THE HUMOUROUS SIDE OF STRIKES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8172, 4 July 1906, Page 3

THE HUMOUROUS SIDE OF STRIKES.

'Strikes. have often ttnir amusing as a writer in the May number of Chambers Journal bdows. Sooi aljstio trade unionism infests every department of labour in Holland,. -with the result that when one or organisation goes on strke, all sorts of strangely-variant associations are obliged to aid and abet it. Some little time ago the opera oboriaters in Amsterdam went on strike against Sunday rehearsals. They forced :the Cobblers' Association to join them, and the strange speotaole was iaeen of the bootmakers and menders wrecking the performance of an •opera for which blackleg ohoristers had been at the last moment enlisted. ! QN STRIKE FOR LKMONADE Again, at Pittsburg, the Birming- j • ham of the United States, fifty work* J • men engaged upon a building threw j • down their tools and "oame out" I because their employer would not supply, them with lemonade. The •"boss' was adamant. "1 gave you I j lemonade once," he said, "and you .all drank so much that you made ..yourselves ill. .Next thing you'll be wanting lady fingers and ioe-orenm, >and hammocks to take naps in." It tiei satafaotory to learn that these ' over;lnxurious workmen got no sympathy from their union, and were xforoed to go back to their employer's terms. Be was generous, and subsequently supplied ioe water ad lib. V BLIND, MEN ON STRIKE. There was humour, and pathos <too, \in the strike of the blind •brdom-mpkers in Philadelphia a year or two ago. The .men, to the numberof 150, struck for au inoreaee of .wages, and day by day for more than a week paraded the streets of the Quaker City. They needed no police protection, as for once the usually selfish public constituted itself their constant and. capable guardiaa. Everything and everybody gave way to them, and eventually the city authorities intervened and the matter was settled by arbitration. A TACTFUL EMPLOYER. What an immense amount of strike loss would be saved if only every employer had the tact and good sense of the owner of a fnotory in Cleveland, Ohio. Most of his hands were girls, and one day the whole lot Btruok for some fanciful grievance, instead of storming at them or locking them out the proprietor came intd the groat workroom. "Young ladies," he Baid, "we must talk this matter over quietly. Come with me. He tnnn led the way to a great confectionery establishment, begged evey girl to order what she pleased, and by the time they had all finished large plates of ice-cream found them perfectly amenable to his own terms.