One hundred years ago
Strikes are becoming quite a feature of life in the United States. The iron miners of Pittsburgh are out, and the cargo handlers of New York, and the grain handlers at Baltimore, and the col- liers in the Clearfield District, and bodies of railway employees in at least three sections of the country. Arbitra- tion is apparently never resorted to, and the suggestions of compromise are very few. As a rule, the men are beaten, none but the most skilled artisans being able to contend with the vast masses of im- migrant labour, and the determined ac- tion of the state authorities who, if the substitutes are threatened, call out the militia at once. Their readiness to do this shows that the freeholders who hold the ultimate power do not sympathise with the artisans — a fact to be remembered by those who fancy that Socialism is a great danger in America. The owners of property there, as in France, own the bayonets too. The New York strikers .declare that the code is altogether on the side of the capitalist, and must be repeal- ed; but they will gain little political sup- port.
Spectator, 1 July 1882
Previous page
