 
 relatively harmless, provided their object 
 in itself is not sinister. 
 
 The members of any one such body may 
 have interests special to themselves and 
 more or less antagonistic to the interests 
 of certain other citizens; but in the main 
 these members will be actuated by the 
 common interests, the common human- 
 ity, and the common sense which at the 
 same time are influencing the general 
 public to which they belong. If their 
 association is of such character that the 
 many who compose it may promptly 
 control the few to whom power has been 
 delegated, we may safely assume that 
 the lesser allegiance thus created may be 
 indulged without ultimate injury to the 
 larger vital allegiance owed to the state 
 itself. 
 
 And, on the contrary, however harm- 
 less may be the avowed object of an or- 
 ganisation not founded on this general 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 25 
 
 democratic principle, it is to be viewed 
 with suspicion. Thus the Catholic 
 Church, potentially one of the most 
 benignant institutions ever known 
 among men, has often been betrayed 
 into most harmful activities because 
 its form of organisation bestows upon 
 a few individuals vast, secret, and life- 
 long powers. Happily for it and for 
 the world, the democratic principle did 
 not completely abdicate and leave the 
 delegated power hereditary in those 
 families first receiving it. Excesses due 
 to its peculiar form have often been 
 checked by some outburst of the 
 democratic principle acting within the 
 organisation, or through pressure ex- 
 erted by democratic force from without. 
 Under these influences the Church is 
 everywhere becoming less tyrannical 
 more beneficent. 
 
 When the great union, the state it- 
 self, has done all that its wisdom (or its 
 folly) permits to be accomplished by 
 its direct action, much that may be 
 beneficial remains undone. For the 
 
26 Strikes 
 
 accomplishment of this large remainder, 
 are churches, guilds, lodges, societies of 
 all sorts. 
 
 And, now, already highly developed 
 and ever growing stronger, are the labour 
 unions. In them we see everywhere the 
 rule of the majority fully established. 
 
 The government of these various unions 
 exhibits all the strength and all the weak- 
 ness of sovereign states which are con- 
 trolled by their people. 
 
 In the fierce battle of commercial com- 
 petition the humble of the earth are 
 marching in regiments and brigades. 
 The impotent appeal of one struggling 
 man or woman for higher pay, more light, 
 shorter hours, or kinder supervision, has 
 grown into the dignified demand of 
 compact thousands. 
 
 They speak through ambassadors ; they 
 are inspired by chieftains; they are 
 served by executives. 
 
 And sometimes these ambassadors mis- 
 interpret; these chieftains lead to folly; 
 these executives betray, even as it has 
 
Is the Strike Legal ? 27 
 
 ever been in the slow progress of govern- 
 ments among men. But also fidelity, 
 intelligence, courage, self-sacrifice, and, 
 in the main, fair service are found in 
 those who are trusted by their fellows. 
 
 The walking delegate is often an igno- 
 rant mischief-maker. So also is the con- 
 stable or the parson. More often they 
 are, all three of them, sincerely devoted 
 to the duty of their office. 
 
 The great labour-leader is sometimes 
 corrupt, or vulgarly ambitious. So also 
 is the great statesman. More often both 
 are weighed down with an honourable 
 sense of their responsibility. 
 
 Even if the record of their fine conduct 
 were lacking, one might assume that the 
 elected chiefs of the unions could scarce 
 fail to possess in marked degree at least 
 one qualification for their duties namely 
 a full sympathy with those who select 
 them. In education and experience they 
 are close to those whom they represent. 
 Far easier for them than for individu- 
 als drawn from the "ruling classes," to 
 know the joys and sorrows, the hopes 
 
28 Strikes 
 
 and fears of the masses whose power 
 they wield for a time. 
 
 Judged, then, by its form of govern- 
 ment the labour union is found to be in 
 the spirit of the age, and hence need fear 
 no charge of illegitimacy on that score. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 PURPOSE OF THE UNION 
 
 LEAVING the form, let us examine the 
 purposes. 
 
 We shall not tarry long in arriving at 
 a conclusion that in this respect, also, 
 society must put no ban of illegality upon 
 associations which work for the better- 
 ment of so large a fraction of the whole 
 body. And the fraction in question is 
 precisely that whose uplift in material 
 things seems most important. 
 
 Without the constant struggle of the 
 humble masses, a complete stratification 
 of society would soon be established. 
 There is a fixed tendency in that direc- 
 tion. The powerful force of inheritance, 
 natural and artificial, works toward this 
 stratification. 
 
 Strong individuals obtain control of 
 large amounts of physical property of 
 29 
 
30 Strikes 
 
 the things which feed and clothe the 
 body. These, together with something of 
 the superior intellectual equipment, go to 
 their descendants, and soon we see, in all 
 its terrible meaning, that "to him that 
 hath it shall be given, and from him that 
 hath not, it shall be taken away, even 
 that which he hath." 
 
 And we hear men say of other men, 
 "They are not born." A French Revo- 
 lution was necessary to remind those 
 who were "born," that parturition is 
 common to the race. 
 
 The struggle against this tendency is 
 the very work of democracy. Indeed 
 this uplifting of the relatively weak is 
 democracy creating itself. It should be 
 ever extending; but not up to the point 
 of seriously curtailing the efforts of those 
 naturally superior individuals who must 
 lead in industrial progress as a general 
 leads in military work. 
 
 These generals find themselves; they 
 take command and produce results. 
 They are to be rewarded by society in 
 material things, and in public esteem. 
 
Purpose of the Union 31 
 
 Just as the leaders who traded regu- 
 larly in war were wont to demand a con- 
 siderable part of the booty yielded by a 
 bloody victory, so now the generals of 
 industry demand a considerable part 
 of the bounty which is captured in the 
 struggle of man with nature. 
 
 It is the work of highly civilised peo- 
 ples that their chiefs put a relatively 
 greater value upon reputation, and less 
 upon material wage, than is done among 
 warlike societies, whose armies are pre- 
 datory bands. 
 
 The pay of the common soldier is much 
 nearer that of the general in the year 1900 
 than it was in 1600 when dukedoms and 
 principalities went to the leader, while a 
 pittance went to the ranks. 
 
 The industrial army is developing in the 
 same direction. The adjustment is seen 
 in the fact that great corporations yield 
 phenomenal fortunes only to their found- 
 ers ; those who subsequently direct them 
 are partly paid in the coin of public esteem. 
 
 The ordinary worker receives none of 
 this. He escapes the wakeful care and 
 
32 Strikes 
 
 cannot claim the glory. He must aim 
 to have a comfort-making share of the 
 total product. Out of this a quiet con- 
 tent may be enjoyed, and young ambition 
 may find its stimulus and support. 
 
 No peaceful means looking toward 
 the attainment of satisfying food, warm 
 clothing, comfortable housing, and mod- 
 erate amusement should be denied to a 
 man willing to work. It is the purpose 
 of the union, often acting through the 
 strike, to help the worker toward this 
 end. It is a good purpose. 
 
 Finding then that the union (and its 
 child, the strike) is democratic in form 
 and democratic in its purpose, democ- 
 racy has decreed its legality. Only in 
 such statutes as may indirectly and unin- 
 tentionally question the right of strik- 
 ing by co-operation, should that right 
 even be mentioned; and then, only to 
 assert it as inviolable, thus saving the 
 delicate conscience of a judge who might 
 find himself embarrassed in dealing with 
 some uncertain phrase, such as " combina- 
 tions in restraint of trade." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 WHY TO STRIKE 
 
 WE have shown that the strike is not 
 immoral. We have shown that it must 
 not be illegal. According to the strict 
 order of our inquiry as set forth in a pre- 
 vious chapter, we should now ask, " Does 
 it pay?" 
 
 But the answer to that question will 
 depend somewhat upon the object of the 
 strike. Hence, we shall first discuss the 
 question " Why to strike" and shall also 
 consider whether arbitration may not be 
 always substituted for the strike, thus, 
 perhaps, rendering useless any further 
 inquiry under our title. 
 
 A few weeks ago the following report 
 appeared in a number of American 
 newspapers : 
 
 The hello-girls in the Central Telephone station 
 
 at struck yesterday because the manager 
 
 3 33 
 
34 Strikes 
 
 refused to raise the shades covering windows 
 that look out upon the street. The girls declared 
 that an occasional glance into the life of the 
 street did not interfere with their work. The 
 manager thought differently. 
 
 The reader will find it very easy to 
 re-write for himself the various press 
 comments suggested by this paragraph. 
 The quick journalistic mind could make 
 from such a substance a hundred jests. 
 Others would more seriously point out 
 the growing unreasonableness of the 
 " working classes.'' And yet others 
 would lament the unfitness of women for 
 the steady work of the world. 
 
 A few, more imaginative, would go 
 with these striking girls into their nine- 
 hour-a-day seclusion and would feel the 
 youth of them yearning for the outer 
 world; for movement, for light, for life. 
 The dulness of it all, relieved by the fret- 
 ful click of signals and the insistent whis- 
 per of subscribers; the weariness of it 
 all; the pathos of imprisoned girlhood 
 and womanhood, can you understand 
 these ? 
 
Why to Strike 35 
 
 It is not given to us that life shall be a 
 merry-making in a rose garden. Men 
 and women must toil if they would live. 
 Nor is there despair or repugnance in all 
 labour. 
 
 Happily, too, youth is flexible; and in 
 real life the burden is often marvellously 
 adjusted to the shoulder that must bear 
 it. No strained compassion is sought 
 for the army of young women who are 
 part of a city's nerve centres. 
 
 Yet withal, unless your heart be unduly 
 hardened, you will, with but this word 
 of admonition, agree that even the raising 
 of window shades a glimpse outward 
 into life and light may be such an object 
 of desire as to reasonably lead to a strike, 
 when one has no other means of influencing 
 those who control one's welfare. 
 
 It will be urged that the great incon- 
 venience caused to others should hold in 
 check a body of employe's whose occupa- 
 tion has to do with a public convenience. 
 And in this there is truth. The perfect 
 practice of self-abnegation would prevent 
 all strikes. But in the world as it is, this 
 
36 Strikes 
 
 theory will be vainly urged upon the 
 relatively weak, who sometimes hear it 
 loudly proclaimed by the relatively strong. 
 
 Without preaching an impossible un- 
 selfishness, we may feel assured that the 
 self-interest of the strikers must make 
 them fairly cautious before resorting to a 
 certain loss in order to accomplish an 
 uncertain gain. 
 
 Subject to this check of self-interest, 
 it may fairly be stated that any object, 
 legal and moral in itself, may be sought 
 by means of the strike. 
 
 Thus viewed, the question, "Why to 
 strike," requires no specific answer. 
 Let us strike for whatever we desire, if it 
 cannot otherwise be more easily obtained ; 
 and if the thing desired be not wrongful. 
 
 Since very few objects wrongful in 
 themselves are at all obtainable by means 
 of a strike, we may eliminate this rare 
 case. Leave it to the general conscience ; 
 and consider "why to strike" only from 
 the selfish, profit-and-loss point of view. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SPECIAL CAUSES OF STRIKES 
 ARBITRATION 
 
 WHILE recognising that anything may 
 properly be the cause of a strike, it will 
 be well to have before us the principal 
 causes which have, in fact, produced our 
 41 labour wars." 
 
 Demand for: (i) Higher wages; (2) 
 shorter hours; (3) more agreeable condi- 
 tions of employment; (4) reinstatement 
 of discharged employe's; (5) recognition 
 of the union (in various ways) ; (6) dis- 
 charge of non-union men. These are the 
 principal alleged causes of strikes. The 
 last two are, in fact, only means employed 
 for accomplishing one or the other of the 
 first four ends. The union exists for rais- 
 ing wages, and bettering conditions. A 
 struggle for the union is an indirect 
 struggle for the objects of the union. 
 
 37 
 
38 Strikes 
 
 We must add a seventh cause, that is, 
 the sympathetic strike. 
 
 In truth it is not exactly what its name 
 suggests, as will appear when we ana- 
 lyse the matter. 
 
 With these headings before us, we may 
 now ask whether arbitration should be 
 accepted universally, once for all, as a 
 cheaper, wiser mode of settling differ- 
 ences than the strike, with its necessary 
 losses imposed upon both parties ? 
 
 From the employees point of view, yes. 
 No official board of arbitration, no fair- 
 minded men specially chosen for an 
 occasion, will, in the average case, fail to 
 do as well or better for the wage-earner 
 than he can do for himself by a wasteful 
 strike. He should always try for it. 
 
 But the employer must hesitate ; some- 
 times he must refuse to submit to any one 
 other than himself the determination 
 of an intricate question involving his 
 financial existence. He knows that, in 
 general, no arbitrator can be supplied 
 with full information as to the special 
 branch of industry which is involved. 
 
Arbitration 39 
 
 And if this be supposed, it remains that 
 the arbitrator will almost certainly be 
 unable to seize the intricate conditions 
 surrounding the particular case condi- 
 tions which must be lived with in order 
 that they may be appreciated. 
 
 And if, in turn, this also be supposed, 
 he must hesitate to submit to another, 
 who has no further interest or responsi- 
 bility in the matter, questions of judg- 
 ment such as the quantity of reserve 
 capital required; the rates that may (or 
 must) be paid for borrowed money; the 
 character and extent of repairs; the char- 
 acter and extent of new plant to be 
 purchased; the character and extent of 
 experimental work to be done; the char- 
 acter and extent of changes to be made 
 in the product itself; the character and 
 extent of effort and expense to be made 
 for acquiring a wider market; and the 
 character and extent of efforts and 
 expense to be made in meeting com- 
 petition that foe which threatens un- 
 ceasingly! Yet all these are factors 
 determining the possible wage rates. 
 
40 Strikes 
 
 The employer knows, too, that at times 
 the disclosure of intimate facts affecting 
 his credit, even to some official (but 
 always human) board, may be followed 
 by prompt ruin. 
 
 In a hundred ways which every man 
 recognises who has himself had to face 
 a balance-sheet, the relation of the em- 
 ployer to his business is more complicated, 
 more delicate, more attackable than is 
 the relation of the wage-earner. 
 
 For the latter there is but one ques- 
 tion, "Will this employer give me more 
 money for a day's work than another?" 
 Or, in another form, " Will this employer 
 pay me in future more than he now 
 pays me for a day's work? And if he 
 refuses me an advance, can I get it from 
 another?" 
 
 As being one who is the weaker 
 (considered individually), the employe* 
 can generally rely upon the sympathy 
 of arbitrators and of the public. As 
 being one of many, all having political 
 power, he can generally rely upon the 
 play of interest in his favour as that 
 
Arbitration 41 
 
 play proceeds in the secret thoughts of 
 any ambitious arbitrator. 
 
 To decide against the workman's 
 demands, the investigator must patiently 
 dig into many details of wearisome 
 complexity. The simpler and the more 
 popular course is evidently to grant the 
 demand. 
 
 All this current that runs against him 
 is known to the employer. He must 
 therefore be very careful, if he submits 
 to arbitration, that exact and limiting 
 conditions shall be set about the power 
 of the arbitrators. And much as he 
 may deplore a contest of time with his 
 employe's, he must in self-preservation 
 frequently prefer such a contest to an 
 arbitration in which he surrenders his 
 judgment and his fortunes to men whose 
 knowledge and information must be less 
 than his, and whose fortunes are in no 
 way involved. 
 
 Often enough it is not the willingness but 
 the ability of an employer to pay higher 
 wages that is the real question at issue. 
 Even in the interest of the wage-earners 
 
42 Strikes 
 
 themselves, it may be better that an en- 
 terprise should be temporarily shut down 
 by a strike than that it should be sub- 
 jected, by arbitration, to impossible con- 
 ditions leading to ruin for all concerned. 
 
 It is plain that many of the objec- 
 tions to arbitration, from the employer's 
 point of view, do not hold in case 
 he be enjoying a monopoly. And in 
 such case the public as well as the em- 
 ployes may rightfully desire to know all 
 the facts and, substantially, to determine 
 the larger lines of the conduct of any 
 legalised monopoly. But this control 
 cannot be carried to its limit unless at 
 the same time a profit be guaranteed to 
 the enterprise. If a risk of loss be in- 
 volved, then must those who conduct the 
 enterprise be allowed a wide discretion in 
 return for that risk. 
 
 While it would not be unwise to make 
 arbitration obligatory upon certain statu- 
 tory monopolies, in making such a pro- 
 vision it should be recognised that 
 effective arbitration really involves pub- 
 licity, intentional or consequential. 
 
Arbitration 43 
 
 In respect to this question of the fair- 
 ness of publicity, the most vexatious 
 cases arise when a practical monopoly 
 is known to exist, though not founded 
 on any statute. The so-called "Trusts" 
 bring this difficulty sharply before us. 
 It is perplexing to deal with any hybrid. 
 They are partly public, partly private 
 enterprises. In treating them justly, in 
 the one character, we may treat them 
 unjustly even destructively in the 
 other. 
 
 It will be difficult to frame a law requir- 
 ing this publicity of practical though not 
 legal monopolies without at the same 
 time laying an almost insupportable bur- 
 den upon many enterprises, truly pri- 
 vate in practical as well as legal aspects. 
 A grave discouragement would un- 
 doubtedly be added to the many others 
 which always threaten, if dissatisfaction 
 among employe's should necessarily be 
 followed by two separate evils, that of 
 having every weak spot exposed to one's 
 competitor, and that of having control 
 of one's property put into the hands of 
 
44 Strikes 
 
 those who have neither the knowledge 
 nor the interest to assure wise action. 
 
 It will always be difficult for employes 
 to understand the seriousness of these 
 considerations. Those whose business 
 experience is limited to a discussion of 
 the simple question of "How much will 
 you give me for a day's labour?" will 
 always be unable to comprehend the 
 thousand complications surrounding the 
 conduct of a large business or even of a 
 small one if it is truly independent and 
 competitive. The employer's objection 
 to publicity will be construed as indicating 
 that he has something dishonest to hide. 
 His objection to having arbitrators fix 
 rates will be construed as indicating that 
 he is unwilling to be fair. 
 
 As a matter of fact, publicity would 
 more frequently put some struggling, 
 honest enterprise into the hands of its 
 competitors than it would reveal any 
 misdoing. 
 
 It is indeed a question as to whether 
 competition and publicity can go together. 
 The very end which the public in its own 
 
Arbitration 45 
 
 interest wishes to preserve would often 
 be defeated by such a requirement. 
 
 Many a young manufacturer or mer- 
 chant keeps his position safe against 
 attack just because his more powerful 
 competitors do not know how and where 
 he obtains help, and how closely he is 
 "sailing to the wind" in the matter of 
 capital reserve. 
 
 Experience has taught the author that 
 all this phase of our subject presents an 
 immense difficulty in the way of effecting 
 a sympathetic understanding between 
 contending parties. So great has it been 
 found by others, that if the employe's 
 be particularly restricted in experience, 
 it has often been thought best to enter 
 into no argument or explanation with 
 employe's making unreasonable demands, 
 but merely to say, " We cannot afford the 
 advance you desire. If you insist upon 
 it, and if we cannot get other workmen, 
 we must shut down.'' 
 
 This seems an unlovely conduct. It 
 is excusable, however, when the assertion 
 that " publicity may be injurious " is met 
 
46 Strikes 
 
 only by the assertion that " publicity can- 
 not harm an honest man " ; and when the 
 assertion that "arbitration by impartial 
 men may yet mean control by incom- 
 petent men " is met by the assertion that 
 " no special competency is required to run 
 any business; any unprejudiced man can 
 wisely settle any dispute between any 
 other two men." 
 
 The difference between the opposite 
 points of view herein disclosed comes 
 largely from the difference in the com- 
 plexity of the affairs of the contestants. 
 It seems almost ineradicable. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, look to arbitra- 
 tion as the cure-all for labour troubles. 
 It is useful. It is the cheapest medicine 
 of all. But in some cases it would kill 
 instead of cure. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 DOES IT PAY ? 
 
