Troubled Waters; A Problem of To-Day

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. THE STRIKE. Monday morning came, and at a quarter before six o'clock the bells clanged as usual. As usual, too, the streets were filled with " help." But there was a holiday air in their mien and attire that spoke ill for their industry that day. Crowds hung about the hugegates that opened in the yard before the Tradelawn Mills. Would the strike amount to anything? was the question on the lips, the thought in the minds of all. Not all of the mill-help of the city were "Union" men. It was the latter who had really planned and forced the movement. But they had artistically covered up their tracks, and the strike was not a " Union" one, but an effort of the whole working population, irrespective of trades organization, to fight against the proposed reduction. The success of the resistance depended upon the' holding together of perhaps twenty-five hundred men, women, and children, though practically twelve hundred men were the real backbone of the strike, --as they went the others would follow. Nearly all of these men had set their names to a declaration, drawn up and circulated by Croft's committee, that they would not go back to work at the reduced rate, nor would any return unless all were received back on equal terms. It was a bungling contrivance. Some of the men belonged to great organizations, with treasuries full of money, pledged to back their members in any movement that received the approval of their executive committee. But not all had this resource to fall back upon, and those who had were careful not to let it become a prominent subject of talk. They kept urging the local aspect of the strike, claiming that the mills were overrun with orders, and that in a day or two, as soon as they saw the people were of a really determined front, th...