STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS

the demand for the recognition of the union was also a factor and most of the strikers were out in sympathy. Great quantities of express matter of every description, much of it perishable, quickly accumulated in all express offices and at the railway depots. Efforts by the companies to break the strike by employing new men led to much rioting in spite of the efforts of the police to preserve order. It was later discovered that these new drivers were employed contrary to a city ordinance requiring all such to be licensed; consequently not only was police protection withdrawn from the strike-breakers but the latter were arrested and their wagons taken to the city pound. Meawhile Mayor Gaynor had succeeded in inducing the drivers to return on condition that differences should be settled by conference between each company and its men, and that the companies should not discriminate against men for belonging to a union. The companies at first refused to accept this latter condition. But vigorous expressions of opinions from the mayor and the Merchant's Association induced them to give in on the tenth of December, though they reserved the right to refuse to take back any men who were guilty of acts of violence. Any new agreements were to take effect December first. There was some delay in securing the assent of the strikers in Jersey City, but this was done in time for leaders to order all back to work Monday the fourteenth.

Meanwhile the express companies had applied for an injunction against the city authorities restraining them from enforcing the ordinance requiring the licensing of express drivers and wagons. Their ground was that the ordinance was invalid, being an interference with interstate commerce. This contention was not sustained by the court.

While the express strike was at its height, drivers for coal and ice-cream companies and the taxicab chauffeurs went out in sympathy. The latter made a determined demand for the recognition of the union, and remained out after the express strike was settled. Numerous efforts on the part of Mayor Gaynor to effect a settlement were finally successful on December 5. The employers agreed not to discriminate against union men. Though this proposition was at first rejected by the strikers, it was finally accepted on the ground that it amounted to a partial recognition of the union.

WOMEN WEAVERS' STRIKE, ROXBURY. There was a unique strike of women weavers in the carpet factories of Roxbury, Mass., about the middle of March. Many of them had worked many years in the factory and were children of a previous generation of workers. The immediate cause of the strike was the statement by the company that wages were to be cut 121⁄2 per cent. and that the mills were to be closed for two weeks. Il feeling had developed as a result of the passage of ownership of the mills into the control of absentee stockholders following the deaths of the originators and a consequent disappearance of long established personal relations between employers and employes. After twelve weeks the strike resulted in a complete victory for the strikers Not only was the old wage-scale restored but the principle of collective bargaining was conceded.

SUGAR REFINERS' STRIKE, WILLIAMSBURG. A strike of over two thousand laborers, mostly Poles and Lithuanians, in the Williamsburg (N.

STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS

Y.) refineries of the American Sugar Refinery Company, late in July, was attended by considerable violence and the loss of several lives. The strikers demanded an increase from eighteen to twenty cents per hour in wages. The wives of the strikers participated in the disturbances. Ffforts to settle the strike by Fathers Farrell and Yacka, the latter a Polish priest, were not successful. They induced the company to agree to reopen the plants and to meet a committee of the strikers to adjust grievances. This caused temporary jubilation among the strikers and their wives, but the men were later induced by a labor leader to stand firm for twenty cents an hour. The company broke the strike by bringing more than 1500 workers to the plants by means of boats.

COAL STRIKES. Strikes occurred in the anthracite coal region at Carbondale, Avoca, and other points in the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania; and at Irwin and other points in Westmoreland county, in the western part of the State. In both cases State constabulary were needed to assist local police in preserving order. In Westmoreland county the contest, begun in March, was still on at the end of the year. On December 19, President Samuel Gompers, following a resolution of the American Federation of Labor, called upon Governor Stuart to investigate conditions in the Irwin field. At one time there were about 17,000 strikers in Westmoreland county; by late fall about 10,000 of these had gone elsewhere, some had returned to work, and the remaining 5000 were keeping up the fight. A state bordering on civil war prevailed in many sections during the greater part of the year, many being killed. The causes of the trouble were an accumulation of grievances, the introduction of a new powder, and efforts of the United Mine Workers to organize the miners.