 WE may now return to the question, 
 "Does it pay?" Let us first consider 
 the case of a direct strike for higher wages. 
 
 Suppose we want a ten per cent, in- 
 crease. And suppose we get it at the 
 end of a month's strike, during which 
 there has been a total loss of wages. It 
 will require ten months at the higher 
 rate merely to put us even with the loss. 
 Beyond that period, the real net gain is 
 enjoyed, but not before. 
 
 A three-months' strike resulting in the 
 same increase (10 %) does not yield a 
 net gain before the expiration of thirty 
 months. 
 
 Changes in the general business condi- 
 tions of any country make it difficult to 
 rely upon the maintenance of any general 
 
 47 
 
48 Strikes 
 
 wage-scale throughout a period as long as 
 thirty months. Even if general business 
 conditions remain steady, the particular 
 industry in which the strikers are em- 
 ployed may be disturbed. And if the 
 particular industry should remain in 
 good condition, yet the particular em- 
 ployer in question may fall into trouble. 
 
 Consider these facts, and it will appear 
 that a three-months' strike for a ten 
 per cent, increase, even if successful, is 
 matter of doubtful wisdom. 
 
 The doubt becomes greater when we 
 take into account the probable suffering 
 or discomfort that may be borne during 
 the three months of idleness. 
 
 These months as well as those that 
 shall follow are parts of life as impor- 
 tant as any other. They come, and they 
 pass. Their chief value is in being filled 
 with happiness while they pass; their 
 secondary value is in being filled with 
 sacrifice for future possible happiness. 
 Some of those who have made the 
 sacrifice will not live long enough to 
 reap the due reward. How narrow, 
 
Does It Pay ? 49 
 
 then, is the margin of true profit in a 
 long strike! 
 
 It becomes even less when we remember 
 that the very act of enforcing more pay 
 for the employe*, by a strike, diminishes 
 the ability of the employer to pay at all. 
 The real fund from which he and the 
 employe's draw their wage is the capital 
 created by their combined work. Plainly 
 enough if there be no combined work there 
 will be no wage fund. And if the work be 
 done irregularly now a strike, now a pe- 
 riod of work it may be impossible that 
 the employer should compete successfully 
 amid the uncertainties and discourage- 
 ments of such intermittent operation. 
 
 Many an industry needs every favourable 
 condition in order that it may meet the 
 tireless foe of competition. 
 
 Every wise labour leader will strive 
 to see the employer's side of a contro- 
 versy, and every wise employer will try 
 to see the workman's side. For they 
 are in partnership. Friendship, not en- 
 mity, should be the normal relation, 
 profitable for both. It is unfortunate 
 
50 Strikes 
 
 that he who has always worked only for 
 wages (however high) can never under- 
 stand the trials of him who is the principal 
 of a business and must find the money 
 to meet the pay-roll. 
 
 It may be thought that whenever an 
 employer is known to be making profits 
 higher than the average return to capital, 
 the employe's should demand wages higher 
 than the average paid to workmen of 
 corresponding class in other enterprises. 
 In such an idea there is, indeed, this 
 much of truth: strikes can succeed only 
 when directed against employers who are 
 prosperous. Striking for higher wages 
 when a business is barely meeting oper- 
 ating expenses is almost as foolish as 
 trying to gather grapes from thistles. 
 
 Several reasons may be stated why 
 unusual profits should not be at once 
 absorbed by higher wages. 1 
 
 i In systems of profit-sharing and risk-sharing, the 
 special prosperity of the employing enterprise is auto- 
 matically distributed between Capital, Management, 
 and Labour. This is the ideal condition toward which 
 all efforts should be directed, but it is difficult of 
 attainment. 
 
Does It Pay? 51 
 
 Thus, it is necessary that occasional 
 profits to capital and management should 
 be large in order to cover the losses which 
 occur all too frequently. In seasons of 
 general prosperity, when labour is in 
 sharp demand, risk of loss in a particular 
 enterprise is borne almost entirely by 
 capital and management, not by the 
 particular wage-earners who may have 
 been employed in the unfortunate venture. 
 
 It is safe to say that if the hope of 
 unusual reward were taken away from 
 those who initiate enterprise, the world's 
 progress would be tremendously crippled. 
 
 "But," you may say, "does not this 
 hope lead men to make foolish ventures ? 
 
 " Are not all ventures which fail proven 
 to be foolish ventures? 
 
 "Are not the losses properly appor- 
 tioned to those who have shown lack of 
 wisdom? 
 
 "Would it not be just as well that no 
 enterprise should be permitted to earn 
 more than the present average return to 
 capital and management?" 
 
 And the answer is: "Who shall 
 
52 Strikes 
 
 determine what are wise enterprises and 
 what are foolish? 
 
 "Who can know absolutely to what 
 depth a vein of mineral goes until large 
 sums of money have been spent in ex- 
 ploring or working the mine? 
 
 "Who can foresee all the wars, all the 
 drouths, all the pestilence, all the migra- 
 tions of people from one country to 
 another of from one street to another? 
 
 "Who can know, without heroic effort 
 and great expenditure, whether a new 
 invention, which may be a universal 
 blessing, has or has not the merit which 
 it seems to possess?" 
 
 The mines from which men draw 
 wealth are tombs of broken hearts. The 
 "scrap-heaps" of the inventor's work- 
 shop are the wrecks of overworked minds; 
 the deserted factories are monuments of 
 dead ambitions. 
 
 The world receives and enjoys the suc- 
 cesses; it forgets the agonising failures 
 which have marked the way out of 
 ignorance to knowledge, out of weakness 
 to strength. 
 
Does It Pay ? 53 
 
 These failures are the involuntary 
 sacrifices made by individuals to the 
 progress of society. No one is wise 
 enough to teach or to learn success in one 
 lesson. 
 
 Some who read these pages may inquire, 
 "But cannot 'Government' direct all 
 these things more wisely?" And in an- 
 swer we need say only this: " Government 
 is no other than you and your neighbour. 
 Can you and he set it all right?" 
 
 No, we must go on in the future very 
 much as in the past. Something more of 
 co-operation perhaps. And this move- 
 ment may constantly approach the gen- 
 eral co-operation of Socialism. But if 
 that is the goal which Fate has set before 
 us we must be content to slacken the pace 
 of scientific progress. When every man 
 shall be relieved from great risk and 
 debarred from great success, there will 
 be less effort, less ambition; less waste 
 (perhaps) and less gain; less product and 
 we hope more happiness. 
 
 Let not the honest worker who thinks, 
 begrudge an occasional reward beyond 
 
54 Strikes 
 
 the average to those who strive beyond 
 the average. 
 
 Another reason standing against the im- 
 mediate absorption of unusual profits lies 
 in this, that in many enterprises ultimate 
 safety is to be had only by building up 
 large reserves. Without these, ruin may 
 fall upon employer and employe* alike. 
 
 No man can be sure as to just how far 
 such a policy should be carried, but before 
 striking at the profits of an employer, 
 this matter of' reserve should be well con- 
 sidered. At a later date, when some great 
 change in plant is needed; when some 
 exceptional competition is to be met; 
 when some great disaster by fire or flood 
 is to be covered, this reserve fund may 
 be the very force which must be avail- 
 able in order to keep the enterprise 
 going. And in that case, the employ 6 is 
 benefited, quite as much as any one else, 
 by the prudence of the manager who 
 did not at once pay out in dividends or 
 in increased wages every penny that was 
 earned above the ordinary returns to 
 capital. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 CAPITAL AND LABOUR 
 
 WIDESPREAD misunderstanding of the 
 real battle of labour is largely due to 
 the common phrase, "Capital versus 
 Labour." 
 
 Is it really Capital that has an interest 
 antagonistic to that of Labour? The 
 matter is worth investigating. 
 
 Labour means the active working man 
 of to-day. Capital means the raw ma- 
 terial of Nature, either unmodified or 
 modified by the man of yesterday, be he 
 dead or alive. We have a considerable 
 stock of modified raw material (capital) 
 because yesterday did not immediately 
 consume all that it produced. 
 
 Some of the world's capital is held by 
 idlers, generally through inheritance. 
 
 The idlers exist largely because of our 
 
 55 
 
56 Strikes 
 
 vanity, and our parental love. Vanity 
 may be hurtful, but it is universal. 
 Parental love is helpful, within limits, 
 and is almost universal. Both are "hu- 
 man nature" found alike in prince and 
 pauper. Acting together they endow 
 children with more property than they 
 need if the parents be rich. It is prob- 
 able that this right of endowment must 
 be severely limited. For the present, 
 the subject goes over. 
 
 But most of the world's capital is held 
 by workers. 
 
 The workers must be roughly divided 
 into two classes. The larger class, nu- 
 merically, consists of those who have 
 very little capital, and who require an 
 immediate return for their labour. They 
 are those usually known as "wage- 
 earners," " working men," "operatives," 
 or "employe's." Generally they work 
 under the direction of others. These 
 others constitute the second class of 
 workers. Directive workers we may call 
 them. They may have had from their 
 parents even less than the average 
 
Capital and Labour 57 
 
 support given to the children of wage- 
 earners. 
 
 In the beginning of many enterprises, 
 the man who furnishes the Direction is 
 just as much without capital as the 
 labourer whom he employs. But if this 
 directing man (or boy) has health and 
 brains and energy and thrift, he generally 
 earns more than he spends, and thus 
 becomes a "capitalist." 
 
 Every man who earns more than he 
 spends is a capitalist. Every wage- 
 earner with a few dollars in the savings- 
 bank is a capitalist, for these dollars 
 represent property. Every carpenter 
 owning a set of tools is a capitalist. His 
 tools are iron ore (natural resource) 
 modified by the labour of yesterday. 
 
 The average safe return to capital, as 
 suck, is from two to five per cent, per 
 annum. 
 
 Is there any serious quarrel with that ? 
 
 Many thousands of capitalists that 
 is the saving people all over the world 
 never get as high a return as four per 
 cent. 
 
58 Strikes 
 
 And it is to be remembered that this 
 average return is made up of the high 
 and the low. If you prevent the occa- 
 sional high returns without preventing 
 an equal proportion of low returns, the 
 average must be less than it is now. 
 
 If capital, as such, could not continue 
 to have the average return now received 
 by it, the savings-banks could not pay 
 the current interest on deposits. 
 
 The wage-earner who fights against 
 reasonable returns to capital is righting 
 against the majority of his class. He is 
 fighting against giving reward to thrift; 
 against giving a rental for the use of 
 tools. Without a rental they will not be 
 supplied by Smith, who may have them, 
 to Jones who wants to use them. Jones 
 is generally benefited, more than he is 
 injured, by paying rental for tools, or he 
 would not take them. 
 
 The real competition is between workers 
 and workers. As owners of capital, all 
 individuals of both classes are interested 
 in allowing fair returns to that which is 
 lent for hire. The question between 
 
Capital and Labour 59 
 
 them is, "What wage shall you get, and 
 what wage shall I get?" rather than, 
 " What return shall we pay to Capital, as 
 such?" 
 
 That which confuses many employe's as 
 to their relation toward capital is this 
 that often the " capitalist " and the " boss" 
 are one and the same. If Mr. John Smith 
 invests $100,000 in any manufacturing 
 business, and, being his own manager, 
 makes profits of $50,000 a year, Mr. 
 Smith the capitalist gets $4000 and Mr. 
 Smith the manager gets $46,000. 
 
 By a strike for higher wages you may 
 force him to give up some of the $46,000, 
 but you do not expect him to cut into 
 the $4000. If you do, it would be wise 
 to withdraw your money from the sav- 
 ings-bank at once, and take the sluggard 
 rather than the ant as your model citizen. 
 
 To put it in another way assume 
 that Mr. Smith has $100,000. He can 
 have $4000 per year without work. 
 Somebody will pay that for the use of 
 his capital. If he wants more, he must 
 work. He may employ himself and 
 
60 Strikes 
 
 lend to himself the $100,000. If he 
 be not an intelligent worker, he will 
 lose his capital. It would have been 
 wiser to have lent his money to some one 
 else. If he be clever and very indus- 
 trious, then we have the case of the 
 strong man getting rich by enterprise. 
 
 His position as a capitalist follows from 
 his efforts as a worker. 
 
 He is a bigger capitalist than the 
 average man, because he is a bigger 
 worker. Then his capital-holding reacts, 
 in the total result, upon his work done, 
 and we behold again that "to him that 
 hath it shall be given/* 
 
 Capital his own capital may be 
 worth more in his skilful hands than it 
 could be when employed by average in- 
 dustrial capacity. 
 
 So it is with the skilful carpenter. 
 His tools, cleverly used by himself, will 
 do far more work in a day, than when 
 hired to the average journeyman. The 
 happy marriage within his own home 
 of native capacity to good tools, becomes 
 a fruitful one. He is on the high-road 
 
UNJVtKbJTY 
 
 V / 
 
 v^ 
 
 Capital and Labour 61 
 
 to wealth. His companion, less gifted 
 than he, may have equally good tools, 
 but makes only half the value created by 
 the brighter man. 
 
 So it is throughout the working world. 
 One lawyer is paid ten times as much as 
 another for a day's work. 
 
 One man-of-God is paid ten times as 
 much as another for preaching the same 
 gospel of poverty. 
 
 The clever labourer, the clever me- 
 chanic, the clever telegrapher, the clever 
 clerk, the clever lawyer all these, when 
 they have only a little capital, are known 
 as labourer, mechanic, telegrapher, etc., 
 etc. When they have much capital 
 though workers in one way or another 
 they are known as "capitalists." They 
 lead the other workers and divide the 
 proceeds with them. But not always 
 is there happy agreement as to the divi- 
 sion. Those who have gone up from the 
 ranks of "Labour" are found, all over 
 the world, as employers, striving with 
 poorer workers to settle questions of com- 
 pensation. It is worker against worker. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHO WILL FURNISH HIGHER WAGES? 
 
 WE may assume that the capitalist, 
 as such, is retired from the field of inquiry. 
 He is not in question, because all of us 
 are capitalists all except the tramp, 
 happier, perhaps, than we. 
 
 How much more can ordinary wage- 
 earners take from the general product 
 than is now received by them? 
 
 Moral and legal is the strike for higher 
 wages. Profitable it may be, and some- 
 times is. But to what limit may it or 
 any other wage-raising device be pushed 
 before reaching the point where failure 
 will be due to an exhaustion of the sup- 
 ply of product assignable to the pay of 
 labour ? 
 
 Between what classes of people is the 
 
 product now divided ? 
 62 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 63 
 
 It has already been pointed out that 
 there are two classes of workers, those 
 who plan and direct, and those who 
 execute, the world's work. 
 
 Is not this true within the labour union 
 itself? Let us develop the subject some- 
 what further. 
 
 Some workers will be found in a neutral 
 ground between the two well-marked 
 types. The foreman who controls a 
 gang of ten or twenty labourers; the 
 locomotive engineer who controls a fire- 
 man; the railway conductor who controls 
 a train-gang all these wage-earners have 
 mixed functions. In part they merely 
 execute, by hand or tongue, the direc- 
 tions of others ; in part they are themselves 
 the source of direction for subordinates. 
 No hard-and-fast distinction can be made. 
 
 However, we may say that those who 
 plan enterprises, and those who must 
 largely exercise discretion in the guidance 
 of their own acts, or those of subordi- 
 nates, constitute the class whom we 
 designate as directive labourers. They 
 may be railway presidents or newsboys, 
 
64 Strikes 
 
 promoters of railways (that is, those who 
 conceive the idea and raise the money), 
 bankers, contractors, merchants (whether 
 running a corner grocery or a big depart- 
 ment store). Even the newsboy, who 
 is a self-directed worker, taking the risk 
 on his purchase of morning papers, may 
 be said to be in the same classification 
 with Mr. Rockefeller, who risked his 
 young fortune in oil. The highly-paid 
 mason, who waits for some one else to 
 plan a building and find the money for 
 its construction, is put under less men- 
 tal strain than the youth who ventures 
 his own judgment and his own small 
 hoard in some humble, but independent 
 enterprise. 
 
 The one, when he lays down his trowel, 
 may dismiss every care for the day. 
 The other must ever be ready to burn 
 the midnight oil in planning for the 
 morrow. 
 
 The one lives in a ready-made world. 
 The other helps to make it. Each, in 
 his own way, is essential to the life of 
 society as we find it. 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 65 
 
 Vain would be the projects of a Rocke- 
 feller if there were not strong arms and 
 deft hands to tap the oil, to lay the pipe, 
 to shovel the coal, to steer the ships, to 
 write the accounts, to send the tele- 
 grams, to tighten the barrels, to drive 
 the waggons, to collect the bills, to cook 
 the food. 
 
 A thousand capacities, talents, and for- 
 titudes must be enlisted, together with 
 mere brute strength of arm, in order 
 that a single train may speed over the 
 railroad which has been planned by the 
 far-seeing promoter and financed by 
 the courageous banker. We are, indeed, 
 all companions-in-arms, and our battle is 
 against hunger, thirst, cold, and a myriad 
 of desires for love, power, beauty. That 
 is the battle of Life. Generals, colonels, 
 majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, 
 corporals, and privates are we many 
 grades, and but one army. 
 
 No booty can be had except by com- 
 bined effort of all those grades. Not 
 every man is capable of planning the 
 campaign. Not every man is capable of 
 
66 Strikes 
 
 controlling a regiment a company 
 a platoon. Not every striker can wisely 
 conduct a strike. Not every wage-earner 
 has the qualities that make a labour 
 leader. And if, indeed, these capacities 
 exist in many, yet economy in the use 
 of available forces, and effectiveness of 
 execution, would require that only a few 
 should actually be assigned to directive 
 functions, while the many must be em- 
 ployed in carrying out the plans of the 
 few. 
 
 It is probable that the relatively free 
 competition of our present organisation 
 of society affords an excellent means of 
 selecting the officers of the army. The 
 process is in large part that which takes 
 place in the "struggle for existence" 
 among all living things. In large part 
 it results in a "survival of the fittest." 
 
 There is indeed one serious departure 
 from this process that due to the inheri- 
 tance of fortune. The son who is per- 
 mitted to take his father's wealth becomes 
 either an idle holder of capital, or he 
 becomes an "officer," whether capa- 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 67 
 
 ble or not. Even though unfit, years 
 or generations may pass ere society can 
 eliminate him from his post. This seri- 
 ous question will be relegated to a later 
 inquiry, in another work. No final ad- 
 justment of wealth distribution can be 
 made before the inheritance question 
 shall have received attention. But the 
 scope of this treatise forbids its thorough 
 study. 
 
 Another disturbance of the rule of 
 sound choice of leaders results from the 
 caprice of nature. The prospector who 
 chances to discover a rich vein of gold is 
 not thereby proven to be more capable 
 than his companion who just misses it. 
 Yet he becomes an officer of our industrial 
 army. Here again we shall now merely 
 touch upon an important subject. 
 
 It will be possible to conclude an in- 
 quiry for present guidance in the mat- 
 ter of strikes without reconstruction of 
 society. 
 
 Let us assume that the method of 
 choosing officers is not now to be changed. 
 We may yet inquire and we do now 
 
68 Strikes 
 
 persistently inquire how the relative 
 pay of officers and men shall be deter- 
 mined. To-day it is a catch-as-catch- 
 can determination. 
 
 To a large degree, it must remain so in 
 any competitive, private-property organi- 
 sation of industry. For if the state 
 shall undertake to determine the profits 
 of each person, it makes itself responsible 
 for all individual remunerations, and 
 must control all industry in order to 
 make good its guaranty. Just in so far 
 as it now fixes the remuneration of its 
 direct employes, so is it forced corre- 
 spondingly to intervene in private busi- 
 ness, and raise money for the payment 
 of its salaries. 
 
