HISTORIC STRIKES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3031, 17 April 1912, Page 86

HISTORIC STRIKES.

(Copyright.) Many people are under the impression thait the strike, or the giving up of work in order to secure the redress of grievances, is a comparatively modern innovation, a new industrial weapon forged by the trades unions of yesterday and to-day. As a matter of fact, this idea is quite a mistaken one. Men struck work before trades unions were dreamt of, and these bodies, by organising and so forth, have simply utilised the primitive industrial weapon which the labourer wields when he withholds his labour. THE FIRST STRIKE. The first strike of which we have any knowledge took place as far back as 1450 8.C., or nearly 34 centuries ago. Pharaoh was having a new temple built at Thebes, which necessitated the employment of a large number of ma&ons. These men received very small wages, but were furnished with a supply of food. Every month the contractors handed over to the man a supply of food wnich was thought to be adequate. But the men were not treated fairly. The food did not last anything like a month, and the labourers were reduced to the point of starvation. The unshot was that they walked in a body to the contractor's house, and there, with true Oriental fatalism, sat down, refusing to work until their grievances were remedied. The employers suggested arbitration, and the matter was laid before Pharaoh on his next visit to the works. He listened to the facts, and ended the dispute by sending enough corn to last until the end of the month. However, a similar state of affairs occurred the following month, in the middle of which the men again struck work. Conferences were held, but the men were obdurate, and refused to do another stroke until their wrongs were righted. • Amongst their grievances it was alleged that the clerks cheated them, and that false weights were used. As the employers refused to comply with their requests, they marched to the Governor of the city, and laid their grievances before him. That plausible official tried to get the men to return to work by means of promises, but the men had no use for promises, as they wanted food. Finally he gave them orders for corn to be presented at the public granary, and so the first strike on record came to an end. It had many features common to strikes as we know them to-day, and was more successful than many of the latter are. NOTABLE COLLIERY DISPUTES. Turning at once to a later period, a notable feature in the records of strikes is the large number of disputes which have from time to time convulsed the coal mining industry. In 1765 the Northumbrian miners struck work for several weeks as a protest against the system of a yearly bond of service. Unsuccessful at first, a second strike in 1810 brought about a compromise. During the nineteenth century there were numerous strikes against reductions and to secure advances in wages. The South Wales miners, to the number of 70,000, were out for 11 weks in 1873, and 19 Aveeks in 1875, the latter dispute being a combined strike and lock-out which led to the adoption of the sliding-scale agreement. The greatest dispute that has ever been recorded in the coal trade took place in 18d3, affecting the whole area then covered by the Miners' Federation—viz., Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Midlands. During 1891 and 1892 there had been reductions in wages because of the fall in the prices of coal. The Miners' Federation, however, refused to recognise that wages should follow prices, and put forward the men's claims to a fixed living wage, saying that the prices should be adjusted on that basis. Consequently they declined to accept any reduction, and the coal-owners l>emg just as resolute, the dispute began. By the middle of August 300,000 men were idle, or nearly half the total number of coal miners in the United Kingdom. The early stages were uneventful, but as funds became exhausted and the pinch of distress was felt, feeling ran high, and in seme districts there were deplorable acts of violence. At Featherstone, in Yorkshire, a colliery was attacked, and in the course of the attack the military fired on the rioters, two of whom were killed. After the end of September some of the men were allowed to start at the old rate of wage 3. But, despite several attempted settlements, the dispute still draarged on. At last, on the 17th November, 1893, at the invitation of the Government, representatives of masters and men met, under the chairmanship of Lord Rosebery. At this gathering, which was the forerunner of the conciliation boards, it was agreed that the men should start at the old rate of wages. Strikes have been very frequent on the South Wales coalfield. " In 1898 100,000 men began a strike for the abolition of the sliding scale. It lasted for 25 weeks, and was unsuccessful. The outbreak of a colliery strike in September, 1910, which involved 12,000 men for many months, was c-nly the forerunner of graver trouble. At the end of October a further serious disoute arose. There was some rioting on November 2 in the Rhondda Valley, and on the 7th some of the strikers seized a colliery. Next day there was fierce rioting at Tonypandy, in which 80 people wore injured. Troops and extra police had to be drafted into the district, and there was further serious rioting before the trouble came to an end. UNREST IN THE COTTON TRADE. | The year 1853 was one of great unrest in the Lancashire cotton trade. For seven months 20,000 to 30,000 spinners of Preston were engaged in an effort to secure an advance of wages, which was fruitless, and in the same year no fewer than 65,000 Lancashire spinners wore on strike. Local j disputes at Bolton in 1877, and Oldham in 1878, were followed in the latter year by a general stoppage in North-east Lan- | cashire affeoting 70,000 workers for nine weeks. The general dispute was accom- j panied by violent rioting, and 68 persons

