The San Francisco Iron Strike [pp. 39-47]

7'he San Francisco Iron Strike.
On Monday, the i6th, the committees
were very strict in the performance of their
duties. Every movement of the bosses was
watched. In the afternoon the Globe Foundry was closed on account of having agreed
to work on a pattern owned by the Fulton.
The shops on strike could not get a pound
of melted iron from those that were running.
In fact, the men were masters of the situation.
The Legislature adopted resolutions of sympathy for the workmen on strike. Communications were sent to all parts of the United
States, cautioning workmen to keep away
from this point until the strike was ended;
and everything was done that had a tendency
to.strengthen the Unions.
On Tuesday evening, the I7th, the ironnioulders' committee was requested to meet a
representative of the manufacturers for the
purpose of arranging a settlement. The
meeting was held, and it was suggested that
the proposition to compromise at seven and
a half per cent. reduction be laid before the
Union, with the understanding that all hands
would be reemployed at that figure. A
meeting was called for the following evening,
but the mnen would not listen to the proposition. When the result was announced to
a representative of the Empire workshops,
he, on behalf of the firm, requested their
men and boys to return to work in the
morning at the old rates. The Union declared the strike ended in that shop, and the
men and apprentices were authorized to resume work on Thursday morning, the i9th.
About ten o'clock on Thursday, the committee was requested to meet the proprietors
of the other shops, and after a short discussion, it was agreed that the workmen in all
branches should return to work on Friday
morning, the 20th, after a suspension of ten
days. The news spread very rapidly, and in
the evening, when each branch met, the
strike was officially declared at an end, and
advertisements announcing the fact and directing the men to resume work, appeared in
each of the morning papers.
The laborers and moulders and helpers
have had some trouble in one of the shops,
but the firms generally have kept their prom
ises to the old hands. Those who have been
employed since are working at lower rates.
The strike was well conducted. Not a single breach of the peace or arrest was made
during the whole affair. The proprietors declared they could not afford to pay old rates,
and the men withheld their labor, declaring
they could not afford to work for less.
So much for the actual history of the
strike of the iron-workers last February. I
will now try to give reasons to justify the
workmen's action. During the past twentyfive years the workmen of America have been
given abundant proof that manufacturers, as
a class, never wait for fhe necessity of a reduction of wages, but are ever looking for
an opportunity for it, which, when offered,
they never fail to embrace; and further, they
have used unjust methods to create opportunities. This is a sweeping assertion, but it
is clearly proven by the way in which immigration has been encouraged by them; by
their opposition in the East to the Chinese
Restriction'Act; and by their extensive importation of contract laborers, through which
they have forced American laborers in the
East down to a condition little better than
slavery. And this, notwithstanding the fact
that they (the manufacturers) have been protected by a high tariff, the benefits of which,
by the use of the means above mentioned,
have gone into their pockets exclusively, enabling them to build lordly mansions and
live in luxury; while the hearts of the toiling
masses are made desperate through want of
the means to obtain the bare necessaries of
life, and while warehouses and stores are
crowded to overflowing with the comforts
and luxuries of life, which their labor has
created. Is it any wonder, then, that there
should be an irrepressible conflict between
labor and capital, and that the assertions of
manufacturers concerning the necessity for
reductions in wages, or anything else for that
matter, are taken with a great deal of doubt
and suspicion by their employds?
The standard of wages contended for by
the iron-workers of this city is that portion
which will bring within their reach the comforts and necessaries of life; which enables
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