 As to how far the state shall go in 
 employing individuals hence in paying 
 them and in taxing citizens to provide 
 this payment is not this the very heart 
 of most of our political struggles ? 
 
 Here again we shall assume no imme- 
 diate and considerable change in present 
 conditions. We shall suppose about the 
 same ratio of state activity to private 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 69 
 
 activity as now exists in Europe and 
 America. In these states the amount of 
 property which each man may call his 
 own as the sun goes down on his labour 
 must be chiefly determined by private 
 contract between himself and others. 
 
 What indication have the wage-earners 
 (the privates and corporals of our indus- 
 trial army) as to the limits of demand 
 they may wisely make in these contracts ? 
 
 It is plain, as has been indicated, that 
 neither could afford to lose the service of 
 the other. The private needs the general ; 
 the general needs the private, and both 
 want all they can get. 
 
 Such a declaration may seem harsh ; it 
 may seem equivalent to a refusal to rec- 
 ognise the common human kindness of our 
 race. Yet how can we fail to accept it 
 as expressing the usual rule of action? 
 How can we fail to see that this rule, 
 and not its exceptions, should be consid- 
 ered in a serious study of our problems? 
 
 The man who receives one dollar a day 
 wants more because his crudest necessi- 
 ties of life are in peril. 
 
70 Strikes 
 
 The man who has five dollars a day 
 wants more because a hundred tempting 
 comforts and little luxuries are just 
 beyond his means, and old age waits in 
 front to take away his income. 
 
 The man who has twenty dollars a day 
 is in full rivalry for the "good things" 
 of life, and seeks to ''establish" his 
 family. 
 
 The man who has five hundred dollars 
 a day has full provisions of all lux- 
 uries, but aims now at power or large 
 philanthropy. 
 
 The man who has five thousand dollars 
 a day is a great power, and, though per- 
 haps giving lavishly with one hand, must 
 continue to make prudent contracts with 
 the other, else he may debauch the in- 
 dustrial system around him, bringing 
 disorder and distress into thousands of 
 less successful lives. So long as he buys 
 and sells, he must see that he gets a fair 
 "value received," or he will corrupt his 
 surroundings. 
 
 Indeed the very service which he may 
 best perform for all of us might be lost 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 71 
 
 should he clfcse to observe the methods 
 by which he has, presumably, contributed 
 to the wealth of society. He may con- 
 tinue to be an ideal leader of a brigade of 
 our army, but only on condition that 
 downright charity shall be in one depart- 
 ment of his activity, and productive 
 business in another. Liberality, but 
 not charity, should mark his business 
 dealings. 
 
 Often must he refuse the demands of 
 some who look to him, if he would remain 
 in position to profitably direct all who 
 look to him. 
 
 And so it is that private contracts, 
 even with the philanthropist, must 
 generally result from contest and com- 
 promise. And contest is of the very 
 essence of liberty. We may, and do, 
 profit our weary souls by giving up some 
 liberty and escaping some contest. Let 
 us remember that if we entirely escape 
 the contest we shall entirely sacrifice the 
 liberty. 
 
 If the man who is earning five dollars a 
 day desires to know whether society can 
 
72 Strikes 
 
 *. 
 
 afford to pay him six do'H^fc; instead of 
 five, he should look, not to what the 
 generals are receiving, but to what they 
 are spending. Under our present system 
 of private property, the very efficiency 
 and usefulness to you of the Captain 
 of Industry is (generally) measured by 
 the amount of property which passes 
 under his control. 
 
 Save by way of inheritance or the rare 
 chance of adventure, or of special privi- 
 lege from the state, no man becomes 
 the owner of large fractions of society's 
 product who has not largely served 
 society in production. He is command- 
 ing more troops than another (in the 
 handling of his property) because he has 
 proved his ability to command. 
 
 He who has wealth measured as five 
 thousand dollars may command the 
 services of about four thousand common 
 labourers for one day. Or he may com- 
 mand, let us say, two thousand average 
 wage-earners, for one day. 
 
 Now our true interest lies, not so much 
 in taking away these commands from 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 73 
 
 competenWjBfers, as in seeing that the 
 two thousand men be employed usefully 
 to the general average of us. The mere 
 power over these men may be left to a 
 leader, provided he keeps his brigade at 
 what we shall call useful work. 
 
 Well, what shall we call useful work? 
 
 Shall we thus class the one hundred 
 men who may be serving our leader as 
 lackeys? 
 
 And the twenty men who may be 
 engaged in digging and polishing dia- 
 monds to deck the bodies of our leader's 
 women ? 
 
 And the twenty men who may be 
 engaged in singing and dancing for the 
 amusement of these women ? 
 
 And the thirty men who may be 
 engaged in decorating and repairing the 
 sheltering roof of the leader's family ? 
 
 And the thirty men who may be 
 engaged in trapping birds in the tropics, 
 beasts in the Arctic, and worms in the 
 middle zone for the head-gear and body- 
 gear of his women? 
 
 Nay, these are not usefully occupied. 
 
74 Strikes 
 
 But, say they of small wSpiff, does not 
 the rich man support these two hundred ? 
 Is he not doing well to keep them alive? 
 And the answer is, that these men eat 
 grain which has been planted by other 
 workers, and are clothed by the labour of 
 others. 
 
 The rich man, who controls many, 
 virtually directs certain farmers and 
 weavers to support these two hundred 
 who live for his pleasure. He has the 
 legal right to do this. Perhaps he has 
 added the value of two hundred men's 
 work and more besides to the world's 
 wealth. 
 
 But as long as he does it, the man who 
 receives three dollars may hope for four, 
 and ask for four, and strike for four. 
 
 Why? Because if the two hundred 
 men would stop Imnting diamonds and 
 aigrettes, if they would cease running a 
 thousand futile errands, if they would 
 in general end their task of painting the 
 lily of luxury, then they might be engaged 
 in making more ordinary coats and hats, 
 in building more ordinary comfortable 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 75 
 
 houses, in producing more ordinary com- 
 forting food. And if there were but more 
 of these common comforts in the world 
 (and not so many diamonds) then our 
 three - dollar - a - day friend could have 
 more of them. And that is what he 
 wants. And that is what is meant 
 when an increase of a dollar a day is 
 properly interpreted into the language of 
 the household. 
 
 Let us suppose that the two hundred 
 men who have heretofore served the 
 leader's personal wants be now directed 
 to the supply of materials desired by the 
 "common herd." Let us suppose that 
 they do nothing more than support 
 themselves in the true sense of the word. 
 
 That is, instead of hunting diamonds or 
 polishing automobile brasses, they raise 
 corn and weave clothes, and make shoes 
 sufficient for two hundred ordinary peo- 
 ple. Then it is clear that the common 
 materials heretofore supplied to them 
 by the labour of others may be kept by 
 the original producers, or, in part, distrib- 
 uted to other wage-earners a consum- 
 
76 Strikes 
 
 mation most devoutly to be wished for. 
 
 From this point of view it may be 
 said that the employer of these two 
 hundred men does really consume their 
 possible product in the common things 
 of life. 
 
 Until we give a full belly, a warm body, 
 a separate room, and a good book to 
 every human being willing and able to 
 work, we may doubt whether diamond 
 diggers, aigrette hunters, lace makers, and 
 lackeys are being profitably employed. 
 
 It is not forgotten that the poor have 
 always delighted in display. To them 
 it is at once a symbol and a reality. It 
 is the very substance of things hoped 
 for, and the sign of a state of bliss vaguely 
 imagined and intensely longed for. To 
 destroy display would take out of the 
 lives of many the visible proof of value 
 in human life as they measure it. So 
 powerful is this sentiment that the 
 majority of those whose lives are una- 
 dorned do willingly vote supplies to 
 their Rulers, with express condition that 
 these other chosen lives shall be adorned 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 77 
 
 with pomp and tinsel. These Rulers 
 become priests of the poor, gorgeously to 
 officiate in the temple of the God of 
 Plenty. Only a few may enter there, 
 but the presence of even a few inspires 
 all with hope, and assures them that a 
 material Heaven is. So there is no envy 
 when the priest is chosen by the people. 
 
 Corrupting extravagance has been 
 excused by many political economists, 
 because "it gives employment to the 
 poor.'* In all the arguments to this 
 effect there is no truth save this, that 
 those workers who are actually now 
 engaged in the production of luxuries 
 for the rich might indeed suffer somewhat 
 during any period of sharp decline in the 
 demand for such luxuries. The present 
 would suffer for the sins of the past. 
 
 So grave might this suffering be, so 
 difficult any quickly enforced adjustment 
 that even the most Spartan reformer 
 must hesitate to advise any course which 
 would at once throw out of work the 
 thousands who are skilled only in the 
 crafts patronised by Dives. Diamond 
 
78 Strikes 
 
 diggers, aigrette hunters, and lackeys 
 cannot, in the twinkling of an eye, turn 
 to farming, weaving, or shoe-making. 
 
 But we should not permit these con- 
 siderations to obscure our vision as to the 
 future. We should not fail to urge 
 voluntary diminishment of extravagance ; 
 and if this be not effective, to urge for 
 continuously higher wages to the ordi- 
 nary worker, so that the means for ex- 
 travagance shall not be so largely placed 
 in the hands of those who take joy only 
 in the tinsel things of life. 
 
 Yes, we may urge this restraint and 
 this redistribution of labour and wealth. 
 
 But what if the gifted inventors and 
 the great organisers of business (true 
 "labour leaders" these) should refuse 
 their service unless they be permitted to 
 keep the two hundred men busy in the 
 supply of luxury to themselves and their 
 women ? 
 
 Truly, we must bargain with them. 
 How great their value is to us no man 
 can say. 
 
 The three elements of the problem are: 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 79 
 
 First. How much does the superior 
 man increase the world's production 
 over that which would be due to the 
 average work of the ordinary man? 
 
 Second. How much does the superior 
 man consume (in necessities and luxu- 
 ries) beyond the average consumption of 
 the ordinary man? 
 
 Third. How much of the world's pro- 
 duction does the superior man merely 
 control (without consuming it), satisfied 
 with the power of directing capital for 
 further production? 
 
 More briefly we may ask What does 
 he add? What does he subtract? That 
 which he merely holds and directs as our 
 agent is still ours, and its use must be 
 of general benefit. Curtailment of this 
 control may be important politically 
 that is, he who thus controls may 
 offend merely by being too powerful 
 but just now we are inquiring as to how 
 much of production is consumed away 
 from us, thus rendered unavailable for 
 increase of wages. 
 
 How much does the superior man add ? 
 
8o Strikes 
 
 We cannot say exactly. Yet a little 
 thought makes one feel that without him 
 the ordinary man would probably starve 
 in all parts of the world save a few regions 
 of easy climate and "volunteer" crops. 
 Remember that to the common labourer 
 or other employe* at the bottom of the 
 series, his foreman is the first superior 
 man. To the foreman his superintendent 
 is the first superior man. To the super- 
 intendent, his manager; to the manager, 
 his general manager ; to the general mana- 
 ger, that employer (president or owner) 
 who has planned and toiled and risked 
 all. And there are the inventors, toiling 
 in garrets later, perhaps, in palaces to 
 materialise the ideas, which are the forces 
 with which we conquer Nature. How 
 shall we measure their production? And 
 there are the pure scientists poor scien- 
 tists sometimes, in property who study 
 the intricacies of Nature's laws, turning 
 over to the inventor the information out 
 of which his ideas are born. Without 
 such men, might we not still be in breech- 
 clouts all of us? 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 81 
 
 Must we not exercise the very great- 
 est care to preserve conditions permitting 
 these superior men to be born, and per- 
 mitting their faculties to be usefully 
 applied? Even if we charge them with 
 selfishness in respect to the rewards they 
 demand, must we not, in our own wise 
 selfishness, hesitate long before we reject 
 those demands? 
 
 Should not the ordinary man study 
 the " human nature " of the much-needed 
 extraordinary man with the same cold 
 utilitarian motive which directs the study 
 of climate and of soil? Shall we shut 
 our eyes to the fact that in order to live 
 at all we must deal with a thousand 
 varying capacities among men, and a 
 thousand varying motives? 
 
 Among those who work under foreman, 
 superintendent, and manager, are the 
 millions of wage-earners for whom and 
 by whom the strike and the union exist. 
 
 They act together; they may seem to 
 be a uniform mass, yet a thousand grades 
 of physical and mental value go to make 
 up their aggregate productive capacity. 
 
82 Strikes 
 
 Whether we will or not, we are various ; 
 we are not uniform in strength for the 
 battle of life. 
 
 Now let the stronger and the wiser, 
 even of these millions of directed men and 
 women, ask themselves this question 
 "What would become of us if every 
 one of us, dirt-diggers, dish-washers, 
 street-cleaners, stokers, coal-miners, farm- 
 hands, brakemen, mill-workers, packers, 
 teamsters, longshoremen were reduced 
 in capacity to the level of the least 
 efficient among us? 
 
 "What would be the world's produc- 
 tion if none of us locomotive engineers, 
 painters, machinists, carpenters, masons, 
 typographers, stenographers, telegraph- 
 ers were cleverer than poor Smith, 
 whose dulness and laziness almost ex- 
 haust our helpful sympathy? We may 
 know that he can't help being what he is, 
 but what would the world be if all were 
 like him?" 
 
 Let the foreman of ten ask himself this 
 question "What progress could I make 
 on this job if I did not give the word of 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 83 
 
 command to every thoughtless, careless 
 workman?" Let the superintendent ask 
 himself this question "What progress 
 could I make on this job if I did not 
 continually lay out and inspect the work 
 of each foreman? And what waste and 
 loss in the world's production would 
 occur if I could not shift these foremen 
 and draw the better men up from the 
 ranks?" 
 
 Is not every employer on the alert to 
 discover competency, industry, reliability 
 among his subordinates? 
 
 Is not the history of the race full of 
 sad stories of loss, of failure, because the 
 right man, the competent man, was not in 
 charge of this or that enterprise ? 
 
 Is not one housewife, one general, one 
 business manager found to conduct ad- 
 mirably a house, an army, or a business, 
 with resources not larger than are in the 
 hands of another housewife, general, or 
 manager, who miserably fails in the task? 
 
 Is not one locomotive equal in trans- 
 portation work to thousands of men? 
 And is not the locomotive, in its 
 
84 Strikes 
 
 invention, in its design and manufacture, 
 and in its operation, the child of the 
 unusual man? 
 
 Let the whole world of salaried people 
 ask themselves these questions: "Have 
 I the strength to bear the strains of risk? 
 Have I the peculiar quality of leadership ? 
 Have I the imagination, controlled by 
 judgment, which must go to the planning 
 of this enterprise which, somehow, fur- 
 nishes me employment? Can I invent 
 a machine to cheaply shape this stubborn 
 material?" 
 
 Truly, one cannot measure the value 
 of what he adds he, the superior man. 
 Some glimpse we may have of it by noting 
 the poverty of those societies in which 
 ambition for military or political or 
 religious honour has for a time drawn 
 away from production a large majority 
 of the active minds found in the land. 
 
 Europe in the early Middle Ages tells 
 us how poor in value was the average 
 human life when the commercial classes 
 were despised; how vain were the efforts 
 of religion to cheer ignorant peoples until 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 85 
 
 the trading republics of Italy had relighted 
 the torch of civilisation. That torch 
 was seen to be held in the hands of 
 him who directed human labour to high 
 production. 
 
 Accuracy in this matter is indeed 
 beyond us. Yet reflection will cause 
 most men to agree that a great invention, 
 a great business plan, may annually add 
 to the general fund much more than the 
 value of the labour of two hundred or- 
 dinary men. And observation will tell 
 us that the men who thus add to our store 
 are rarely those who largely waste that 
 which they have helped to create. 
 
 Power over it they desire, and that 
 respect which special ability commands 
 when it shows the fruit of its labour. 
 But senseless luxury is usually despised 
 by the real workers those who have 
 spent weary hours, days, years in plan- 
 ning and directing the great workings 
 of their time. Sometimes they gratify 
 a costly whim. Often they cater to the 
 vanity of their women. Generally, how- 
 ever, the habit of reasonable economy 
 
86 Strikes 
 
 is fixed upon them. It is only when 
 special privilege or effortless inheritance 
 have endowed the slothful with much 
 property that we see those glaring exam- 
 ples of luxurious waste which stir the 
 philosopher in his study and the work- 
 man at his bench. 
 
 It has already been said that those 
 two questions must be later treated by 
 society. The issue is more urgent in 
 Europe than in America, because privi- 
 lege and inheritance have there exerted 
 more widespread influence than in the 
 new world. 
 
 Just now we may perhaps conclude 
 that the true labour leaders that is, the 
 inventors and the managers (in all then- 
 grades) probably add to, far more than 
 they subtract from, the general store 
 of wealth. 
 
 Now the principal tools which they 
 use for production are other men. The 
 figure of speech may be permitted, al- 
 though it is not forgotten that these 
 tools are the co-operators of him who 
 uses them. They are men who will 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages? 87 
 
 share with their Director the common 
 fruit of their toil. And both will con- 
 tribute to the support of certain parasites 
 whom we have not yet learned how to kill 
 without hurting ourselves. 
 
 Now, if the Director's tools are good, 
 the total production will be high. If 
 they are bad, total production will be 
 low. 
 
 The wants of the Director for his own 
 consumption will remain substantially 
 the same in either case. That which is 
 left over after this approximately con- 
 stant consumption has been satisfied 
 constitutes a store from which increase 
 of wages may be drawn. 
 
 Hence if you, the wage-earner, would 
 have a larger wage-fund, let your work in 
 co-operation with him who directs it be 
 as productive as possible. Do not restrict, 
 but endeavour to augment your individual 
 output. Then will your share be greater 
 in a greater store. 
 
 If the brick-layer will lay one thousand 
 bricks per day, instead of six hundred, 
 there will in the end be more comfortable 
 
88 Strikes 
 
 quarters for all workmen. Nothing can 
 defeat this rule, always saving the effect 
 of special privilege and effortless inheri- 
 tance, both of which causes should be 
 (and one of which is) fairly well limited 
 in our modern democracies. 
 
 But to all this you may say " Do we 
 not get the services of judges, of cabinet 
 ministers, of legislators for a small frac- 
 tion of the sum paid to, and consumed 
 by, the great captains of industry ? Are 
 not those public officers called upon to 
 work as severely, and with as much 
 originality as the big employer? Should 
 he not be held within those limits of 
 compensation which satisfy those public 
 servants ? In the United States may not 
 that limit be, let us say, $25,000 per 
 year?" 
 
 And the answer is first the work is 
 not as hard or as original as that of the 
 captain of industry. And it does not 
 involve the strain and risk that go with 
 private enterprise. Every wage-earner, 
 in private life, is under greater strain than 
 the most elevated state-employe*, whose 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 89 
 
 "job" is practically secure. Second, 
 without destroying the present basis of 
 our whole fabric of industry, without 
 upsetting the little groceryman, as well 
 as the merchant prince, you cannot put 
 these men on salaries. Nor can you 
 practically contract with them that they 
 may control, as their private property, 
 but for your general use, five million 
 dollars' worth of wealth, while consuming 
 only $25,000 worth of this property 
 every year. 
 
 Something of the sort has been at- 
 tempted by various sumptuary laws; 
 the effect has been generally disastrous, 
 though the efforts have been less drastic 
 than would be involved in such a rule 
 as that just suggested. The sentiment 
 of service is growing of service by each 
 for all. Those to whom nature has 
 given strength now tend to use it for 
 others. 
 
 This sentiment of service, aided by the 
 steady pressure of the wage-earners' de- 
 mands, will limit the material compensa- 
 tion exacted by the superior man. Partly 
 
90 Strikes 
 
 through compulsion, partly through de- 
 sire, he will take a little less property a 
 little more popularity. 
 