were tried and convicted. In 1892-3 a great dispute arose in the cotton-spinning industry, some 50,000 people in Oldham and district being "out" for 20 weeks against a proposed reduction of 5 per cent, in wages. The dispute called forth and was ended by the famous "Brooklands Agreement." THE GREAT LONDON DOCK STRIKE. One of the most famous of disputes was the prolonged strike of dock and waterside labourers which took place in London in 1389. It began with a small local dispute on the loth August, but spread go rapidly that in a few days' time 16,000 men wore out. The public were symathetic, and a sum of £50,000 was ra'ised, of which no less than £30,000 came from far-off Australia. The sympathy and subscriptions of the Australians practically decided the contest. Public opinion led to the formation of a conciliation committee, including the Lord Mayor, the Bishop of London, Cardinal Manning, Sir John Lubbock (now Lord Avebury), and others, and on September 14 an agreement was arrived at by which the dockers obtained the greater part of their demands. Although during the strike cases of intimidation and violence on the part of pickets were by no means absent, the police court eases arising out of the strike were remarkably few. AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL WAR. Perhaps the sharpest if not the shortest of industrial struggles was the fierce dispute between the Carnegie Steel Co. and their employees at Homestead Works near Pittsburg in 1892. The affair arose out of a disagreement on the wages question, and no settlement being arrived at, the works were closed on June 30. The men's union had called all its members taut, but the company refused to recognise the union, and proposed to employ non-union men. This the trades unionists were determined to prevent. They practically took possession of the Homestead Works, and warned off the sheriff's deputies. A body of Pinkerton's deteotives gathered in two Barges on the Ohio River, and at 4 a.m..on July 5 tried to land at the works. The workmen entrenched themselves , behind steel billets and fired on the detectives, who returned their fire. A fierce battle followed, and Pinkerton's men were beaten off. The fighting was renewed on the following day. The workmen secured a number of email cannon, and the detectives armoured their boats. But in the end the latter had to surrender, seven having been killed and 20 to 30 wounded. On July 10 the Governor ordered all the Status .militia to Homestead, and on the 12th the troops arrived, the town was placed under martial law, and order was restored. Eleven workmen and spectators were killed. Congress made an investigation of the strike, but no legislative action was taken. The works were gradually supplied with new labour, but the strike dragged on till November, 1892, when it fizzled out. This Homestead strike was undoubtedly the bitterest labour war prior to the Pullman eta-ike of 1894, which culminated in a practical paralysis of all railways radiating from Chicago, and involved passenger, mails, and goods traffic in a general chacs, ENGINEERING AND SHIPPING. Disputes have unfortunately been frequent in the engineering and allied trades. Previous to 1890 there had been much unrest, and in that year the Employers' Federation war, called into being. In 1897-8 there was a prolonged and disastrous dispute turning on, questions of hours and management, which lasted over six months, and ultimately involved nearly 50,000 men. Of recent years trades unions and strikes have extended to the shipping industry. In 1907 there was a great strike in the Belgian shipping trade. In order to fight tue strikers the Shipping Federation imported hundreds of English strikebreakers. These "blacklegs" were housed on old ships so as to be safe from the strikers, and, guarded by gendarmes, they succeeded in doing the necessary work of the docks. These methods, however unscrupulous and distasteful to The strikers, were successful, and the strike collapsed, the men having to return to work oh the same terms as before. THE RECORD RAILWAY STRIKE. The year 1911 was a year of strikes in this country, and the shipping strike which almost brought to a standstill the import and export trade of the chief ports would have remained memorable, had it not been overshadowed by the great railway strike which broke out in August. It began with a strike of 10,000 railway workers in Liverpool. On August 13 there was a terrible riot after a mass meetint. Hundreds were injured, and feeling ran high. Next day the shipowners locked out 25,000 dockers, because 500 refused to return to work after the shipping strike. The trades union retorted by calling out all the transport workers, and the work at the port was at a standstill, liners being delayed. There was sporadic rioting, and the prison vans were attacked by the' mob. Two m-cn were shot dead by the military and 50 were injured, including soldiers and police. On August 16 the railwaymen's leaders threatened a general strike unless the companies agreed to meet them to discuss grievances. The strike movement spread rapidly to Manchester, Sheffield, and other centres. The Government officials held conferences with Che men's representatives and with the railway managers in order to try to avert the crisis. The Prime Minister piomised a Royal Commission, which the men declined, and the managers refused to meet the union leaders. A general strike was therefore ordered to begin at once. The Government took prompt measures: warships wero despatched to the Mersey, and practicallv the whole army was requisitioned to giiard the railway system all over the country. Railway services from and to Manchester, Liverpool, and the north wern seriously dislocated. Holidaymakers and mails were held up, and the paralysis of transport threatened a food famine. On Saturday August 19, how

ever, at the instance of the Government, the railway managers met the men's representatives," and after 11 hours' discussion a basis of agreement was arrived at, the Government promising a special commission. So ended, after only 51 hours, the shortest, sharpest, and meet dramatic strike this country has ever known. The subsequent Irish strike was in the nature of an anti-climax, and there was no surprise at tho men's defeat.