p. 5 | Industrial Unrest by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1916

Industrial Unrest

By L. L. C.

STUDENTS of the Scriptures have looked for industrial unrest as one of the signs of the times. The first of May marked a labor situation perhaps unparalleled in recent years. As the Washington Post of May 1, 1916, says, “Taken altogether, no May Day in recent years will have witnessed so many concrete evidences of industrial unrest in spite of the fact that many thousands of workers have been granted higher wages and shorter hours.” An analysis of labor conditions made on the last day of April showed that May dawned with 60,000 working men and women on strike or locked out, with many other industrial disturbances threatening. Fourteen thousand Westinghouse employees in various parts of the East were on a strike. Settlement was pending concerning the country-wide strike of 400,000 railroad employees.

A tentative agreement had just been reached between the representatives of the operators and miners of the anthracite fields, which has averted, at least for a time, a strike of 175,000 miners. The cloak, suit, and skirt manufacturers generally, anticipating a possible strike, have declared a lockout, affecting between 30,000 and 35,000 employees. Ten thousand three hundred painters and decorators in New York City are demanding increased pay, and may strike if their demands are not granted. Among the idle employees in other trades in New York are 2,500 jewelry workers and 1,500 custom tailors. The cotton manufacturers in Fall River, Mass., propose to advance their employees’ wages nearly six per cent. The operators had demanded a ten-per-cent increase. The United States Steel Corporation, though handling no war orders, has increased the wages of its employees ten per cent. This is true also of many other industries.

The strikes in various parts of the country are in some cases resulting in riot. The papers of May 3 report that two men were killed and four probably fatally wounded, while a score of others were seriously hurt in a mob at Pittsburgh, which attacked the Edgar Thompson Works of the Carnegie Steel Company at Braddock. There was a pitched battle lasting an hour, during which four hundred shots were fired. Women joined in the fight, and two of them were wounded. Other serious difficulties may be expected in places where strikes are on, unless the employers find it possible to grant the demands of the workmen. In most cases these demands are being met with a corresponding increase in the price charged the public for commodities produced. L. L. C.