 Accepting then the theory that leaders 
 generally add more than they subtract, 
 and that their product will increase 
 with the efficiency of their employe's, 
 and that the actual consumption by 
 them will not increase in due ratio with 
 this product, we see that the efficiency 
 of ike wage-earner sets the limit more 
 than any other one controllable condition 
 to the fund out of which may come any 
 increase of consumption by the wage- 
 earner^ 
 
 So the leader of a labour union is 
 supposed to add in value to the labour 
 movement more than he subtracts by 
 consuming his salary. And so also his 
 results will be greater in proportion to 
 the enthusiasm, intelligence, and indus- 
 trious co-operation of the members who 
 elect him. The product to be manufac- 
 tured is improvement of the wage-earner's 
 condition. The labour-leader's tools in 
 the manufacture of this product are his 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 91 
 
 constituents; dull tools make poor pro- 
 duct; keen tools make good product. 
 
 How far away is this conclusion from 
 the theory acted upon by many unions! 
 
 How mistaken is the principle which 
 causes them to hamper the individual 
 in his output! 
 
 How much richer would all of us be 
 by virtue of unchecked individual pro- 
 duction, paid for on the piece-work 
 system! 
 
 How beneficent will be the final 
 triumph of Co-operation! 
 
 How fatherly and motherly will be the 
 future union enfolding together general 
 manager and common labourer ! 
 
 Yet not even then shall we see equality 
 of compensation, for we shall never see 
 equality of production. In such case, 
 equality would be inequitable. 
 
 And as to co-operation fairly easy 
 when the farm has been cleared; when 
 the ship has been launched; when the 
 factory has been built and the experi- 
 ments paid for. But where is the group 
 of workmen who can, or will, "co-oper- 
 
92 Strikes 
 
 ate/ 7 in the uncertain stages of an enter- 
 prise? How can they be held together 
 over the long periods of preparation, of 
 doubt, of struggle, of disappointment? 
 
 When, in anger, they cry out against 
 the present system; when, in their inex- 
 perience, they vainly imagine that the 
 upbuilding of enterprises is only sitting 
 in an office to sign letters that somebody 
 writes then let them ask a mother what 
 it is to bear a child and nurture its infancy. 
 Let them propose "co-operation" as to 
 its up-bringing after the age of fifteen! 
 From her they may learn that the pain 
 and the cost and the risk of things is 
 borne when the thing is young be it boy 
 or business. From her they may learn 
 wisdom. 
 
 Verily the way is long, but let it not be 
 darkened by hate. 
 
 Will it be possible, by any means 
 whatever, to permanently fix the wage- 
 scale as between these two competitors? 
 
 No; unless perhaps through the estab- 
 lishment of a tyranny, which shall impose 
 its will upon both parties. If we are to 
 
Who Will Pay Higher Wages ? 93 
 
 be free we must anticipate constant 
 struggle. 
 
 Perfect peace is had only in a perfectly 
 accepted slavery. 
 
 Even the democratic tyrant Socialism 
 would be unable to settle without turmoil 
 the disputes of interest, between classes 
 and between individuals. For the will 
 and the power of the Socialistic state 
 are but the resultant will and power of 
 clashing desires among the people. Its 
 action must always flow from compro- 
 mise; and compromise is the fruit of 
 struggle. 
 
 Jones and Smith have different capaci- 
 ties and conflicting desires. They are 
 not given the wisdom to measure each 
 other's capacity, nor the will to yield to 
 each other's desires. 
 
 We dream vainly if we dream of stop- 
 ping the contest between them. 
 
 We work wisely if we strive to make 
 this contest orderly, and to free it from 
 bitterness. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 CONCLUSIONS AS TO STRIKES FOR HIGHER 
 PAY 
 
 SEVERAL chapters have now been 
 devoted to discussion of the strike for 
 higher pay. If our reasonings be correct, 
 the lesson from all this may be put thus: 
 
 Strikes for higher wages should be 
 directed only against prosperous enter- 
 prises, but against even these there 
 should be moderation; and understanding 
 should be had of the following facts: (i) 
 There must be failures where there is 
 progress. (2) Without occasional special 
 rewards men would not risk capital and 
 brains in ventures which make progress. 
 (3) Reserves made up from special 
 profits are valuable to wage-earners as 
 well as to managers. (4) The sacrifice 
 of pay during the strike-period should 
 
 94 
 
Strikes for Higher Pay 95 
 
 be carefully weighed against the proposed 
 increase. (5) Against any employer who 
 is having a hard struggle, no strike can 
 pay. (6) The strike is a two-edged 
 sword. Every time it swings, it clips a 
 feather (or a wing) from the goose that 
 lays the golden egg. (7) The true title 
 of our case is not "Labour versus 
 Capital," but "Labour versus Labour/* 
 It is a family quarrel. (8) Some in- 
 crease of pay to ordinary wage-earners 
 may come by way of subtraction from the 
 pay of Directive Labour, but chiefly such 
 increase must come from increase of pro- 
 duction. (9) High production comes 
 from high efficiency of both classes of 
 workers. (10) No permanent rate of pay 
 as between the two classes can be fixed 
 in a free competitive industrial system. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE EIGHT-HOUR DAY 
 
 THE strike for shorter hours is usually 
 made with the condition that the pay 
 per day shall remain the same. It is 
 desired to receive the same amount for 
 nine or eight hours' work as had been 
 received before for ten or nine hours. 
 
 From the workman's point of view 
 this is almost a necessary condition. 
 Except in a few highly paid services, he 
 does not receive enough to permit a 
 reduction without dropping below the 
 scale of comfort and enlightenment which 
 are necessary to make him a good citizen. 
 
 He likes to believe that his shorter 
 hours of labour will be so much more 
 effective than a longer day that the 
 employer need not calculate upon a loss 
 
 of income should he yield to the demand. 
 9 6 
 
The Eight-Hour Day 97 
 
 Undoubtedly there has been much truth 
 in such an argument when applied to 
 reducing working hours from twelve or 
 fourteen to the lower average which now 
 exists. 
 
 Undoubtedly, many employers were 
 blind to the facts; they often opposed 
 those reductions which changed a tired 
 animal into an intelligent workman. 
 Nothing but good has resulted from the 
 change; good to master and to workman. 
 
 But, all this being granted, it remains 
 true that somewhere the line must be 
 drawn. A man will not produce as much 
 in two hours per day as in ten hours. 
 Ten hours may be longer than is good; 
 but two hours, or three, or four, or five 
 these short working periods will not 
 suffice in the present state of the indus- 
 trial arts. 
 
 The employer must calculate the values 
 at stake. An error in this calculation 
 may mean ruin. In any particular case, 
 the values are fairly definite, from his 
 point of view and must be weighed. 
 
 But from the workman's point of view 
 
 i 
 
98 Strikes 
 
 it is different. For who can measure 
 the value in happiness of one hour's 
 leisure ? And who can weigh this coveted 
 hour against the months of privations 
 that may be required to obtain it? A 
 wife's welcome, a child's caress it is in 
 this coin that the cost of the sacrifice 
 shall be repaid. 
 
 If the love of work itself be destroyed 
 by the narrow, impersonal, uninspiring 
 relation of modern machinery to the 
 artisan's thought; if the human bond 
 of companionship be destroyed by the 
 narrow, impersonal relation of the master 
 with the great working groups whom 
 he employs ; if work thus degenerates into 
 drudgery, then this hour of leisure may 
 mean, not one twenty-fourth, not one 
 twelfth, of the value of life, but one third 
 or one half of it nay, all of the value 
 worth struggling for. If uncongenial 
 labour fill ten hours; and dead sleep fill 
 nine hours; and the body's care fill one 
 hour; and the noisy shuttle of tram-car 
 movement fill one hour then only three 
 are left for living. In this short term 
 
The Eight-Hour Day 99 
 
 is the soul of the day. What shall it 
 avail the world to gain a mountain of 
 merchandise and lose its soul? 
 
 Here we need no accuracy of compari- 
 son for balancing of profit and loss. If 
 physical comfort can at all be had through 
 eight hours* work of the general body, 
 then so let it be that the race may 
 live. The adjustment is difficult. Com- 
 petition makes it so. A single employer 
 is almost helpless in the matter. He 
 may believe in the righteousness of an 
 eight-hour day, or even a shorter one; 
 he may long to yield to a demand; or, 
 before the demand, to voluntarily give 
 increase of pay and decrease of hours. 
 But if the factory, or the mine, or the 
 railway be on the trembling edge of 
 bankruptcy; if the manager's days are 
 spent in travail and his nights in thought- 
 ful vigil; if the pay-roll be a nightmare, 
 what can he do ? He is called the master 
 of his own business, but the true master 
 is Competition. Under its compulsion 
 vast efforts have been made; vast results 
 have been obtained, and vast sacrifices 
 
ioo Strikes 
 
 have been exacted. To put a limit upon 
 these sacrifices, Combination is called 
 into the struggle against Competition. 
 But not until the whole power of a 
 sovereign state enters into league with a 
 Combination, thus making legal monop- 
 oly, is it possible to find complete pro- 
 tection from Competition. It is always 
 a sleeping peril, if not actually in motion 
 against any particular enterprise. No 
 matter how great may be a " Trust/' it is 
 not entirely its own master unless joined 
 directly to the power of the State. 
 
 Both these principles of action, Com- 
 petition and Combination, like all other 
 laws which govern us, are good when 
 kept within limits and become bad only 
 when left in exclusive control of our 
 actions. 
 
 So it is with the law that "with the 
 sweat of his brow shall he eat bread." 
 Some "sweat" in every man's life is a 
 blessing. The "curse of labour" exists 
 only when labour absorbs all of man's 
 life. 
 
 Slowly this "curse" is being lifted 
 
The Eight-Hour Day 101 
 
 from the world a rift in the cloud 
 then darker; always, in the end, a little 
 brighter. While invention and organi- 
 sation increase the productivity of every 
 work-hour, thus promising relief, man's 
 growing desires call for more and more 
 of the things produced by labour and 
 the work itself becomes more mechanical, 
 less individual, more numbing, less in- 
 spiring. Yet withal, the gain has been 
 clear. The world's typical workers, the 
 humble day labourers, have shorter hours 
 now than ever before. This progress 
 should not cease until eight hours (pos- 
 sibly, thereafter, seven) shall be, in all 
 irksome, indoor, treadmill, uninterest- 
 ing occupations, a maximum of regular 
 demand. 
 
 To gain this, if it can be gained in no 
 other way, the strike may well be tried. 
 No more worthy object can be proposed 
 in answer to our " Why to Strike?" 
 
 The argument is rude. The dispute 
 hurts both parties to it; many innocent, 
 well-wishing employers, many needy 
 wage-earners must suffer in the struggle. 
 
102 Strikes 
 
 The forces which are involved can not 
 be confined to any one industry, to any 
 one country, to any one latitude, to any 
 one race. If the object is to be attained 
 without the slow, wearing, hurting pro- 
 cess of strikes, concessions, arbitrations, 
 secessions, failures, revivals, successes, sac- 
 rifices, then it must be had by virtue of 
 some World's Congress of Labour. 
 
 Perhaps the governments will not be 
 first to move. The subject is full of 
 difficulties. Many diplomatic traditions, 
 many consecrated legal proverbs, many 
 deep-seated prejudices must be burned 
 in the fire of reform ere the end may be 
 thus gained. 
 
 The fetich of protection will muddle 
 the issue; the spirit of individualism 
 will cry aloud. 
 
 Yet it is possible that this should hap- 
 pen: in the civilised, industrial lands, 
 men of all classes may associate them- 
 selves in vast eight-hour organisations, no 
 other object being sought or considered. 
 
 These may study to determine the 
 
The Eight-Hour Day 103 
 
 occupations which are to be excepted 
 from the ultimate general rule. Such 
 organisations may correspond with sim- 
 ilar bodies in various countries, look- 
 ing to the fixing of the terms in which 
 appropriate legislation shall be expressed 
 and the date when it shall become effec- 
 tive. A concerted and emphatic ex- 
 pression of their will may thus be given 
 by the European, American (and possibly 
 Japanese) democracies. 
 
 That will, duly registered by legisla- 
 tures, is law. To it must yield all pre- 
 vious prejudices. It may declare that 
 it has weighed "freedom of contract," 
 "right of man to determine his own 
 labour," and all other opposing forces; 
 that their value is known; that a sacrifice 
 of lesser things to greater is to be made; 
 that one more hour of real liberty has 
 been decreed as more valuable than 
 twelve hours of freedom to sleep and 
 twelve hours of freedom to work. 
 
 Then shall one great issue die from 
 among those that keep alive the great 
 question "Why to Strike?" 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 GENERAL IMPROVEMENT OF WORKING 
 CONDITIONS 
 
 HIGHER pay and shorter hours raise 
 very directly the question of the cost 
 to the employer that may result from 
 satisfying the demands of strikers. 
 
 The demand for more agreeable condi- 
 tions of employment may or may not 
 raise any question of cost. This point 
 should always be carefully investigated 
 before striking. Misunderstanding in 
 respect to it has often caused much 
 bitterness. 
 
 The method of doing a thing may have 
 relations to the cost of doing it, unseen 
 to all save those who have planned the 
 business from foundation to pinnacle. It 
 will pay the employ^ to investigate these 
 
 relations very closely and with an open 
 104 
 
General Improvement 105 
 
 mind, before demanding even those 
 changes which, at first glance, seem ob- 
 viously easy and of no cost. 
 
 Only those employers who are very 
 shortsighted and very selfish will refuse 
 to grant demands which cost nothing and 
 please the workmen. Only those who are 
 harsh of nature will refuse to please their 
 employe's, even if it should cost an amount 
 that may reasonably be borne. That 
 there are such employers alas, is all too 
 true. And many there are who have 
 not learned, and by virtue of the charac- 
 ters born in them will not learn, that the 
 best strike-preventative is kindness. 
 
 When, in a hundred little ways, em- 
 ploy6s see that their happiness as human 
 beings is of no concern to the employer, a 
 sensitive and exasperated mood is pro- 
 duced. This may lead to contest over 
 some trifle which, under more considerate 
 management, would be cheerfully borne. 
 It may lead to a strike which in itself can- 
 not find justification or wisdom. Both 
 parties suffer for the selfishness of one. 
 Thus it is with all ugliness of nature. 
 
io6 Strikes 
 
 Until universal sweetness and light shall 
 be established among men, it shall ever 
 be necessary to contend against such 
 evil. In such case, the employ^ may 
 choose submission, persuasion, or a 
 strike. There can be no specific rules for 
 the contests which we must wage with 
 meanness. 
 
 It may be that the strike will still seem 
 worth while even if a money value to the 
 employer be found involved in a demand 
 which at first seemed free from any 
 relation to a profit and loss. 
 
 But a knowledge of the real interests 
 at stake will permit a wiser conduct of the 
 strike than would be possible without 
 such knowledge, and in any case there 
 will be less bitterness felt by employes 
 if they know that a serious question of 
 cost is involved in a demand which, when 
 first considered, they supposed to involve 
 only some easy adjustment that could be 
 made at no expense. 
 
 As in the case of a demand for shorter 
 hours, so for any other betterment of 
 working conditions, not expressed directly 
 
General Improvement 107 
 
 in wages, the workman has no definite, 
 calculable problem set before him. The 
 sacrifice involved in making a strike 
 may be definite enough. But it gives 
 only one side of the problem. What is 
 the value of the thing demanded? It 
 may be the relief from some outrageous 
 condition which makes an unbearable 
 bitterness of soul. It may be the satis- 
 faction of some normal yearnings, which 
 might indeed be suppressed, but why ? 
 
 Such was the case of the telephone 
 girls already cited. Who shall say how 
 much it was worth to look out of a win- 
 dow into the living street? Whether 
 "it pays" to strike for these indefinite 
 things, each must decide for himself. 
 Undoubtedly some of the best values 
 gained by the unions are to be found 
 in the conquest of better conditions of 
 employment. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE SYMPATHETIC STRIKE 
 
 EVEN more vague than in any other 
 case must be the answer to the ques- 
 tion "Does it pay?", when that question 
 is asked concerning the " sympathetic " 
 strike. 
 
 It has already been pointed out that 
 the term "sympathetic" in this usage 
 does not signify as much of unselfishness 
 as the general meaning of the word 
 would suggest. 
 
 Medical men speak of "sympathetic" 
 pain, when it occurs in one set of nerves, 
 while the original disturbance is found 
 only in another set. There is, of course, 
 a fixed physical relation between the 
 two, but the doctors can not as yet trace 
 it in any definite manner. 
 
 The sympathetic strike resembles the 
 
 108 
 
The Sympathetic Strike 109 
 
 sympathetic pain. There is a real bond 
 of rmitual interest between the original 
 strikers and their sympathisers. It is 
 not obvious, but it exists. 
 
 In the case of any secondary trouble 
 of our nervous system, it is extremely 
 difficult to treat successfully unless we 
 apply treatment to the original distur- 
 bance. 
 
 It is generally better to put poultices or 
 hot-water bags, or whatever expedient, 
 upon the spot where the real irritation 
 exists. Of course, since there is some 
 sort of relation between any one set of 
 nerves and any other set, we may learn 
 how to cure sciatica of the right leg by 
 treating the nerves of the left arm. But 
 many a weary day and month and year 
 must pass before such wisdom shall come 
 to us. 
 
 We have indeed learned to go as far 
 away from the pain-spot, in some cases, 
 as to that particular ganglion in the 
 spinal cord to which the troubled nerve 
 is connected. But let it be repeated: 
 a counter-irritant applied to the nervous 
 
no Strikes 
 
 system of the left arm is not likely to 
 cure sciatica of the right leg. That 
 treatment "does not pay"; certainly it 
 does not usually pay the left arm, which 
 is you, when you go into a sympathetic 
 strike. 
 
 Many high authorities among labour 
 leaders could be cited against the whole 
 "sympathy" theory in labour troubles. 
 As this treatise, however, is addressed to 
 the reason of each reader, rather than to 
 his veneration for authority, we shall omit 
 the quotations, and leave you to consider 
 how little you can thoroughly know of 
 the affairs of employe's in an enter- 
 prise with which you have no direct 
 connection. 
 
 How hard it is to thoroughly know our 
 own business! How much harder it is 
 to know the other man's affairs ! 
 
 Discouragement to sympathetic strikes 
 is expressed not only in the words of 
 great labour leaders, but also in the 
 statistics showing the number of such 
 strikes which have failed. The very prac- 
 tical lesson taught by these figures should 
 
The Sympathetic Strike in 
 
 be in itself enough to largely eliminate 
 such indirect efforts from the program 
 of labour struggles. 
 
 It is not meant by all this to deny that 
 a solidarity of interest can be shown as 
 between one set of employe's and another. 
 On the other hand the mere existence and 
 continued activity of "Federations of 
 Labour" demonstrate that such a bond 
 does exist. But there are three serious 
 difficulties attending every sympathetic 
 strike, in spite of any general " commu- 
 nity of interest " which may be shown. 
 
 The first, to which attention has been 
 already called, is ignorance concerning 
 the merits of the original trouble. 
 
 Second, miscalculation as to the pos- 
 sible effect which your employer (you 
 being the sympathy-striker) can have 
 on the employer of the other man. He 
 may be threatened with ruin by your 
 strike; he may want to influence the 
 other employer to yield, but he may be 
 quite unable to do so. Your leader may 
 have made a grave error in judging the 
 relations between the two. Obviously 
 
ii2 Strikes 
 
 he cannot have all the facts needed for 
 forming a sound opinion in such a com- 
 plicated question. How many people 
 must suffer when he makes a wrong guess ! 
 
 A third and very powerful reason 
 running against the sympathetic strike 
 is found in the fact that it is, toward 
 the employer, the most un-sympaiketic 
 of all strikes. 
 
 Think of it a moment. Think of the 
 despair which would seize you if the 
 children whom you see one day happy 
 around you, making no complaint, should 
 the next day revile you, assail you, and 
 leave you. 
 
