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 colliers in the Clearfield District, and bodies of railway employes in at least three sections of the country. Arbitration is appa.reutly never resorted to, and the sug- gestions 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 immigrant labour, and the determined action of the State authorities, who, if the substi- tutes are threatened, call out the Militia at once. Their readi- ness 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 Prance, own the bayonets too. The New York strikers declare that the Code is altogether on the side of the capitalist, and must be repealed ; but they will gain little political support.
Previous page