In

LABOR TROUBLES IN LOS ANGELES. At Los Angeles a contest was carried on throughout the year between trade unions and employers opposed to the unionization of the city. October the Los Angeles Times building was dynamited and 21 employes killed; the crime was attributed to trade unionists. A bomb explosion on December 25 at an iron works, where a strike for the union shop had been in progress some months, was also attributed to the unions.

BRICKLAYERS' STRIKE AND LOCKOUT. A strike of bricklayers belonging to the Bricklayers and Masons' International Union was begun in July on the contracts of Nesbit & Company in Newark. The cause was the employment by the firm of plasterers not recognized as union men by the bricklayers. The Mason Builders' Association then ordered a lockout of about 10,000 bricklayers employed by its members in greater New York The union in turn called for sympathetic strikes on the contracts of these firms throughout the country About 100,000 men in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Francisco, and elsewhere were out. The dispute terminated on October 6 with the extension of union rules to all cities and towns not covered by the previous trade agreement. For the results of this agreement, which had prevented strikes for 15 years, see ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION, INDUSTRIAL.

CIGAR MAKERS' STRIKE. About July 1, a most bitter contest began between the Cigar Makers' Union and the Cigar Manufacturers' Association of Tampa, Fla. A strike had been called because

of the alleged discrimination against union men; this was followed by a lockout of from 8000 to 12,000 men by the associated employers. Strike breakers from Cuba were forced to return under the Alien Contract Labor Law. There were several fatal assaults attributed to union men; but, on the other hand, a Citizen's Committee used a show of armed force in closing the Labor Temple and in forcing trade unionists to leave the city. The dispute which had become a most determined fight for the closed shop was not settled at the end of the year. The strikers were being assisted by cigar makers' unions throughout the country.

FOREIGN COUNTRIES

CANADA. By far the most important Canadian strike of the year was that of the conductors and trainmen on the Grand Trunk railway which began on July 18. The chief demand of the men was an increase in wages. Almost immediately after the outbreak of the strike numerous scenes of violence and disorder occurred at various points along the route. This disorder and lawlessness resulted in bloodshed, incendiarism, and dynamiting, necessitating in some instances the calling out of troops. As a result of government intervention the strike was brought to a close on August 2. The settlement was a compromise favorable to the strikers. The men secured an advance of wages approximating 18 per cent., which was to date from May 1, 1910, thus being retro-active. Moreover, it was agreed by the railway to standarize pay and rules on the same basis as that recently conceded by the Canadian Pacific Railway, such standardization to become effective January 1, 1912. In the case of the Central Vermont Railroad which was also affected by the strike this standardization is to be that of the Rutland Railway. The company did not agree to restore immediately strikers to their former positions but to do so only as soon as possible, it being understood that those engaged in violence, coercion, or intimidation would not be taken back at all.

GREAT BRITAIN. The most notable English labor disturbance was the lockout of the Lancashire cotton district. From May until late July this industry was disturbed by a dispute over a 5 per cent. reduction of wages. Settlement provided for no reduction before 1915. In June a workers' union known as the Oldham. Cardroom Association voted against cleaning machinery with cotton waste. One of its members, George Howe, employed in the Fern Mill, carried out this vote. He was discharged and the association went on strike. This continued until September 19, when the Employers' Federation announced that, unless the Fern Mill employes returned to work by October 1, a general lockout would be declared. Efforts at settlement failed because the union insisted on the reinstatement of Howe, and this the employers refused to do. Consequently 150,000 workers were locked out. Attempt was made by George R. Askwith, K. C., of the National Board of Trade, to settle the dispute by means of joint conferences of representatives of employers and workers. He at length succeeded, work being resumed October 17. The importance of the lockout was due to the fact that more than 40,000,000 spindles were stopped. As the supply of yarn was already low a continuance of the lockout would have involved stoppage of the

work of the weavers. The coal trade and small shopkeepers in the cotton towns suffered severely. The resources of the strikers' union were very great and lockout benefits amounting to $200,000 a week were paid.