 And when you ask, "What have I 
 done?" they answer, "Nothing have we 
 against you, Father, but Mr. Jones's 
 children declare that he has not treated 
 them fairly; they are in revolt; there is a 
 community of interest between all child- 
 ren as against all fathers. We may 
 want help from the Jones children some- 
 time in the future. The oldest Jones 
 boy has talked to our big brother, who 
 is here to tell you for himself, and they 
 
The Sympathetic Strike 113 
 
 say if we give you a great deal of trouble 
 you will influence Mr. Jones in behalf of 
 his children, because you and he live in 
 the same block." 
 
 Would you not think that your children 
 had gone mad ? Would you not question 
 their capacity for " self-government " ? 
 Would you not feel that the fairness 
 which you had always tried to show 
 toward them had been thrown away? 
 And would you not feel some bitterness, 
 some doubt as to the possibility of ever 
 having harmonious relations with such 
 inflammable material? And if you re- 
 established the household, would it not 
 be through an " armed peace" full of 
 suspicion? 
 
 Such have been the sentiments created 
 in the minds of many honourable, fair- 
 minded employers by the sympathetic 
 strike. 
 
 You may object to the comparison, 
 saying that the relation between father 
 and children is not similar to that between 
 employer and employes. Nor is it neces- 
 sary that a close similarity in all respects 
 
ii4 Strikes 
 
 should be established in order to draw 
 useful lessons from the comparison of 
 the two cases. 
 
 They are similar in this : The employer 
 and the father must both provide the 
 general means of carrying on the affairs 
 of the factory or the family; both must 
 do the thinking required for determining 
 various problems as they arise in the 
 struggle of life maintained by the factory 
 or the family; both have a certain supe- 
 riority of intelligence over the average of 
 those whom they lead. 
 
 But if you reject this comparison 
 entirely, think for a moment how it would 
 affect you if this sympathetic action were 
 reversed. Suppose an employer calls to- 
 gether his workmen, saying " I am quite 
 satisfied with your work; I am quite will- 
 ing and able to pay the wages you have 
 been receiving, but you are all discharged 
 this morning. Mr. Jones is having some 
 difficulty with his men. I have an idea 
 that you can force them to yield. Until 
 they do yield, I shall not employ you, 
 but shall find others to take your place." 
 
The Sympathetic Strike 115 
 
 Obviously this apparently unselfish 
 sacrifice of one set of interests to another 
 must generally lead to the creation of 
 more trouble than it can cure. 
 
 And it is tainted with hypocrisy with 
 deceit. Being generally unprofitable, it 
 becomes, through this taint of hypocrisy, 
 more or less immoral. 
 
 In the " brave days of old," knights- 
 errant wandered over Europe seeking to 
 put themselves into other people's quar- 
 rels. They soon became a nuisance, and 
 in spite of the halo which poets threw 
 around them, they were among the first 
 of the many fantastic institutions of 
 their period to be destroyed by the 
 awakening intelligence of the European 
 civilisation to which we belong. So let 
 it be with the sympathetic strike 
 the false knight-errantry of the labour 
 movement. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SUMMARY 
 
 WE may now summarise thus: The 
 strike for higher wages may be calculated, 
 as to whether or not it pays, in fairly 
 definite terms of money lost during the 
 strike-period, and money gained by the 
 increase. It pays sometimes. 
 
 The strike for shorter hours cannot 
 be thus calculated but it often presents 
 a most convincing case of the strike 
 that " pays " in the best sense of the word. 
 
 The strike for better general conditions 
 of work should be closely studied as to 
 its possible effect on cost of production. 
 As against selfish and short-sighted em- 
 ployers, it may pay well. 
 
 The sympathetic strike does not pay. 
 
 It remains to consider whether the 
 strike for recognition of the union does 
 or does not pay. 
 
 116 
 
Summary 117 
 
 If the union be worth a struggle and if 
 its value cannot be secured in any other 
 way, then a strike for its recognition may 
 pay. We shall treat this subject in an- 
 other chapter. 
 
 Here we shall only say that many 
 strikes of this kind do not pay because 
 they are actuated merely by a too deli- 
 cate sense of the dignity of the union. 
 Bloody wars between states have been 
 similarly caused. 
 
 Does it seem to the militant workman, 
 to him who has won and who has lost in 
 the passionate struggle of " labour," that 
 these pages breathe discouragement 
 rather than inspiration to those who are 
 ready to sacrifice the present to a larger fu- 
 ture ? Does the author seem, when coun- 
 selling close calculation of the debit and 
 credit of each effort, to be unmindful of 
 the value of failures ? Does he seem to 
 forget that a regiment must be sacrificed 
 here, a battery there, a squadron sent to 
 death on the flank, in order that the whole 
 line may advance ? Does he seem to forget 
 that the losing strike sometimes pays? 
 
n8 Strikes 
 
 And the answer to these queries is that 
 he who has learned the lesson of his own 
 life, he who has read the larger print of 
 History, must know full well that the 
 defeat of to-day prepares, often enough, 
 the victory of to-morrow. No planning 
 can be so clairvoyant, no courage so 
 stubborn as to assure immediate success 
 to every venture. 
 
 The enthusiasm to try, the willing- 
 ness to sacrifice, these are more largely 
 supplied to every great cause than the 
 wisdom to calculate and to conduct the 
 enterprises that lead to success. 
 
 It will always be easier for a labour 
 leader to have a thousand men follow 
 when he cries, "Let us strike!" than to 
 have half a dozen who will carefully con- 
 sider with him the "why" and "how" 
 to strike. 
 
 It is with the hope of supplying counsel 
 rather than courage, that this work has 
 been undertaken. Its tone is fixed, not 
 by any lack of sympathy with failures, 
 but by a desire to see strikes reduced in 
 number and increased in value. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 STRIKES FOR THE UNION DO THEY PAY? 
 
 
 
 No question will be raised in these 
 pages as to the value of the union. That 
 will be taken for granted. It will be in- 
 structive, however, to discuss some of 
 the prejudices against unionism. If it 
 should appear that these may be removed 
 and that by removing them there would 
 remain practically no opposition to the 
 union, then plainly the strikes now so 
 frequently made to enforce recognition 
 would no longer be in any way suggested. 
 
 And even if these prejudices were not 
 removed, inquiry should be made as to 
 whether strikes for recognition are, in 
 fact, useful in strengthening the unions. 
 
 Suppose one were in a group of men 
 composed in part of employers of labour ; 
 
 and in part of professional men who look 
 119 
 
120 Strikes 
 
 at labour questions from the outside, as 
 neutrals. Suppose the question were 
 put to such a group "Are you opposed 
 to labour unions?" 
 
 The majority would answer, " No, not 
 in principle. We know they are useful 
 and will continue to exist; but " and 
 then would follow various statements 
 from which we might make the following 
 arrangement of objections to the princi- 
 ples or practices of trades unions: (i) A 
 reasonable fear that universal unionism 
 would create a monopoly in labour, exer- 
 cised by a few tyrannical leaders. (2) 
 Radical disagreement with the union 
 principle (or frequent practice) which 
 leads to persecution of those wage-earners 
 who desire to remain independent. (3) 
 Radical disagreement with union princi- 
 ple (or frequent practice) which prevents 
 the clever employe' from doing more or 
 better work than can be accomplished 
 by the least competent. (4) Radical dis- 
 agreement with the union principle (or 
 frequent practice) which requires the pay- 
 ment of equal wages to men of unequal 
 
Strikes for the Union 121 
 
 value. (5) Opposition to the intrusion 
 between employers and their employe's of 
 persons not directly concerned with the 
 business in question. (6) Radical disagree- 
 ment with the union principle (or frequent 
 practice) which upholds the negligent 
 or insubordinate employe* simply because 
 he belongs to the union. (7) Condemna- 
 tion of the fact that some strikes are 
 called for furthering the personal ambi- 
 tions of union officials. (8) Condemnation 
 of the fact that some strikes are called by 
 corrupt leaders for the purpose of exact- 
 ing blackmail. 
 
 Let us suppose that a wage-earner 
 joins the group while these objections 
 are being uttered. He is a man earning, 
 on an average, something between two 
 dollars and six dollars per day, if he 
 be an American; he is a bricklayer, a 
 telegraph operator, a mechanic, or 
 other employe* performing routine work 
 under the direction of another; and 
 he is a union man. The employer, the 
 wage-earner, and the other man who is 
 neutral then begin a discussion. Their 
 
122 Strikes 
 
 names are Smith, Jones, and Thompson, 
 respectively. 
 
 Mr. Smith: "So, Mr. Jones, you 
 want me to discharge those of my em- 
 ploye's who are not members of your 
 union. You may force me to do so, but 
 can you expect to continue in friendly 
 relations with your employers while 
 demanding that they help you to create 
 a monopoly of labour? Try to look at 
 my side of the question a moment. Sup- 
 pose your union should control all the 
 labour supply. Would it then be possible 
 for me, as an employer, to succeed in 
 business if one of the principal articles 
 used by me, that is, labour, be mono- 
 polised by your union ? " 
 
 Mr. Jones: "It is true we aim at a 
 monopoly of labour ; we want to sell it for 
 as high a price as possible. But even 
 those railway companies having a mono- 
 poly of transportation in certain territo- 
 ries found that reasonable limits had to 
 be recognised in fixing the price of their 
 article of sale that is transportation. 
 They were controlled by the principle of 
 
Strikes for the Union 123 
 
 the * tariff which the traffic could stand.' 
 In several countries (particularly in the 
 United States) there was great commercial 
 development while railway monopolies 
 were controlled by no other force. 
 
 " It is even yet doubtful in many minds 
 as to whether the government control of 
 rates has really helped matters, except as 
 to inequality of rates. We, the wage- 
 earners, shall find also that you, the 
 employers, who control capital (which 
 we buy with our labour), and who have 
 a certain capacity to conduct business 
 (which we may not possess), cannot pay 
 more than a certain maximum rate of 
 wages. But we must always be watch- 
 ful and insistent, or we shall not get that 
 maximum possible rate." 
 
 Mr. Smith : " And while you are experi- 
 menting with us, must not many enter- 
 prises fail because of the mistakes which 
 your inexperienced monopoly will make? 
 Must we not pay for your education by 
 our ruin?" 
 
 Mr. Jones: "Not necessarily. Of 
 course some hardships must be borne on 
 
124 Strikes 
 
 both sides. But remember this in gen- 
 eral you can hold out longer than we. 
 Our mistakes will be made in the form of 
 unwise strikes. Do we not suffer as 
 much or more than you, when we cease 
 purchasing with our labour the bread 
 which must be had day by day? Our 
 necessities will be our teacher." 
 
 Mr. Smith: " Yes, there is much force 
 in that. But you can carry on the contest 
 in detail, each branch of industry or each 
 locality supporting the other while you 
 force special industries or special indi- 
 viduals to ruin." 
 
 Mr. Jones: "Again I say, some hard- 
 ships will certainly befall both sides. 
 Let us consider, on the other hand, an 
 example of an almost complete monopoly 
 of wage-earners in a particular industry, 
 which has not resulted badly for either 
 party. I mean the Brotherhood of Loco- 
 motive Engineers in the United States. 
 This union has on its rolls practically all 
 of the men capable to run locomotives in 
 the United States. Their position, then, 
 is substantially that which you so much 
 
Strikes for the Union 125 
 
 fear in respect to other trades. If they 
 used that position unwisely they could 
 for a time disorganise the transportation 
 of a great country, but as a matter of 
 fact they have given less trouble to the 
 employing companies than many of the 
 less thoroughly unionised trades. Why 
 then should you be so much disturbed by 
 the progress of unionism? " 
 
 Mr. Smith: " It is true that the union 
 of which you speak has been generally 
 well conducted, but it is not such a 
 monopoly as is desired by many labour 
 leaders. They declare that all wage- 
 earners must be organised and all trades 
 carefully pruned of surplus members by a 
 system of apprenticeship. They wish to 
 destroy that body of free labour, ready, 
 in time, to adapt itself to any trade, and 
 which, while it exists, tempers the tyranny 
 of all unions. I do not wish to take 
 away from the credit due the Brother- 
 hood of Locomotive Engineers, but you 
 cannot be sure that they would have 
 been so wisely moderate but for the 
 knowledge of the fact that the indepen- 
 
i26 Strikes 
 
 dent workers everywhere would soon 
 furnish a new army of men for the locomo- 
 tive cab, if the present "regular army" 
 should push its advantage too far. This 
 body of free labour is the balance-wheel 
 of the whole labour movement. Do you 
 expect us, who so understand the case, to 
 help you to destroy this balance-wheel? 
 And again, do you expect us to approve 
 the methods resorted to for forcing men 
 into your unions ? Quite apart from any 
 interest in the question as an employer, I 
 object as a citizen to the social pressure, 
 sometimes the physical violence, used 
 by union men against those independent 
 spirits who prefer to stand on their own 
 feet. They have a right to join your 
 union or not to join it. You try to nullify 
 that right. You have even asked in 
 various ways that only union men should 
 have a legal right to certain employments. 
 It was such attempted tyranny that was 
 in view when I formulated the second 
 objection to unionism which you heard 
 on coming in." 
 
 Mr. Jones: "You have made me see 
 
Strikes for the Union 127 
 
 your side of the case better than I did 
 before; yet we can never, I fear, look at 
 the * scab ' as you do. To us he seems to 
 be a sneak. We think the unions have 
 helped to raise all wages the scab's as 
 well as ours. He is benefited by our 
 sacrifices. 
 
 " When a country is imperilled by for- 
 eign attack, he who refuses to fight is 
 despised by all. The scab is worse than 
 such a non-combatant. By working when 
 the union orders a strike, he is actually 
 going over to the enemy. You say he is 
 a necessary balance-wheel. We think 
 he is a chock, set in the way of the wheel 
 of progress. We believe if labour were 
 altogether unionised that a more just, 
 but not a destructive, division would be 
 made of the product of labour, capital, 
 and direction. So far as you object to 
 using violence to get rid of the scab, I 
 agree with you. The cool heads among 
 us have come to regret the violence and 
 lying sometimes used by our brethren. 
 We are trying to eradicate both. But as 
 to using social or business pressure to 
 
128 Strikes 
 
 accomplish our aim, we shall continue 
 to do so." 
 
 Mr. Smith: "And does it really seem 
 fair and manly to you to ostracise the 
 wives and children of men who simply 
 exercise the right of independence? 
 Does it seem just to pursue such a man 
 in his effort to make a living? " 
 
 Mr. Jones: " Of course the social per- 
 secution is open to some question. It has 
 never been ordered by the unions. It 
 cannot be stopped by them when feeling 
 runs high. Does it not appear whenever 
 men are powerfully and diversely moved ? 
 Was it absent from the intercourse of 
 Cavalier and Roundhead in the * brave 
 days of old ' ? Was it unknown in France 
 even among those who, before the Revo- 
 lution, had a monopoly of ' birth ' ? Was 
 it never seen in the American colonies 
 when Patriot and Tory glared at each 
 other? 
 
 " As to the * business persecution ', yes, 
 I think it is fair. Do you not try to take 
 away the business of your competitors? 
 Is not this 'persecution' of the small 
 
Strikes for the Union 129 
 
 concerns by the larger ones the very 
 reason of the formation of the so-called 
 trusts? Are they not, in fact, capital 
 unions, just as ours are labour unions? 
 You use all the brains and all the influ- 
 ence you possess to keep your competitor 
 from getting a contract which you want. 
 You leave him to look out for himself as 
 to whether or not the loss of the contract 
 may, or may not, produce his ruin. Yet 
 he does you less harm than the scab does 
 to us, and he will not be able to benefit 
 by your success, as the scab will benefit 
 by ours, after working against us." 
 
 Mr. Smith: "You state your case 
 against the free man very well, but have 
 you reflected that if you exterminate him 
 you will have largely undone the work 
 of democracy in the last hundred years? 
 I mean the work of destroying classes. 
 If all wage-earners are held to iron rule 
 in the unions, how are men to work up 
 from humble positions to higher ones? 
 Do you want the employing class to become 
 hereditary? Do you want to destroy 
 the class to which I personally belong 
 
130 Strikes 
 
 I mean the class of men who start in life 
 as poor boys and by various sacrifices 
 and superior efforts rise from the wage- 
 earning to the wage-paying class ? Does 
 not the frequent rise of such men prove 
 that no great systematic wrong exists? 
 Do you not know that most of the world's 
 industrial progress has been due to such 
 men? Do you not see that with all 
 this organisation, classification, stratifica- 
 tion, ossification of men, the mainspring 
 of effort may be broken ? Are the child- 
 ren of all w r age-earners to suckle the 
 milk of a caste? Are they to be taught 
 that he is a traitor to his class who dares 
 to struggle harder than his fellows; that 
 he is a traitor who gives to some inborn 
 superiority of brain its due exercise? 
 Are prudence, thrift, industry, and intel- 
 ligence to be moulded in uniform tablets 
 for the uniform consumption of uniform 
 men and women? How are the captains 
 of industry to be found if they may not 
 come up from the ranks? In your haste 
 to put every wage-earner in a situation 
 from which he cannot rise without 
 
Strikes for the Union 131 
 
 ' treachery ' to his family and friends, be 
 careful that you do not organise a society 
 of purely hereditary classes, in which 
 your children will be permanently fixed 
 at the bottom." 
 
 Mr. Jones: "We cannot afford, we 
 who are the wage-earners of to-day, to 
 concern ourselves too much about the 
 future. It is true that our cast-iron 
 rules require a sacrifice on the part of 
 the more capable among us in favour of 
 the less capable. But the number of the 
 former is small; the number of the latter 
 is great. Do not all the great democratic 
 countries illustrate this principle by giv- 
 ing equal political franchise to men of 
 unequal citizenship value? You have 
 more intelligence, but not more direct 
 voting power, than your bootblack. 
 Your indirect power is, of course, greater. 
 In this" respect the parallel is not exact 
 between the sacrifice of political power 
 and the sacrifice of wage-earning power, 
 but it is an approximate parallel. And, 
 moreover, it must not be forgotten that 
 a considerable number among us is now 
 
132 Strikes 
 
 in favour of establishing the piece-work 
 system with a minimum wage for un- 
 skilled labour." 
 
 Mr. Smith: "You mean the system 
 which was forced upon the Australian 
 unions and which many European and 
 American unions are still resisting?" 
 
 Mr. Jones: "Yes, that is what I 
 mean that or a modification of it by 
 which extra pay is given for work done 
 in excess of an agreed minimum, or 
 normal, daily task. Concerning this we 
 are not all agreed. We have our dif- 
 ferences of opinions, like all other live 
 organisations. We learn from our op- 
 ponents like all other intelligent organ- 
 isations. We must feel our way like all 
 human organisations. 
 
 "When I speak of the piece-work sys- 
 tem as being favoured by a considerable 
 number of workmen, I mean those who 
 are the most liberal and enlightened. I 
 mean those who see, at least in part, the 
 dangers which you set forth a moment 
 ago. With this system we can insist 
 upon a living wage for all who are willing 
 
Strikes for the Union 133 
 
 to work, and, at the same time, give some 
 play to the superior capacities of the 
 few. Of two brick-layers one can lay 
 no more than eight hundred bricks in 
 an eight-hour day. He is presumably 
 doing his best. He must be paid a wage 
 sufficient to give him reasonable comfort. 
 Another can lay, and is willing to lay, 
 twelve hundred in an eight-hour day. 
 Under the piece-work system, the second 
 man would earn fifty per cent, more than 
 the first. If he is willing to live as eco- 
 nomically as his less clever neighbour must 
 live, and if he has the proper capacity, 
 he may pass into the employing class, 
 the unions meanwhile holding up the man 
 at the bottom and also helping to main- 
 tain a good price for each unit of piece- 
 work, whether done by a clever or a 
 stupid workman." 
 
