Show j I I 5 THE SILK STRIKE e 7 i It I One of the most disastrous strikes that I i has occurred safely is that winch Is now f on in the silk mills of Paterson New j Jersey This is the great silk manufacturing I I t manufac-turing centre oi America It has taken I many years of patient labor and a vast t amount of money to establish and buildUp I build-up the business to its present dimensions i dimen-sions and flourishing condition There l are sixty silk mills in the city and Ii these employ 18000 hands paying out between S130009 and 230000 weekly PAterson depends almost solely oa the i 1 silk factories for local business Early in the year when it was popular j popu-lar to strike the fever seized upon some of the agitators in Paterson and I they I set to work to induce the dyers to go unto There are only 1200 of them but S 4 the manufacture is so dependent upon 4j 1 them that vhen they stop work 18000 i hands must also quit The strike was inaugurated on February 9th against IU 1 I the protests of ninetenths of the employees em-ployees outside the dyers and continues f con-tinues without the prospect of letting t 1 up Te New York Commercial Bulletin recently sent a correspondent to Paterson J Pater-son and he gives a detailed account of the cause and progress of the strike f It is learned from him that about a year I i ago the wages of the dyers were advanced t S ad-vanced 40 per cent and the employees were content The Knights of Labor H last winter seeing the important relation J rela-tion which the dyers occupied ij to the business determined to gain absolute control of the employers I t and of the manufacture of silk in this country To do this the dyers were oj induced to make outrageous and unreasonable t 1 un-reasonable demands Without assigning 5 11 any reason for their action the dyers left work suddenly and then submitted I I t a schedule of conditions They demanded I de-manded that the smallest wages should i It i be 18 a week that helpers should re i 31 ceive not less man piv a week mat aLL Ii a-LL a J mill should engage no more than than i j three apprentices at a time or more than one for each hundred men employed j em-ployed and thata days work should I be ten hours except on Saturday when I H i Ii I five hours should be a day The first S S i 1 I condition was as follows This shall l i be a union shop and no man shall be I t r employed in it unless he is a member n 1 of the Knights of Labor in good standing 4t f stand-ing It I I S ingVery naturally and very properly the I I k 1 fa t employers refused to comply with the 1 a conditions They said they would not I I discriminate against members of any I 1 labor organization but they proposed 1 I 11 to mannage their own business and I i t 11 I not submit to dictation by an emI i em-I ployee or labor society they asserted j 1 t j F th intention to employ and discharge I I J J t whomsoever they pleased With this I response matters came to a crisis I I 1 I Some mills were obliged to close at I once dnd others have been gradually I closing anti last week but ten of the s i sixty were running and these II I will have 7 I I to stop as sooh as their material is 1 I S worked up J The wickedness of this strike becomes t n t + manifest when it is known that I I t the lockout was caused and is maintained 1 j main-tained by a bare majority of 1200 i i f dyers who keep 18000 men and women I i j ° t J from earning a living and deprive I J i double that number of the necessaries 1 s Ir 1 of life Not only do these vicious dyers J s rob honest and willing men and women + + t f of the right to labor for satisfactory I r H 1 wages but they are bringing disaster f i to a young but growing and important I 11 Industry The silk trade is going back i L to France and England and it will take t i i l a long time to recover it as it took 1 I L years to acquire it in the first place i Actions of this character drive intel lien honest sympathy from strikers li I 1 r and from labor organizations which S order and countenance such outrages I r |