Show THE FIRST STRIKE kin the first we know of was to in egypt throe thousand Thou years ago pali pall mail mall gazelle there is nothing new under the sun receives nowhere a more startling verification than in this of strikes tho the way in which our workingmen of modern europe try to coerce their heir t employers waa was in in substance the way adopted by their dark skinned meanly clad poorly fed predecessors in the land of the nile before modes led the israelites 0 out ut of egypt M alas Maa maagero pero ro who is well qualified tn t on all points with egyptology dei de rotes votes several very interesting pages p 0 o the subject in his chur charming mang historic Kead Itea inns lings which have t been published it seems that he families of the working classes were quite as improvident in egypt agypt thirty centuries ago as some if of them are in england engla nd at the present day at the beginning of he month when they had just their months rations eating and drinking went on wit without hout restraint by the middle of the month the stock be began bean an to fail and femine bean to stare the thriftless households louse holds in the face so again and again they went out on strike in n order to extort more from their superiors rioTs A strike of masons is described by M masscro in detail and some parts of the description might almost be mistaken for extracts from an english or german newspaper I 1 in n the nineteenth century of the christian era un on the of the month the builders uil ders employed at a temple rushed tumultuously out of the place ilace where whee they were working ig md and eat sat down be behind ind a ch chapel apelin in he the temple precincts exclaiming we are hungry and there are eighteen days before the next pay day they charged the paymasters with dishonesty asserting that the latter gave false measure the pay paymasters ay masters on the other hand band barged e d the men with want wat ot of fore bight eight alleging that they spent their tile ir wages aa as soon as they tb e touched burtker them after some further negotiations tia tiati lions ons with officers of of oft the he government the men resumed work on the he understanding that tho the king himself should receive their c coin 0 1 n plaint faint brwn days later P pharaoh har a oh actually visited the temple nd when the matter was laid before lim him ordered relief to be given to the woebegone masons for a short time there was quiet but boon provisions failed and anti discontent roke broke out again without violence jn on the ofine following month he the strike was in full force again not ot a man would work on the and they still refused to lift a tool on ort the they attempted to leave the precincts of the temple in order to carry t their heir grievances rrie vances into the outer world but found that the person who was placed over them had taken cautions aut ions so effective that no one could leave bo so they s spent the whole of that day in laying their plans on the following day t they ey resorted to more noisy methods after vainly appealing with loud cries to their manager they decided to apply to the governor of the city and an therefore re rus bed through the busy streets to the inconvenience of pedestrians not stopping ling until they reached t the he govern governors ors galace like their european successors these dis contented artisans stubbornly refused to work spent many hours in discussing their position and prospects disturbed the order of the streets by their impetuous us movements III ants and ultimately obtained part at least of their demands so we can trace the strike back for 3 I 1 years ahat is to a period when rome wad was not built and even evea greek civilization was still in its infancy how ilow old the method was at the time it is at present impossible cosay to say perhaps the custom is as old as the pyramids perhaps the first strike preceded tho most ancient odthe of the existing monuments of civilization |