 Mr. Smith: "Indeed, if you, the 
 thoughtful wage-earners, can bring your 
 brethren to concede the piece-work sys- 
 tem in all its bearings, you will have 
 accomplished a great work. You will 
 have saved the unions from the destruc- 
 
134 Strikes 
 
 tion that awaits all who would cripple 
 the natural capacity of men to produce; 
 and who would systematically deny the 
 due reward of merit. You are evidently 
 getting away from the crude notion that 
 there is a fixed amount of work available 
 at any time, and are reaching the sounder 
 position that a thousand bricks laid in 
 a useful building are able to breed another 
 thousand. Let us hope that you may 
 succeed in bringing all labour bodies to 
 your point of view. You would thus 
 cover the fourth and fifth objections 
 which you heard me announce. They 
 are perhaps the most serious; but have 
 you any really good suggestion to make 
 concerning the other points?" 
 
 Mr. Thompson: " Let me, as a neutral 
 third, make answer for Mr. Jones and 
 permit me also to sum up the discussion 
 to which I have listened. As to your 
 last four objections to the unions: 
 first, the use of the walking delegate 
 or other intermediary agent between 
 employer and wage-earners; second, the 
 upholding of unworthy employe's if they 
 
Strikes for the Union 135 
 
 belong to the union; third, the call- 
 ing of strikes for blackmail; fourth, 
 the calling of strikes to further the 
 ambitions of labour leaders. In the first 
 case it seems to me that you, Mr. Smith, 
 should insist upon the right of keeping 
 walking delegates away from your em- 
 ploye's during working hours, though I 
 can easily understand conditions in which 
 their presence might not be harmful to 
 you. On the other hand, Mr. Jones 
 should insist upon his right to transact 
 business with you through an agent, who 
 comes to your office in the proper way 
 as representative of your employe's. 
 
 " Would you refuse to transact business 
 with the attorney of another manufac- 
 turer ? And in the case of your employe's, 
 it is, from their point of view, more neces- 
 sary to have an independent representa- 
 tive than is ordinarily the case as between 
 two manufacturers. 
 
 "If your employes are restricted to 
 choosing a committee from among them- 
 selves, they may be seriously handicapped 
 in two ways: 
 
136 Strikes 
 
 " First such representatives may not 
 have the requisite ability to set forth, 
 as against your more highly trained mind, 
 the merits of their case. 
 
 "Second such a committee is almost 
 certain not to have the necessary inde- 
 pendence in their dealings with you. 
 Their judgment of the general situation 
 must be clouded by their needs, or by 
 their anger. Is it not better for both 
 sides that the wage-earners be represented 
 by agents, provided they be well chosen? 
 
 "Indeed in this matter of choosing good 
 leaders it seems to me that we come to 
 the most important single point brought 
 out in your discussion. Thus, in respect 
 to Mr. Smith's last three objections, they 
 practically fall to the ground in case 
 labour-leadership be wise. I think Mr. 
 Jones must admit that these last charges 
 are occasionally well-founded, and yet 
 in doing so he is only admitting that 
 the labour unions are like other human 
 organisations. 
 
 "Of course there will be some cor- 
 ruption. 
 
Strikes for the Union 137 
 
 " Of course there will be some sacrifice 
 to personal ambitions. 
 
 "Of course there will be some support 
 of the unworthy. 
 
 " Is this not true of the state ? 
 
 " Is it not true cf the Church ? 
 
 " Mr. Smith must admit that it is. He 
 may add that the labour unions show 
 more of these weaknesses than other 
 organisations; and indeed that may be 
 true. But it is true of labour unions, as 
 of states, that the general body of mem- 
 bers must suffer for mistakes made in 
 the selection of leaders, and that the 
 suffering slowly teaches its own cure. 
 There is no other way open to man. And 
 if Mr. Jones will permit me to preach a 
 little to him, I shall ask him to preach 
 to his fellow-workmen from these two 
 texts: 
 
 " First The strength of the strong man 
 shall not be brought down to the weak- 
 ness of the weak man, but it shall strive 
 with nature for a reward that shall be 
 divided between the labourer and all other 
 men to whom the earth belongs. And the 
 
138 Strikes 
 
 practice of this text is to be found in the 
 piece-work system with all that it implies 
 equal pay for equal service; unequal 
 pay for unequal service; due reward to 
 superiority of intelligence, strength, in- 
 dustry, and prudence. 
 
 11 Second Leaders should be well 
 chosen, well paid, well followed, well 
 watched. Not character alone, not intelli- 
 gence alone, not energy alone shall be 
 demanded of them, but character, in- 
 telligence, and energy combined. 
 
 "Watch the leaders; watch them cease- 
 lessly! And to you, Mr. Smith, I need 
 say only one thing: You must deal with 
 your employe's, to a greater or less degree, 
 through their organisations. It is inevit- 
 able. 
 
 " Perhaps the whole body of wage- 
 earners will never be organised. Perhaps 
 the useful work of the unions will be ac- 
 complished long before the union move- 
 ment can become universal. Meanwhile 
 you will avoid much trouble if you frankly 
 'recognise the union.' 
 
 11 Afterward you may you must con- 
 
Strikes for the Union 139 
 
 test many cf its pretensions, for are 
 not its leaders human beings, even as 
 you are? 
 
 "To you both I would say this: Be as 
 frank as possible with each other. 
 
 "This does not mean, Mr. Smith, that 
 you must disclose all the secrets of your 
 business to the union, for that would 
 mean giving it to the public, which 
 means in turn giving it to your competi- 
 tors. But go as far as you can. 
 
 " Nor does it mean, Mr. Jones, that you 
 must inevitably disclose the strength (or 
 weakness) of your organisation, and the 
 terms which, in the end, you would be 
 willing to accept. Human nature seems 
 not yet ready for such counsels of per- 
 fection. But, with the usual reserves on 
 each side, you may treat each other 
 honourably and good-naturedly. If you 
 cannot arbitrate your differences, and if 
 you cannot agree without a trial of 
 strength, then enter upon the strike, 
 shaking hands before and after. 
 
 " And finally, the mere recognition of 
 the union may be a legitimate cause for 
 
140 Strikes 
 
 a strike, as against particularly stubborn 
 employers. But wise management of 
 the unions will make this an almost 
 negligible case. Strikes made for the 
 objects of the union, when successfully 
 conducted, will, in the end, bring all the 
 'recognition* required for the good of 
 the members of the union. And in such 
 strikes you, the working member, will be 
 less likely to sacrifice yourself to the 
 glory of your leaders." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 HOW TO STRIKE VIOLENCE AND LYING 
 
 WE have shown that the strike is moral; 
 that it should be legal; that in certain 
 cases it is profitable. We have considered 
 the question "Why to strike?" What 
 can be said in answer to the question, 
 " How to strike?" 
 
 We have shown that the organisation 
 of the labour union is generally sound; 
 that its object is generally good. Shall 
 we conclude from this that its methods 
 must always be approved? Certainly 
 not. 
 
 It is much easier to carry in our hearts 
 a noble purpose than to find means for 
 executing that purpose. The real rub 
 of life comes in action. 
 
 When the conduct of a strike goes 
 
 no further than merely to abstain from 
 141 
 
142 Strikes 
 
 previous employment, no serious question 
 of method arises. That is the simple 
 strike and all that would be covered by 
 our definition. We have seen that even 
 though the necessary co-operation for 
 bringing about a strike may sail close, 
 in definition, to a probihited "combina- 
 tion in restraint of trade," yet no legal 
 obstacle is likely to be set up against 
 such action. Bitter contests have gener- 
 ally arisen, not from the mere cessation 
 of work, but from the things that have 
 been done to accomplish objects which 
 the strike pure and simple could not 
 accomplish. Let us inquire as to what 
 means have actually been employed to 
 this end : 
 
 First Picketing; that is, endeavouring 
 to turn away, by persuasion, those who 
 apply for the places made vacant by 
 the strike. 
 
 Second The same, with accompany- 
 ing threats and violence toward the 
 applicants. 
 
 Third Boycotting; that is, severing 
 business or social relations, or both, with 
 
How to Strike 143 
 
 the boycotted 1 person, and influencing 
 others to do likewise. 
 
 Fourth Destruction of property be- 
 longing to the employer and his friends. 
 
 Fifth Injury to the persons of em- 
 ployers or of fellow-workers who refuse 
 to join in the strike. 
 
 Sixth Injury to persons and property 
 in general (riot), with a view to forcing 
 the general public, or their officials, to 
 intervene for the sake of peace in behalf 
 of the strikers. 
 
 Of the six items thus given, four 
 contain violence. We may put these four 
 all in the same basket, and make a general 
 inquiry as to the merits of violence in the 
 conduct of strikes. 
 
 Shall employe's kill men and burn 
 houses in the effort to obtain higher wages 
 or shorter hours? 
 
 Since the reader of these pages has 
 already discovered that the author is not 
 
 1 Captain Boycott played a disagreeable role in 
 certain Irish land troubles. A conspiracy was formed 
 against him. The case became famous, and the Cap- 
 tain's name was applied generally to movements of 
 like character to that which resulted in his ruin. 
 
144 Strikes 
 
 a red revolutionist, he may feel sure that 
 the answer will be "No!" and consider 
 that the question should be at once dis- 
 missed. It is true that the author can 
 not counsel violence in an ordinary 
 strike in a free (voting-citizenship) coun- 
 try. But he recognises that many of 
 his fellow-citizens demonstrate a contrary 
 opinion by cracking the skulls of men 
 who take their jobs. And it seems 
 worth while to argue with such as hold 
 this view. 
 
 It is the hope of the author that some 
 who have been violent strikers may read 
 these words. It is hoped that they 
 will thus change their views and learn 
 to consider other violent strikers as be- 
 ing less wise than themselves. 
 
 Of course this recognition of misguided 
 honesty is not made for all who break 
 the heads and burn the houses of their 
 opponents. Many among the violent 
 are mere rowdies who rejoice in a row, 
 as most gentlemen did a few generations 
 ago. These may join in the turmoil, 
 having nothing at stake save loot or 
 
How to Strike 145 
 
 excitement. But some of the rioters in 
 every violent strike are men who for 
 the most part are quiet citizens, working 
 industriously for the support of " Molly 
 and the kids." When the strike is over 
 they will be back in the mine, on the 
 trolley-car, in the shop, on the cab, again 
 seriously and peacefully concerned about 
 the same woman and the same children. 
 While he is yelling and destroying, one 
 is tempted to call him a savage, a crimi- 
 nal perhaps a murderer. So one might 
 call soldiers so they have been called 
 by those who suffered from them. Even 
 the dread authority of the state, setting 
 them a duty to kill, cannot make of 
 them angels of light in the eyes of their 
 victims. How much the less shall he be 
 forgiven whose only commission is his 
 anger, whose officers are the hot thoughts 
 of a mob, whose rules of war are the 
 frenzies of an hour ! 
 
 As soldiers, we become beasts trained 
 by a state, set upon its enemies to 
 destroy them, yet ever held in leash. 
 Order is not destroyed. Indeed there 
 
146 Strikes 
 
 is a very maximum of order produced 
 for a maximum of destructive power 
 and the mind rests on that, confident 
 that, when the killing shall have gone far 
 enough, true social life may be renewed, 
 because order was not lost. 
 
 As rioters, we become wild beasts let 
 loose, striking blindly; destroying that 
 very Spirit of order which alone can 
 give value to the multitudinous life of 
 civilisation. 
 
 So we see it who look upon it from 
 the outside. He who has been swept by 
 the strong currents of hate, sees himself 
 as a soldier fighting for a Cause. Sel- 
 fish, you say? Yes, his own wages are 
 at stake, and he would offer no apology 
 for some very vigorous effort made solely 
 in his own behalf. But he feels also the 
 solidarity of his interest with that of many 
 others. On a larger scale we call that 
 sentiment patriotism. Whenever we can 
 thus dilute our selfishness with a thought 
 for the welfare of others, we drink it as a 
 sacred draught, and the acts of our intox- 
 ication pass unimpeached by conscience. 
 
Violence and Lying 147 
 
 So the striker. He has, as you have 
 you the employer, the man of leisure, the 
 big-salaried employ^ several concentric 
 zones of selfishness. At the very centre 
 he has his mere personal existence, then 
 his family, then his class, then his trade, 
 then his church, then his country, then, 
 vaguely, beyond all, humanity itself. 
 And though the very centre does not 
 change, these other zones are not fixed 
 in their relations; they are not perfect 
 circles; they shift; they overlap; they 
 intrude one upon another. To the man's 
 central vision, one may temporarily ob- 
 scure the other. 
 
 And he, the total man, is made up of 
 the resultant forces from all these varying 
 influences, unsymmetrical, struggling. He 
 is sometimes all for class; again, all for 
 family; again, all for church; again, all 
 for country. If he has great enlighten- 
 ment and but little hunger, he will not be 
 a violent striker. He will learn that 
 violence and lying are the most danger- 
 ous weapons against all government; so 
 dangerous that wisdom reserves their 
 
148 Strikes 
 
 use as far as possible to the largest 
 independent units to the governments 
 themselves: so dangerous that wisdom 
 is ever seeking ways to lessen their use, 
 even when thus limited, and the closer 
 association of all states is ever diminish- 
 ing their value to the individual state. 
 
 Violence and lying these were the 
 first and ready resort of primal man; 
 they lurk as a disease in man when or- 
 ganised into social bodies. That which 
 may be useful to the unit isolated, may 
 become harmful to that unit when 
 grouped with others, because harmful 
 also to the group as a whole. 
 
 Perhaps the most practical argument 
 to urge upon you, the reader who may 
 sympathise with violence as an aid to 
 strikes, is this : The only immediate reply 
 that society can make to your violence 
 is, violence. If one of the two be not 
 promptly crushed, you or society, then 
 between the two we shall kill the goose 
 that lays the golden egg for all. Peace- 
 ful Commerce is that goose she cannot 
 live in war. We may grumble about the 
 
Violence and Lying 149 
 
 distribution of the eggs, but let us have 
 some eggs to distribute! Then we must 
 keep Peaceful Commerce alive. Even 
 you, the victor, will grant that the riot- 
 state cannot last long. It is a means 
 toward an end, and that end is peace, 
 with some new distribution. The resort 
 to violence is, in fact, revolution. 
 
 If a man be intent upon destroying the 
 political organisation to which he belongs ; 
 if he has come to believe this change to be 
 of vital importance to the happiness of 
 many people; if no peaceful effort can 
 effect the change; then perhaps his con- 
 science may be clear in striking at existing 
 order. He may convince himself that in 
 laying waste he but clears the way for 
 reconstruction of a fairer edifice. 
 
 That is not the case of the violent 
 striker whom we are considering. He 
 is not a revolutionist. He has no new 
 plan of government. He would not 
 harm any one, if only he could promptly 
 have his wages raised. That is his politi- 
 cal program his revised charter, his new 
 Constitution. He wants more money. 
 
150 Strikes 
 
 This he might gain without violence 
 if he controlled all labour of the kind in 
 question. He does not control it; the 
 employer can live without him. To 
 supplement his weakness as a would-be- 
 monopolist, he attacks the man who 
 rightfully offers to fill the vacated job. 
 Or perhaps he menaces the employer by 
 fire and pillage. The public security is 
 threatened, yet the public is practically 
 helpless to raise his wages. Only the em- 
 ployer can do that; and perhaps even he 
 can do it only in case certain complex 
 commercial conditions permit. 
 
 The strike-riot is not a beginning of 
 political revolution, but of political anar- 
 chy. You who make this attack upon 
 the foundations of society do not offer 
 to me, whose whole existence you im- 
 peril, a new political program to which 
 I might adhere. 
 
 You do not propose an object which 
 might lead large numbers to fight with 
 you for the establishment of a new 
 order of government. 
 
 You are like unto one who would enter 
 
Violence and Lying 151 
 
 the public garden destroying the fruit 
 which supports us, and having no seed 
 which you would plant in its stead. 
 
 Plainly I must resist you to the ut- 
 termost. The wrong you do in striking 
 at order is universal. You yourself do 
 not escape yea, even if the increase of 
 wages shall somehow come at the end. 
 All have suffered. The public may, with 
 clear conscience, suppress you, honest 
 though you be. Even when you win you 
 are not always helping yourself. Your 
 indirect loss, due to the lowering of 
 state efficiency, may be greater than 
 your direct gain. 
 
 Leave violence entirely out of your 
 thought, your talk, your action. Then 
 the " sympathisers" will also drop it. 
 Resist them, these impossible sympa- 
 thisers, and they will soon cease to bring 
 discredit upon men who do not wish to 
 become bad citizens because they are 
 dissatisfied with their wages. 
 
 Avoid Violence that is the first rule in 
 How to Strike. And let Lying go with it. 
 They are twin monsters children of War. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE BOYCOTT AND THE PICKET 
 
 IF then it be true that sound policy 
 requires of those who strike that they 
 should turn aside from man's primitive 
 path of violence, let us now consider the 
 peaceful and persuasive aids to a strike 
 movement. These have been given as 
 the boycott and the picket; in the 
 present discussion they are presumed to 
 be pursued without violence or lying. In 
 considering their legality, we study to 
 learn rather what should be legal than 
 what is legal. It has already been 
 pointed out that nearly all questions are 
 found to be tangled in a maze of differing 
 statutes if we survey the whole legal 
 field, going from State to State, from 
 country to country. Let us then deter- 
 mine what ought to be. Our votes will 
 
 do the rest. 
 
 152 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 153 
 
 As in the case of that form of co- 
 operation which brings the union into 
 existence, or which declares the strike, 
 so in these aids to the strike, we are met 
 by those ever-present sprites "Com- 
 bination in Restraint of Trade," and 
 " Freedom of Contract/' Again we must 
 consider whether statutes can be (and 
 should be) framed to prohibit certain 
 other combinations, and leave these picket 
 and boycott combinations untouched. 
 Again we shall find that the problem is 
 not easy : separation of goats from sheep 
 anybody can do that; but to separate 
 good sheep from bad ones, that is harder. 
 
 In this task it must be understood that 
 no rigid adherence to any stated principle 
 can be our guide. All formulas of human 
 action fail in some circumstances. If 
 we cry "Freedom of contract must be 
 preserved!" it is only to discover that 
 every contract which is permitted pre- 
 vents some other contract from being 
 made. Every combination that restrains 
 the trade of some is intended to enlarge 
 the trade of another. Every condemned 
 
iS4 Strikes 
 
 "combination in restraint of trade" is 
 itself born out of the exercise of this 
 sacred "freedom of contract." Where- 
 upon the freely made contract may be 
 declared null and void. In a word we 
 are free to contract only for such aims 
 as the law authorises. 
 
 Is the boycott a "combination in 
 restraint of trade"? Yes. 
 
 Is systematic picketing the result of a 
 "combination in restraint of trade"? 
 Yes. 
 
 Whose trade is "restrained" by the 
 boycott? That of the person who is 
 boycotted. 
 
 Is anybody's trade augmented by the 
 boycott? Yes, that of those who are in 
 competition with the boycotted person. 
 
 Is the price of any commodity supposed 
 to be increased by it ? Yes, the price of 
 the labour of the strikers is usually 
 sought to be raised indirectly. 
 
 Is the total volume of trade directly 
 diminished by the boycott ? No. 
 
 May it be indirectly diminished there- 
 by ? Yes, an indiscriminate and extreme 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 155 
 
 use of the boycott might discourage 
 seriously the spirit of trade. 
 
 Is this likely to occur in the absence of 
 any legal enactment running against 
 the boycott? Not more likely to occur 
 than almost any other excess growing 
 out of a normal action. 
 
 Are all normal and now legalised ac- 
 tions of such character that they may 
 become harmful by being carried to 
 excess? Yes. 
 
 For example? 
 
 The right to eat and drink; the right 
 to correct wives and children; the right 
 to converse. 
 