As the result of the transfer of a head shunter from one yard to another a strike was begun on the Northeastern Railway in July. The real cause of the strike was the accumulation of many petty grievances during the preceding months. Sympathetic strikes on the part of other railway men increased the number of strikers to 60,000 by the fourth day. The strike was entirely unauthorized, many unions breaking their trade agreements. The company was alarmed by the size of the protest and the strikers were disconcerted because the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants refused to recognize them. Work was resumed July 22, on terms proposed by the company. The men received full pay even for the strike days; no men were to be proceded against for broken agreements; no black marks were to be made in the records of the strikers; petty grievances were to be adjusted; and the case of the transferred shunter was to be taken up with two fellow workers.

A state of unrest prevailed throughout the year in the coal-mining regions. This was due in the main to the introduction of the EightHours Act, which raised many points not settled by existing trade agreements. There were strikes and some rioting in the Durham and Northumberland districts during the early months, and small disturbances throughout the year in South Wales with a serious strike and much anarchy during the fall. Three chief questions were involved: whether an extra hour per week should be worked in addition to the 8 hours per day; whether wages should be advanced by amounts ranging from 2% to 5 per cent.; and whether miners working on thin veins or under conditions where a large ouput is impossible should receive a stipulated minimum wage, regardless of their output. The most destructive rioting occurred in the Rhondda valley in Wales in November, at which time about 30,000 miners were out; some of these were being supported by the Miners' Federation; others had struck illegally. The latter became desperate and London police and special troops were needed to preserve order. See GREAT BRITAIN, paragraphs on History.

There was a sudden strike of caulkers and hole-borers in the ship building trades in August; the men returned to work in order to avoid a threatened lockout. As a result of a strike of boilermakers early in September, in violation of a trade agreement to submit all matters of dispute to arbitration, the Ship Building Employers' Association instituted a lockout. About 48,000 workmen were affected, the entire industry on the northeast coast being crippled. The employers demanded that the men be fined for violating the trade agreements: this demand was abandoned. Through the intervention of the Board of Trade, settlement was reached on December 14; the Boilermakers' Society agreed to guarantee the fulfillment of the agreement in the future, and an advance of wages was conceded. The total loss of wages to the boilermakers and others thrown out was about $4,000,000.

The first attempt to apply the new Trades Boards Act (see LABOR LEGISLATION) authoriz ing the formation of a Board in any trade to

STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS determine minimum wages and standards, was made in connection with the women chainmakers at Cradley Heath. These women were said to work twelve hours per day at their crude forges in their own houses hammering out heavy chains. They were paid from one and one-half to three pence per hour or five to six shillings per week. On August 22 a Wage Board fixed three and one-half pence per hour as the minimum wage. The Act allowed an extension of six months before carrying out the finding of the board; a number of women signed unawares an agreement to that effect. They later discovered the significance of the paper they had signed and went on strike. The Women's Trade Union League and the Trade Union Federation took up their cause and paid strike benefits of five shillings per week. Altogether about five hundred of the nine hundred women chainmakers were out. The strike was ended about October 20 by the agreement of all manufacturers and middlemen to pay the wage fixed by the Trade Board.

GERMANY. There were numerous strikes and lockouts, the two most important being described below. The most serious rioting of the year occurred in Berlin late in September as the result of the employment of blackleg coal drivers. Almost, 300 persons were injured and several killed. A big lockout in the building trades beginning in April, involving 250,000 men, was settled by arbitration. The arbitrators were a Government Councillor, the Mayor of Dresden, and the President of the Munich Industrial Court. Their recommendations, published May 3, were at once accepted by the National Association of Master Builders and the various national trade unions involved. maximum ten hour day is to be ultimately established; piece work schedules to be provided; no discrimination to be made against those taking part in the disputes; and a national system of arbitration and conciliation to be worked out for the future. In June a further award increased wages slightly and provided a maximum day of 91⁄2 hours in six large cities after April, 1911, and of ten hours elsewhere after April, 1911, or April, 1912.

