BARBERS ON STRIKE.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 426, 8 July 1913, Page 7

BARBERS ON STRIKE.

The correspondent of a London newspaper, telegraphing on May J.l, said : — New York barbers struck work on Wednesday, at the bidding of the International Workers of the World, to secure the following concessions: A 12---hour day, four hours on Sunday; one day holiday weekly; regular customers to pay 7id for a shave and Is for a hair-cut; customers using safety razors or shaving at home to pay 2s for a hair-cut. The strikers say they have been working 14 hours a day, sometimes more, and a day's holiday has been considered more as a privilege than a right. The usual charge per shave here is already 7£d, and 4Jd as a tip. A hair-cut usually costs Is, but sometimes only lOd. The prices 1 have quoted are not those m city shops merely, but are general throughout the metropolitan area. So far there has been no discrimination against selfshavers, but barbers — or "tonsorial artists," to quote the American phrase — have always regarded self-shavers as fitting subjects for a retaliatory tariff. To-day the strike seems to be pretty general, but the increasing sale of safety razors since Wednesday is demoralising the tonsorial practitioners, and a compromise by to-morrow seems likely.