 What is the spirit of competition? The 
 desire to get ahead of another to injure 
 the trade of another for one's own benefit. 
 
 Is this supposed to be helpful within 
 limits and harmful when extraordinary 
 success has been achieved? Yes. 
 
 What is the spirit of combination? 
 It is generally to enlarge and strengthen 
 the unit which competes. 
 
 What are the largest competing units? 
 The nations of the earth. 
 
156 Strikes 
 
 Is competition lessening within the 
 nations? Yes, in the sense that many 
 individuals, through combination, cease 
 to compete with each other as individuals ; 
 and further, that some competing com- 
 binations have in certain countries prac- 
 tically driven all others from the field, 
 for a time at least. No, in the sense 
 that such big combinations generally 
 continue the fight among themselves. 
 
 What, essentially, is this fight that 
 goes on in business ? 
 
 It is a struggle to increase the price 
 and volume sold of my goods and to 
 decrease the price and volume sold of 
 your goods. 
 
 Is this true of the labour struggles 
 between employer and employe's? Yes, 
 labour is sold, and food, clothing, lodging, 
 etc., are bought by employe's. 
 
 What classes of weapons are barred by 
 the State to competitors entering the 
 commercial tournament? They are vio- 
 lence and lying. 
 
 Are all others admitted? In general 
 terms, yes. In special cases, no. But 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 157 
 
 each special case existing should be 
 challenged. 
 
 May not the boycott and picketing 
 be conducted without resort to violence 
 or lying? Yes. 
 
 If a boycott should bring a successful 
 issue to a strike, thus benefiting thou- 
 sands of wage-earners, and should not 
 permanently injure the boycotted busi- 
 ness, might it not, in such case, be 
 properly called a "combination in en- 
 largement of trade," quite as reasonably 
 as a " combination in restraint of trade"? 
 
 Certainly. 
 
 In what manner would it enlarge trade ? 
 
 The uplifting of wage-earners to com- 
 fort and education has always been 
 accompanied by an increase of general 
 trade and prosperity. 
 
 Can a more familiar instance be given 
 in which a combination, technically one 
 in "restraint" of trade, becomes in fact 
 a combination in ' 'enlargement" of trade? 
 
 Yes. In the case of two railways con- 
 necting the same terminals with substan- 
 tially equal facilities. Their rates must 
 
158 Strikes 
 
 be the same or they must be different. 
 If different, one must be higher than 
 the other. The advantage being public 
 and obvious, it follows that all traffic 
 between terminals will go by the lower 
 rate. Should this traffic be very large 
 in proportion to local traffic, the railway 
 which maintains the higher rate will be 
 ruined. If, on the other hand, their 
 charges be equalised through combina- 
 tion, both may obtain reasonable support, 
 and by continuing service, increase the 
 trade of the region through which they 
 run. And it must be remembered that 
 rates cannot be equalised except through 
 combination, formal or informal. 
 
 Is this illustration valid for many 
 other cases ? 
 
 It is valid for many in which a product 
 is offered to public consumption in a 
 limited market, the price-advantage be- 
 ing equally available to all purchasers. 
 
 What is the object of citing these 
 cases ? 
 
 To show that the formula "combina- 
 tion in restraint of trade" is too vague 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 159 
 
 and misleading to find a proper place in 
 the vital legislation of any country. 
 
 And in cases such as that here con- 
 sidered, the "law," instead of being the 
 clearly expressed will of representative leg- 
 islators, must often flow from the opinion 
 of one or more judges whose duty requires 
 that a definite meaning shall be given to 
 indefinite language. Or they must, when 
 the law is clear, sometimes refrain from 
 applying the strict letter of a prohibition 
 to customs which common-sense recog- 
 nises as necessary to the public welfare. 
 
 Just so long as men try to legislate 
 against bad(?) combinations, just so long 
 will they be forced to use language 
 which will, when strictly interpreted, 
 include good (?) combinations. 
 
 The courts must, then, legislate, in two 
 cases that of a very vague statute, and 
 that of an impossible statute. They will 
 usually act in rough conformity with the 
 educated opinion of their surroundings. 
 
 You can share in this judicial legisla- 
 tion by helping to form the educated 
 opinion of your country. 
 
160 Strikes 
 
 The catechism above recited may be 
 taken as indicating that no clear and 
 positive proof can be set up against the 
 wisdom of legalising the boycott. We 
 shall now state a substantial reason in 
 favour of legalising it. 
 
 Equality before the law is a more impor- 
 tant principle to be preserved among 
 citizens than that which is formulated in 
 any particular law. 
 
 In respect to this matter of boycotting, 
 the powerful few enjoy a privilege which 
 is attempted to be denied to the many 
 weak ones. 
 
 Half a dozen great financiers, yes, half 
 of half a dozen, may effect a more disas- 
 trous boycott against some doomed man 
 or men, than can be brought about by the 
 combined efforts of half a dozen thou- 
 sand workmen. 
 
 This can be done, and it is done, and it 
 will be done. Sometimes it ought to be 
 done. 
 
 When only a few individuals are con- 
 cerned in the plot, when it is laid with 
 the cigars and coffee after lunch, it seems 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 161 
 
 only a normal "agreement among gentle- 
 men." It is accomplished without or- 
 ganisation and without record. It may 
 easily escape the eye of the law; yet it 
 may be a full-fledged boycott. 
 
 Its morality will be judged differently 
 by various critics, all being honest. 
 
 The limit of its intended action, among 
 financiers, may be the very ruin of the 
 victim, not the mere yielding on his part 
 of some contention urged against him. 
 
 Such is rarely the case among working 
 men. They are generally satisfied with 
 a gaining of the original point of dispute. 
 But in order to accomplish their aim 
 they must organise. They must appeal 
 to thousands of their own class, since the 
 power of each standing alone is so small 
 as to be ineffective for injury. They 
 must use the printing-press that action 
 is necessarily public. It falls easily under 
 the observation of antagonists ; and before 
 the courts is easily proved to lie within 
 the legal definitions of "combination" or 
 of "conspiracy. " 
 
 In both cases, namely that of the 
 
1 62 Strikes 
 
 boycott by three and the boycott by three 
 thousand, their moral attitude toward 
 the adversary is the same. An injury 
 is desired to be inflicted for a supposed 
 benefit to the boycotters, or for revenge. 
 And the mode of attack is essentially the 
 same. 
 
 All the commercial and social force 
 available to the three, or the three 
 thousand, may be directed against the 
 adversary. Violence and lying excluded, 
 these forces are of such nature that 
 their legality is never questioned when 
 exercised by a single individual in his 
 own behalf. In the more or less secret 
 and complicated program of the three, 
 violence will rarely appear, though lying 
 may play a great part. In the more 
 or less public and simple program of 
 the three thousand, violence will gener- 
 ally be more prominent than lying. 
 
 Both parties tend to use, and largely 
 do use, all means that would be legal if 
 exercised by an individual, though per- 
 haps now technically illegal when used 
 by several individuals in combination. 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 163 
 
 The statutes of Great Britain have 
 finally recognised and legalised this tend- 
 ency. It was enacted in 1906, that in a 
 trade dispute several persons in combina- 
 tion may legally do that which would be 
 legal if done by an individual acting alone. 
 Thus the boycott without violence or 
 fraud stands firmly based in English 
 law unless judicial interpretation shall 
 nullify common use of words. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the word boy- 
 cott, which was born in violence and to 
 most minds still suggests violence, should 
 be applied to an act of peaceful commer- 
 cial competition. True, the act is a harsh 
 one. So is its complementary act, black- 
 listing. Here are two ugly names, covering 
 two harsh acts or rather the same act 
 usually performed in one case to injure a 
 trader or employer; in the other to injure 
 a working man. Both are animated by be- 
 lief that the injury done to one will result 
 in good done to another, or others. They 
 stand or fall together in logic. They 
 are, in fact, interchangeable words. 
 Neither one of them appears in the 
 
164 Strikes 
 
 British statute above referred to. Text- 
 ually it runs as follows "An act done 
 in pursuance of an agreement or com- 
 bination by two or more persons, shall, 
 if done in contemplation or furtherance 
 of a trade dispute, not be actionable 
 unless the act, if done without any such 
 agreement or combination, would be 
 actionable." 
 
 He who proposes a new word, or an old 
 word for a new and specific use, is essay- 
 ing that which is beyond the power of 
 kings to perform. 
 
 Nevertheless, we may try any of us 
 where Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon 
 failed. Suppose the acts now best de- 
 scribed by " boycott without fraud or vio- 
 lence," and the acts now best described 
 by "blacklist without fraud or violence," 
 be henceforth known as "refusals." 
 
 We may combine to organise a "re- 
 fusal" against Smith whose hats we de- 
 termine not to buy. We may put Jones 
 on the "refusal" list, because for vari- 
 ous reasons we think he should not be 
 employed by ourselves or others in our 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 165 
 
 line of business that is we have deter- 
 mined not to buy his labour. The hats 
 of one, the labour of the other are " re- 
 fused," not boycotted or blacklisted, 
 by ourselves and those who stand with 
 us in the "furtherance of a trade 
 dispute." 
 
 Such a word thus substituted might 
 lay the ghost of Captain Boycott whose 
 Irish neighbours forced fame and in- 
 famy upon him. Their fevered minds 
 made war for an immediate and spe- 
 cial relief from hardship. A local rent- 
 quarrel gave to the English language 
 a new word in which the ideas of " re- 
 fusal" and of " violence" were unfortu- 
 nately welded together. It is worth 
 while to sue for a divorce in such case. 
 One idea, that of "refusal," must survive 
 as long as we have the competitive sys- 
 tem as basis for our industrial life. The 
 other, that of "violence," specifies a 
 lurking disease which society constantly 
 endeavors to abate. 
 
 Let us now return to a discussion of the 
 relation between the boycott, or " refusal ' ' 
 
1 66 Strikes 
 
 by three, and the same thing by three 
 thousand. 
 
 In both cases the organisers may be 
 tempted to use such illegal methods as 
 are best suited to their organisation; 
 violence in the one case, lying in the 
 other, occasionally both. Essentially, the 
 morality of aim and of method are closely 
 similar, yet one will easily escape the 
 meshes of law; the ether will easily be 
 caught therein. And this is not " equal- 
 ity before the law." 
 
 Will you say that, since the letter of 
 the law (in America) would condemn 
 a " refusal," whether by three or by three 
 thousand, that equality does exist? 
 
 And the answer is: of what value is 
 this theoretical equality if, in practice, 
 certain activities be permitted to one 
 class of men, while to another class these 
 activities are denied ? 
 
 Are not these activities used for the 
 advantage of those who use them? 
 
 Is not the actual ability to use activities 
 the real test of equality before the law? 
 
 If this special privilege were used by 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 167 
 
 the employing class only in contests 
 among themselves, tearing down or build- 
 ing up one as against another, then 
 might we pass by this point of difference 
 in status. But as a matter of fact, the 
 refusal by three may be used, and is 
 used, and will be used, through the 
 blacklist and the lockout, against the 
 three thousand. Then let the contest 
 be waged with equal arms. 
 
 So far as the proscribed weapons are 
 concerned violence and lying it will 
 be easier for society to suppress the former 
 than the latter; and in so far as lying 
 cannot be suppressed, if there be advan- 
 tage, it will remain with the three, rather 
 than with the three thousand. 
 
 Leaving the state to continue its 
 world-old contest with these two foes, 
 let us put before our minds, in familiar 
 phrase, just what we mean by "refusal," 
 that is the boycott shorn of violence and 
 lying: 
 
 Jones and Brown go to Thompson and 
 say: " We have a dispute with Johnson 
 as to the price of our goods. He is in the 
 
1 68 Strikes 
 
 position of a privileged buyer of our 
 merchandise, our transportation or our 
 labour" (or whatever else it may be). 
 " In order to put pressure upon Johnson 
 we have decided to ask all our friends to 
 withdraw their patronage, as purchasers 
 of his goods; and further, we shall re- 
 strict all our business dealings, as far as 
 possible, to those who will aid us in 
 carrying our point. We therefore want 
 you to know that you must choose, in 
 your own business, to ally yourself with 
 us and our friends or with Johnson and 
 his friends. 
 
 " We are sorry if this decision should be 
 attended with any temporary loss to you, 
 but the purchasing power of ourselves 
 and our friends is the only leverage we 
 can use in this matter. 
 
 " We are free to dispose of it where our 
 interests lie. You will decide according 
 to your own interest." 
 
 There is the "refusal." 
 
 When Jones does it alone, it passes 
 without challenge. It seems to be the 
 exercise of the most ordinary freedom. 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 169 
 
 When powerful Jones combines with 
 powerful Brown and a few others having 
 common interests, statutes may be found 
 to run against such action; but these 
 statutes are substantially dead letters, 
 falling in the ambush of coffee and 
 cigars. 
 
 When weak Jones combines with a 
 thousand others, using the printing-press 
 to address a thousand Thompsons, then 
 the big public act challenges attention; 
 then may the statute if it exists be 
 easily applied. But should it be applied? 
 Should there be such a statute? Has 
 the British Parliament been wise or 
 foolish in its enactment of 1906? Let 
 all citizens think it over. Shall we not 
 be content to stamp out fraud and vio- 
 lence, leaving to Jones the Many such 
 activities as will certainly be enjoyed by 
 Jones the Few? 
 
 Are we so sure that the use of all his 
 commercial influence by Jones the Many 
 will be harmful to the state that we 
 should deny him at least a trial of the 
 system he demands? If his course, 
 
1 70 Strikes 
 
 when unrestricted, becomes in fact gen- 
 erally injurious, will he not suffer in that 
 general injury? 
 
 Will he not aid in correcting an evil 
 when the evil shall have grown as big, as 
 obvious, as his critics declare it will 
 be? 
 
 Let us follow, for a time at least, the 
 example set by British law. Let us give 
 practical as well as theoretical equality in 
 fighting methods to Jones the Many and 
 to Jones the Few. 
 
 It will not be necessary to argue 
 separately the case for establishing the 
 reasonable right of strikers to use the 
 system of picketing, without violence. 
 Although probably a " combination in 
 restraint of trade,'* although probably a 
 " conspiracy" under strict construction of 
 certain statutes, it has thus far been more 
 leniently dealt with by the courts than 
 the system of boycotting. When the 
 doors have been opened wide enough to 
 permit the latter to pass into undisputed 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 1 7 1 
 
 territory of right, the former will have 
 no difficulty in following. 
 
 The statute above quoted will certainly 
 legalise the peaceful picket. Probably all 
 who would approve the "refusal," would 
 also approve the picket. The legal right to 
 this form of strike-aid should everywhere 
 be established. When employed fairly, 
 decently, good-humouredly, it should give 
 good results . It will naturally be tried at an 
 earlier stage of contest than the " refusal" ; 
 it may win the strike without other aid. 
 
 We may now review the argument. 
 It has been shown: 
 
 (A) That the strike is moral; is or ought 
 
 to be legal; may be profitable. 
 
 (B) That arbitration cannot be con- 
 
 sidered as an universal cure for 
 labour troubles; but that, when 
 offered, it should generally be ac- 
 cepted by workmen. 
 
 (C) That any desire, not illegal or im- 
 
 moral, may rightfully be given as 
 an answer to the question "Why 
 to strike?" 
 
172 Strikes 
 
 (D) That the cases in which the strike 
 
 may pay are, chiefly : (a) for higher 
 wages ; (b) for shorter hours ; (c) for 
 better general conditions; (d) for 
 recognition of the union (rarely) . 
 
 (E) That the sympathetic strike does 
 
 not pay. 
 
 (F) That the piece-work system, liberally 
 
 applied, will go far toward solving 
 labour questions; but that perfect 
 peace means no progress. 
 
 (G) That the competition in which Or- 
 
 dinary Labour is engaged is with 
 Directive Labour, rather than with 
 Capital. 
 
 (H) That efficiency of workmen largely 
 supplies the fund from which higher 
 pay must be drawn. 
 
 (I) That, except for self-defence, vio- 
 lence and lying are to be excluded 
 from all programs of private ac- 
 tion. 
 
 (J) That the laws of the land are first 
 to be obeyed, then, if objection- 
 able, changed through peaceful 
 political action. 
 
The Boycott and the Picket 173 
 
 (K) That the boycott, or refusal, and the 
 picket are, or ought to be, legal, 
 and may righteously enter into the 
 program of "How to strike?" 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 OBLIGATION OF LEADERS 
 
 THESE pages have upheld the strike, 
 the union, the boycott (without violence 
 or lying), and the picket (without vio- 
 lence or lying). The unwisdom of vio- 
 lence and lying on the part of any citi- 
 zen has been shown. But it remains to 
 point out a special responsibility on the 
 part of labour leaders; and to allege a 
 shirking of this responsibility by many 
 such leaders. 
 
 Obligation is the other side of Right, 
 and Right becomes Wrong when freed 
 from Obligation. 
 
 The right of a father to correct his child 
 stands with his obligation to protect and 
 support it. The right of men to vote 
 stands with the obligation not to sell the 
 vote. The right to hold property stands 
 174 
 
Obligation of Leaders 175 
 
 with the obligation to prevent nuisances, 
 to pay taxes and debts. A further obli- 
 gation to use property for the public 
 good is rapidly forming. Sovereigns 
 have rights of rule and obligation of 
 justice. Tyrants, for a little while, enjoy 
 right without obligation, then they fall. 
 
 Men first grasp Power, enforce Rights, 
 and may then bitterly learn that neg- 
 lected Obligation rises to punish their 
 forgetfulness. 
 
 So it has been with many labour 
 unions. Leaders have combined the 
 Many into One. With the Power thus 
 gained, they have secured the Right to 
 direct the Many as units of production. 
 They enjoy these rights of direction by 
 virtue of the general calm and cohesion of 
 society. 
 
 The spoken word of the state the Law 
 protects them in a thousand activities. 
 Some of these activities are perilous to 
 peace. Yet the state does not forbid. 
 
 It sees its citizens swear a new alle- 
 giance. It does not forbid, because it is 
 a minor allegiance. 
 
1 76 Strikes 
 
 It sees its citizens directed in their most 
 serious relations by union leaders. It 
 does not forbid, while the directed acts 
 are yet legal. 
 
 But the state does forbid Violence. It 
 forbids destruction of that which it was 
 born to protect. 
 
 The rights which have been granted, 
 by statute or prescription, to the unions, 
 are in general the right to urge the citi- 
 zen to certain lawful acts directed against 
 his employer, and to perform those acts 
 by co-operation. These rights are, in 
 practice, directed by the union leaders. 
 Indeed, we may say that the leader is the 
 organ of the many for the enjoyment 
 of rights of action. He who enjoys this 
 right, while neglecting the corresponding 
 obligation to restrain his followers (as 
 best he can) from unlawful acts, is dis- 
 loyal to his trust, and an enemy to the 
 state. 
 
 Can it be doubted that many union 
 leaders have been guilty of such disloy- 
 alty? 
 
 Can their denial of responsibility for 
 
Obligation of Leaders 177 
 
 violence be taken as anything but a 
 flouting of the law-abiding members of 
 the union? 
 
 How long would union men be burning 
 and killing if they knew that their leaders 
 would, as far as possible, punish such 
 conduct ? 
 
 ' Have those who burn and kill and 
 pillage been expelled from the unions ? 
 
 Vain and cruel is leadership which 
 permits excited men .and women to 
 wrong themselves and the state, unre- 
 strained even by the fear of losing mem- 
 bership in that union which set their 
 strike in motion! 
 
 The wrong to themselves flows out of 
 the wrong done to Society for Society 
 must treat Violence as its enemy, save 
 only when Violence is its slave. 
 
 When strikers break the bonds of law, 
 they change a commercial dispute into 
 a sort of civil war. 
 
 To abate such disorder is the leader's 
 obligation. 
 
