ANOTHER GREAT STRIKE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 46.

ANOTHER GREAT STRIKE.

A GENERAL strike has been declared by the union of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers. The total number of iron workers involved is about 170,000, and by their cessation of work, more than 800,000 other mechanics in the building trades will be thrown out of work by the discontinuance of the iron construction. Concerning this the San Francisco Chronicle says: “Sam Parks is languishing in the Sing Sing Penitentiary, but his soul goes marching on. The union of which he was so active a member has done precisely what he would have desired it to do had he continued to lead it in the flesh. What the strike is about does not clearly appear. The question at issue should be very serious to warrant a strike just as winter is coming on. Should a million men be thrown out of employment, it would involve the feeding of two or three million people in the winter, a drain which no strike fund can long endure. It is a very serious situation, and the iron workers must have great faith either in the justice of their cause or the endurance of their funds to enter upon such a strike at such a time, and at this season of the year.” Speaking of the fact that the members of the union have received an increase in the rate of wages, yet they find their wages in the aggregate smaller than formerly because of expenses in the union, the Chronicle says: “They have lost their personal liberty and made no personal gain.”