What Social Classes Owe to Each OtherSumner, William Graham
General
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
Sumner, William Graham
Economics; Social ethics
Nevertheless, a strike is a legitimate resort at last. It is like war,
for it is war. All that can be said is that those who have recourse to
it at last ought to understand that they assume a great responsibility,
and that they can only be justified by the circumstances of the case. I
cannot believe that a strike for wages ever is expedient. There are
other purposes, to be mentioned in a moment, for which a strike may be
expedient; but a strike for wages is a clear case of a strife in which
ultimate success is a complete test of the justifiability of the course
of those who made the strife. If the men win an advance, it proves that
they ought to have made it. If they do not win, it proves that they
were wrong to strike. If they strike with the market in their favor,
they win. If they strike with the market against them, they fail. It is
in human nature that a man whose income is increased is happy and
satisfied, although, if he demanded it, he might perhaps at that very
moment get more. A man whose income is lessened is displeased and
irritated, and he is more likely to strike then, when it may be in
vain. Strikes in industry are not nearly so peculiar a phenomenon as
they are often thought to be. Buyers strike when they refuse to buy
commodities of which the price has risen. Either the price remains
high, and they permanently learn to do without the commodity, or the
price is lowered, and they buy again. Tenants strike when house rents
rise too high for them. They seek smaller houses or parts of houses
until there is a complete readjustment. Borrowers strike when the rates
for capital are so high that they cannot employ it to advantage and pay
those rates. Laborers may strike and emigrate, or, in this country,
take to the land. This kind of strike is a regular application of
legitimate means, and is sure to succeed. Of course, strikes with
violence against employers or other employes are not to be discussed at
all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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