 And there must be a certain hostility 
 toward the whole union movement as 
 
178 Strikes 
 
 long as men suspect that the passions 
 of strikers are not generally restrained 
 by their leaders. 
 
 This hostility must be felt even by those 
 whose sympathies run strongly toward 
 the true objects of union activities. For 
 is not violence a threat against all of us? 
 Is not he who breaks the head of Jones 
 and burns his house (defying Law) an 
 enemy also of Smith? When the Law is 
 wounded all men bleed. 
 
 But, it may be asked, why is this 
 adjuration directed against the leaders? 
 Why are they held to a special responsi- 
 bility and smirched in a special blame? 
 Are not they generally innocent of any 
 overt physical act of violence ? 
 
 Why should not the sermon of peace be 
 preached only to the men who actually 
 hold the bludgeon and apply the torch? 
 And, indeed, the sermon is to them. 
 
 Yet it is known that the many are 
 wayward; that the unaccustomed leisure 
 of a strike may beget mischief. 
 
 The soldiers of a patriot army may 
 become marauders of the most vulgar 
 
Obligation of Leaders 179 
 
 type if discipline be relaxed during days 
 of easy march or of idle encampment. 
 
 It is known that the froward dema- 
 gogue will sieze the moment of sullen 
 idleness to inflame restless minds. 
 
 True leadership seeks to check the 
 waywardness of the unthinking and to 
 defeat the schemes of the cunning dema- 
 gogue. 
 
 True leadership knows that at times it 
 must oppose the passions of its followers, 
 and be ready to sacrifice popularity of 
 the present to prosperity of the future. 
 
 To make such opposition to endure such 
 sacrifice, is the obligation of leadership. 
 
 It is often the only business of leader- 
 ship for why need we a chief if our own 
 passions are to lead us? 
 
 And it is an obligation, not only toward 
 the general public, but toward the excited 
 body of followers as well. Our whole 
 building up of society is based upon an 
 understanding of the fact that each of 
 us may, in his own interest, require some 
 restraint when wisdom has been burned 
 up in wrath. 
 
i8o Strikes 
 
 So the striker should be able to feel 
 that his leaders will be calm when he is 
 wild will be wise when he is foolish. 
 The benefit which he gains from union 
 should be put at risk when his folly 
 threatens not only his own welfare, but 
 that of his associates as well. To that end 
 leaders should direct the discipline of the 
 union. During seasons of quiet, they 
 should urge the adoption of rules which, 
 in times of trouble, would tend to repress 
 the violent. Perhaps the only formal 
 means available for this purpose will be 
 found in fines and expulsion. These, 
 however, are but aids to an educated 
 sentiment in favour of peace and order. 
 When this sentiment shall fail, then let 
 the union purge itself, by expulsion, of 
 those members who sin against them- 
 selves, the union, and society. 
 
 Happily for the cause of Labour, many 
 of its most influential, and all of its most 
 enlightened leaders have striven for the 
 establishment of the principles here 
 stated. They have seen that even if 
 violence should gain immediately some 
 
Obligation of Leaders 18 1 
 
 coveted point, it wastes the material 
 capital of society, and the immaterial 
 capital of the unions their reputation 
 as legitimate children of the Law. 
 
 And unhappily for the cause of Labour, 
 some of its most influential, and many 
 of its most ignorant leaders have striven 
 for the establishment of principles little 
 less than anarchistic. 
 
 Wage-earners are in a majority in our 
 modern states. If they are indeed op- 
 pressed by a minority, if they have equal 
 intelligence and courage with that mi- 
 nority, then the equality of civil rights 
 now enjoyed by all classes makes it easy 
 for the majority to enact, by peaceful 
 means, any change in our laws. Even 
 an unjust change is within their power. 
 Easy then must be such changes as are 
 deemed just, not only by the employe* 
 class, but by that large professional class 
 neutral between employer and employe*. 
 
 Under a tyrannical form of govern- 
 ment, mob violence may be the only 
 means of enforcing Right. In a free gov- 
 ernment, it enforces Wrong. 
 
182 Strikes 
 
 Political freedom would not justify the 
 sacrifices made for its obtainment did 
 it not bear the fruit of Intelligent Order. 
 
 It is the duty of those who lead in 
 Labour's cause, to understand that Lib- 
 erty and Intelligent Order are bound 
 together, to stand or fall together. The 
 perilous experiment of the Rule of the 
 Majority was made, in France and in the 
 United States, by the will of Superior 
 Men. They endowed masses of men 
 with a wisely contrived Liberty, whose 
 forms, fitted to Order, those masses were 
 not cunning enough to devise. 
 
 Let us continue to use those rights 
 which aristocracies of the past believed 
 would be engines of destruction when 
 put into the hands of common men. 
 And in using them let us remember that 
 Right without Obligation becomes Wrong. 
 Meanwhile, let no leader beguile us away 
 from this truth, that we are, above all, 
 dependent upon the stability of the state 
 for our happiness yea, for our lives. 
 The commands of the state must be 
 upheld, for even in its usual errors it is 
 
Obligation of Leaders 183 
 
 more helpful to us than would be the 
 anarchy of each-for-himself. 
 
 In the light of such an obvious fact 
 how dark is that counsel of leaders which 
 has, occasionally, declared that the wage- 
 earner should be an enemy of the military 
 force of the state! 
 
 Think for a moment what this means. 
 
 It means that the government of a 
 country should be deprived of the power 
 to govern. 
 
 In a society of angels, there will be no 
 need of force. 
 
 In a society of men, order must, at 
 times, rest upon force. A government 
 must be prepared to resist violent at- 
 tack from within and from without. 
 
 As nations grow in mutual under- 
 standing, the danger of external attack 
 grows less. The dream of international 
 peace may soon become a blessed reality. 
 
 And as individuals grow in mutual 
 understanding, the danger of internal 
 violence does likewise diminish, and the 
 dream of a world-wide tolerant frater- 
 nity may, long hence, be realised. 
 
1 84 Strikes 
 
 But as yet the malefactor is among us ; 
 as yet the well-meaning but passionate 
 man is ready to seek his ends through the 
 destruction of life and property. To-day 
 the thoughtless mob may be led to crime 
 which to-morrow it shall abhor. 
 
 Against such possible disorder as these 
 elements may produce, the state must 
 have at hand organised bodies of men 
 pledged by solemn oath and by disci- 
 plined habit to aid authority in the 
 maintenance of order. Such bodies are 
 the police of cities and the militia or stand- 
 ing armies of states. He who would de- 
 stroy them now, would destroy the state. 
 They will diminish in importance and in 
 numbers as the need for them diminishes. 
 
 The spread of knowledge, sympathy, 
 and tolerance among men will, in the 
 end, victoriously destroy military force 
 if ever it is to be destroyed. 
 
 By our temperate lives, by our votes, 
 by our wise choice of leaders in all co- 
 operative effort, we may lessen the diffi- 
 culties of government and the need for 
 force. 
 
Obligation of Leaders 185 
 
 In some far-off day, the man with the 
 club or the gun will be as useless to 
 society as is the vermiform appendix to 
 our digestive system. Meantime, he is 
 as useful as our teeth. 
 
 Until all food is found soft and pulpy, 
 ready for assimilation, let us not be 
 toothless unarmed against the tough 
 particles. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 HOME-BUILDING 
 
 THE difficulty of obtaining wise leader- 
 ship has been so emphasised in these 
 pages that it may seem inconsistent to 
 suggest any extension of union activities 
 beyond those which are now familiar. 
 
 Often enough the members of labour 
 unions place themselves in the hands of 
 foolish men. Sometimes they are led 
 by bad men. 
 
 Yet withal it may not be unwise to 
 impose upon officials new duties which 
 will for their proper performance require 
 the labour leader to learn something, 
 very directly, of the employers' side of 
 constructive work. 
 
 If at the same time a specific good is 
 to be accomplished for the membership, 
 
 186 
 
Home-Building 187 
 
 a second valid reason is found for the 
 experiment. 
 
 And if, in addition, the ambition of 
 officials may find opportunity in other 
 fields than those of turmoil, we may 
 have added, through such new func- 
 tions, a needed element tending to insure 
 conservative conduct of unionised energy. 
 
 Let us suppose that every labour 
 organisation should become a Home- 
 builders' Association. 
 
 What follows? 
 
 Economy must be encouraged among 
 members of the organisation. The hold- 
 ing or the investment of building funds 
 would put proper officers in contact with 
 financial men and institutions. Some- 
 thing would thus be learned of the laws 
 governing return on capital as such. 
 Increase in the value of town lots would 
 not be unwelcome, when falling to the 
 Co-operative Building Association, which 
 at once becomes a capitalist as does 
 each of its members. 
 
 On the other hand a rise in the price 
 of lumber, bricks, or glass, just before 
 
1 88 Strikes 
 
 purchases are made, suggests an inquiry 
 into the source and distribution of 
 higher wages, generally considered. 
 
 Suppose it appears that window-glass 
 has gone up in price because of a suc- 
 cessful strike in that particular industry. 
 Then the purchasers, who may be cloak- 
 makers or railway employe's, begin to 
 learn something of the answer to this 
 question, "Who pays the wage-fund ? " 
 
 Then come the contracts with builders. 
 Let us say that, through their union, 
 twenty cigar-makers have arranged to get 
 into suburban homes on the first of May. 
 Visions of flowers and fresh vegetables 
 come to them while the March snows are 
 being shovelled away. The children will 
 have a dog and will play ball without 
 fear of the destroying automobile. 
 Everybody is keen and happy. 
 
 Then the contractor reports that his 
 lumber is delayed by a switchmen's 
 strike somewhere a thousand miles 
 away in the distant pine forests of 
 Georgia or Norway. 
 
 Also the painters have gone out, 
 
Home-Building 189 
 
 because of a boycott (or refusal) against 
 the manufacturer of a particular brand 
 of paint, which had been contracted for 
 when it could be had as the most eco- 
 nomical supply of its kind. Also the 
 electric light fixtures cannot be in- 
 stalled because the electrical workers are 
 out on sympathetic strike with the 
 street-railway employes. 
 
 Altogether, the fat is in the fire; and 
 the contractor points to a clause in his 
 engagement which relieves him from 
 damage due to delay caused by " strikes, 
 riot, fire, or act of God." Without such 
 reservation he would never have signed 
 the agreement to complete the houses on 
 or before May ist. 
 
 So the dream of springtime in the coun- 
 try is only a dream. Hasty arrangements 
 for extension of our lease of a flat are 
 made. We patch up with the furniture 
 dealer who has our promise to take and 
 pay for some cottage furniture "not 
 later than May ist, 1910 " and we begin 
 to see the other side of the labour ques- 
 tion. We shall not, for that reason, cease 
 
1 90 Strikes 
 
 to urge our cause forward. But we 
 shall urge it with more wisdom, with 
 less bitterness; with more money in 
 bank; and with less faith in the fiery 
 oratory of our leader. He, in turn, has 
 somewhat cooled his ardour. The " un- 
 reasonable " action of the painters and 
 the electricians comes in for some con- 
 demnation as well as the "greed of the 
 capitalist." Nay, even the capitalist 
 seems a different creature for to-day 
 we must try to lend, on good terms, our 
 accumulated funds, which must be held 
 now until the strikes are settled all 
 the way from the lumber-camp to the 
 paint-shop. When everybody has been 
 pacified, the contractor may begin again. 
 
 Perhaps a whole year must pass 
 another May-day must come before we 
 shall plant roses in the front yard of our 
 pretty cottage. Meanwhile if we can 
 get a good rate of interest on the " fund " 
 we may in part make good the money 
 losses caused by delay. 
 
 As to our disappointment, that must be 
 swallowed. So we dicker here and there 
 
Home-Building 191 
 
 as money-lenders, and learn what it is to 
 " grasp " five per cent, from the borrower. 
 
 In the end we shall be wiser, happier, 
 better citizens for having built our 
 homes. Had we bought them ready- 
 made, we should have learned far less. 
 We have studied, from ike other side, 
 some of the elements of our problem, 
 "Why to strike How to strike." 
 
 In that fact lies the reason for intro- 
 ducing this topic, which, at first glance, 
 seems to be outside the title of our 
 treatise. So important, indeed, is this 
 subject, that another word of advice will 
 here be added. 
 
 Let the leaders consult with legisla- 
 tors to find a plan under which owner- 
 ship in fee may easily be acquired in 
 city apartments. 
 
 The majority of all employe's must live 
 in large tenements. The inertia of the 
 law makes every tenement dweller a 
 rent-payer, willy-nilly. 
 
 These are difficulties in the way of 
 individual ownership, but they can be 
 worked out. 
 
1 92 Strikes 
 
 The "leader" who will build the first 
 co-operative tenement, with final indi- 
 vidual ownership in each flat, will have 
 merited as much as he who has won a 
 strike. 
 
 As much, did I say? Nay, vastly 
 more. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 WE place before our view the ideal 
 industrial organisation and action of em- 
 ploye's receiving relatively small wages. 
 First, the unions democratic institutions 
 within the state proper. For the special 
 purpose of raising wages of a particular 
 class, they become what the state is for 
 the purpose of accomplishing the general 
 welfare. In each such organisation (as in 
 the state) every member lends to, and 
 borrows from, the general store of energy 
 created by co-operation. Such co-op- 
 eration is the mother of civilisation. We 
 see these unions, through elective officers, 
 urging the interest of members, by ar- 
 gument, upon employers and upon the 
 public. 
 
 When argument fails to obtain a par- 
 is 193 
 
194 Strikes 
 
 ticular thing demanded, we see the labour 
 leaders again carefully investigating ; they 
 are weighing the probable cost of a strike 
 against its probable gains; they are spe- 
 cially concerned as to the ability of the 
 employer to grant the demand without 
 committing commercial suicide. When 
 conclusions have been reached, we see 
 them submitting these conclusions, in 
 calm words, to those who are to bear 
 the burdens and receive the benefits, if 
 gained. 
 
 They recommend to their constitu- 
 ents, in the strongest terms, that the 
 issue be submitted to arbitration. An 
 effort in this direction will be author- 
 ised to the proper officers. If within 
 reasonable time agreement can be had 
 as to arbitrators and as to the conditions 
 they are to observe in their work, the 
 difficulty is then left to be solved by 
 them and their finding is accepted in 
 good faith. If this agreement cannot be 
 had, report of that fact is made. We 
 then see the final determination, by 
 democratic methods, of the question, 
 
Conclusion 195 
 
 "Shall the demand be withdrawn or shall 
 it be urged through a strike ?' * If directly, 
 or through representatives, a majority 
 of those most nearly concerned should 
 conclude to urge the demand, then a 
 study is made by special officers as to 
 the most suitable time for ordering a 
 strike. In due course, it is declared. And 
 now nearly all decisions must be left to 
 chosen officers. 
 
 Peaceful solicitation of all competitors 
 for the vacant places is at once begun 
 to the end that these competitors shall 
 withdraw. That is the picket. At 
 the same time, or perhaps later, if re- 
 sistance to the demands continues vigor- 
 ously, the boycott or "refusal" is declared. 
 The strikers themselves agree to sever, 
 as far as possible, all relations with the 
 employer. They ask those who are 
 thought to have interests with them to do 
 likewise; they extend this effort against 
 those who may have interests with the 
 employer. 
 
 A contest of all the influence wielded 
 by the two contestants is now in full 
 
196 Strikes 
 
 action, save any that would involve 
 fraud or violence; or any that would 
 involve the lives or the health of the 
 public. 
 
 During this time the strikers, hav- 
 ing much leisure, watch closely the 
 conduct of their leaders. If these can- 
 not show character and intelligence, 
 they are changed. Free discussion and 
 free action are given and demanded by 
 leaders and followers with respect to 
 each other. The public also is taken 
 much into confidence and its interests 
 are preserved just as far as an intelligent 
 self-interest will permit. Gradually one 
 side or the other loses ground. Finally a 
 compromise or a surrender is made. 
 
 If the wage-earner has finally to yield 
 after a long contest, he may generally 
 feel sure that the employer would have 
 gladly yielded if he could. His victory 
 was probably necessary to the life of the 
 glorious goose who lays the golden eggs 
 for all. 
 
 And in turn if the employer yields and 
 if in the end he finds that the business 
 
Conclusion 197 
 
 stands up well under the new order, he 
 also is content to have lost. 
 
 Hate, violence, lying what have these 
 to do with contests thus waged? 
 
INDEX 
 
 Arbitration, 39 ff 
 
 Boycott (or refusal), legality of, 152 
 effect of, 154 
 when beneficial, 157 
 by the few, 160 
 permitted by British law, 163 
 Capital, meaning of, 55 
 
 return on, 58 
 
 Captains of industry, demands of, 78 
 how found, 130 
 Carpenter a capitalist, 60 
 Catholic Church, method of, 25 
 Combination, effect of, 155 
 
 legislation concerning, by courts, 159 
 Competition, motto of, 1 1 
 
 selection of leaders by, 65 
 liberty in, 71 
 
 relation to combination, 100 
 Contract, penalty for braking, 16 
 freedom of, 153 
 when inviolable, 17 
 Co-operation, difficulty of, 92 
 Definition, value of, 2 
 Democracy, method of, 23 
 Display, love of, 76 
 
 responsibility for, 52 
 199 
 
200 Index 
 
 Failure, value of, 53 
 Freedom, consequences of, 18, 19 
 Government, wisdom of, 53 
 Higher wages, strike for, 47 
 source of, 62 
 limit of, 69 
 
 conclusions concerning, 94 
 Home-building, value of, 186 
 How to strike, 141 
 Ideal programme for strike, 193 
 Inheritance, results of, 29, 65, 86 
 Inventors, demands of, 78 
 value of, 80, 86 
 
 Labour, folly of restricting efficiency of, 91 
 value of unorganised body of, 125 
 establishment of caste in, 129 
 direction of, 57 
 monopoly of, 122 
 Leaders, free choice of, 21 
 character of, 27 
 in war, pay of, 31 
 criticism of, 138 
 obligations of, 174 ff 
 Luxury, cost of, 74-77 
 
 demand for, 85 
 Majority, rule of, 23 
 
 Militia should be supported by unions, 182 
 Minimum wage, 133 
 Monopoly, in labour, effect of, 124 
 
 in arbitration, 42 
 Nature, effect of caprices of, 67 
 Newsboy a directive labourer, 64 
 Piece-work system, value of, 132 
 justice of, 138 
 Publicity, effect of, 43 
 
Index 201 
 
 Refusal (or boycott), suggested in place of "boy- 
 cott," 164 
 illustration of, 167 
 Reserve, disposition of, 50, 51 
 Riot, distinguished from war, 150 
 Scab, 127, 128 
 Shorter hours, value of, in happiness, 98 
 
 universal movement toward, 102 
 State, service to, 20 
 
 interference by, 68 
 pay of high officials, 88 
 privilege from, 86 
 Strike, definition of, 2 
 morality of, 7 
 legality of, 12-32 
 objects of, 35 
 causes of, 37 
 does it pay? 47 
 
 for improving general conditions, 104 
 sympathetic, 108-115 
 Summary, 116-171 
 Superior man, value of, 79, 84 
 
 compensation of, 89 
 Telephone operators, strike of, 33 
 Unions, involved in definition of strike, 2, 3 
 result from solicitation of leaders, 22 
 democratic methods of, 26 
 legitimacy of, 28 
 
 strike to enforce recognition of, 116, 140 
 objections to, 120 
 justification of, 135 ff 
 
 Violence and lying, not involved in definition of strike, 4 
 occurrence in boycott, 143 
 why all citizens must oppose, 144 
 necessary reply of state to, 148 
 motive for, 149 
 
202 ^Index 
 
 Wage-fund, whence drawn, 49 
 
 increased by efficient labour, 87, 90 
 Wage-scale, impossible to fix permanently, 92 
 Walking-delegate, character of, 27 
 
 recognition of, 134 
 Work, what is useful work, 73 
 Workers, classes of, 56 
 
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