A

A strike of 8000 mechanics in the shipyards at Hamburg on August 4 was the beginning of widespread interruption of the ship-building industry in west and northwest Germany. The men demanded an increase in wages of 10 per cent. and other concessions. Stevedores, ship cleaners, and painters joined in the general dispute a few days later. The strikers were supported by Socialist organizations and by the Metal Trades Workers' Union. In order to force a conclusion of the strike the Association of Metal Employers voted to lock out 60 per cent. of their employes if work was not resumed by October 8; the men in turn voted a strike of 60 per cent. in case of a lockout. From 500,000 to 700,000 men would have been idle. A settlement was reached on October 14, the men receiving a reduction of one hour per week and an increase of 4 to 5 per cent. in wages. See GERMANY, paragraphs on History. FRANCE. One of the strikes causing the greatest amount of international interest was the strike of the employes on the Northern and Western railways of France. This was planned and directed in part by the General Confederation of Labor, which for several years has been carrying on violent labor disturbances with the

SUBWAYS

view of overturning the existing political and industrial régime. The railway strike was apparently intended to show the power of organized labor, and was based on the demand that one dollar be the minimum daily pay for any kind of railway work. To enforce this demand the union threatened to tie up all railway traffic as well as transportation by the street railways, subways, and carriages in Paris, to shut off electric lights and power, and to cut off the city's food supply. The strike began October 11. Trains were instantly halted and passengers to Atlantic ports and commuters were much inconvenienced. For the moment a food famine threatened Paris, but the government, under the lead of Premier Briand, showed a strong and determined hand. It requisitioned all boats on the Seine to bring in supplies; it likewise provided transportation by water to Atlantic ports. It stationed troops along the railway and it required all strikers who belonged to the army reserves to report for military duty. (See FRANCE, paragraphs on History.) In addition fifty-two strike leaders were arrested. The strikers resorted to malicious destruction of property, removing rails, cutting air brake tubes and destroying telegraph wires and poles. Within a few days, however, Premier Briand had secured a settlement which conceded the principal demands of the strikers. The cost of this strike to the country was estimated at $55,000,000. The railways and other transportation companies generously rewarded those employes who remained on duty. The government thereafter took up the formulation of a law making the publication of revolutionary articles inciting to strikes and rioting offenses against the Press Law. See ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION, IN

DUSTRIAL.

In April and May there were strikes of seamen, naval reservists, and others employed in the shipping industry at Marseilles, with two partially successful attempts to secure general sympathetic strikes at Dunkirk and Bordeaux. The immediate cause was the punishment of a number of seamen for desertion. The government took prompt measures by sending troops to preserve order and by taking charge of the transportation of mails. Normal conditions returned by May 10.

SPAIN. During the latter half of the year many very serious labor troubles developed. The chief centres were Bilbao and San Sebastian in the north, and Barcelona in the northeast. At the former places the wharves were paralyzed by strikes of cartmen and dockmen in sympathy with striking coal miners. Later in August the Workingmen's Association of Bilbao ordered a general strike. This order, however, was countermanded, but the rioting so paralyzed business that martial law was declared. In Barcelona a strike of 8000 metal workers was attended by a strike of 6000 miners at Sabadell. Much rioting was followed by the employment of military force to establish order. The disputes were not settled late in December. The continued labor disturbances were responsible in part for extensive emigration of laborers to the Americas.

STRONTIUM. See ATOMIC WEIGHTS. STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT. See MISSIONS, PROTESTANT FOREIGN.

SUBMARINES. See NAVAL PROGRESS. SUBSIDIES. See SHIP SUBSIDIES. SUBWAYS. See TUNNELS and NEW YORK.