to 20%, and an increased rate for overtime. The largest in- creases were given to the unskilled workers.
The anthracite coal strike, beginning March 31 1912 lasted seven weeks. About 1 70,00x3 men and boys were out. The results were wages increases, abolition of the sliding scale and provision for a grievance committee. A strike of the coal-miners of Paint Creek and Cabin Creek in W. Virginia lasted from April 1912 to July 1913, and was marked by violence and lawlessness. Thir- teen lives were lost. It has been estimated that the employers lost $2,000,000 because of the strike, the strikers $1,500,000 in wages and that the strike cost the taxpayers of the state or county $500,000. Miners in other states contributed $602,000 to the strike fund. The U.S. Senate ordered an investigation.
In 1913 business was active, the cost of living was rising, and there were many strikes. A strike of silk workers in Paterson, N.J., beginning in Feb. involved 293 establishments and over 25,000 workers. The strike was in protest against the introduc- tion of the three- and four-loom system, and to enforce shorter hours and increased wages. After the strike began, the I.W.W. sent in their leaders. They succeeded in holding the workers together during the five months of the strike. The attempt by the American Federation of Labor to organize the workers and effect trade agreements with the employers failed. The strike was lost through exhaustion of the workers. A strike in the cop- per mines of upper Michigan, for recognition of the Western Federation of Miners and to compel the enforcement of certain state laws, began in the summer of 1913 and lasted until April 1914. The men were taken back with the promise of wages in- creases and reduction of hours, but on condition that they give up membership in the union.
In Sept. 1913 a strike broke out among the employees of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. for recognition of the United Mine Workers' Union, wages increases and the enforcement of state mining laws. In Dec. a Federal grand jury indicted many of the union officials for violating the anti-trust Act by trying to cre- ate a monopoly of labour. Mine operators were also indicted for violating state mining laws. In Jan. 1914 the Federal House of Representatives ordered an investigation. Early in the strike the state militia had been sent in and martial law declared. Both sides were guilty of violence. The strikers had moved from the houses owned by the company to tent colonies on land leased by the union. One of the largest of these was at Ludlow. On April 20 1914 militia fired into the tents, which were ignited, and 7 men, 2 women and 1 1 children perished. Each side accused the other of initiating the attack. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on behalf of the employing company, refused to go to arbitration with the union, which he believed to be controlled by eastern agitators. President Wilson then sent 2,000 Federal troops to restore peace. They took the place of the militia, who withdrew, and disarmed the strikers and mine guards and deported the strikebreakers. In Sept. President Wilson proposed that the company should take back the strikers not guilty of violence and establish grievance committees and a committee of appeals to effect arbitration. The proposal was accepted by the miners but rejected by the operators. Early in Dec. 1914 the President appointed a commission to settle future disputes in the Colorado mines, made up of representatives of the employers, the union and the public. The union then voted to call off the strike and on Dec. 30 part of the Federal troops were withdrawn. At no time during the strike did the directors of the company visit the property, but after investigation by the U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., visited Colorado. The result was the introduction of a system of employee repre-
I sentation. The miners voted to accept the plan, which provides for annual election, by the workers in each camp, of representa-
| tives to meet in conference with the employers' representatives.
- Each district conference names committees on conciliation, safety,
sanitation, health and housing, education and recreation. A supervisor of welfare work was appointed. The workers were
i granted the basic 8-hour day and check- weighmen. A promise was given that union men would not be discriminated against, but the union was not recognized.
A lock-out of 16,000 coal-miners in Ohio which lasted more than a year was settled in May 1915, by Federal mediation. For a year after the war broke out in Europe, business was depressed in the United States, and many workers were competing for em- ployment; but with increasing demand for labour on war con- tracts strikes again became numerous. In 1915 there were 102 strikes and 6 lock-outs of machinists in the four months July to Oct.; in nearly every case the basic 8-hour day was gained. In 1916 there was rioting in connexion with strikes in the oil re- fineries at Bayonne, N.J., of iron and steel workers in East Youngstown, O., and of 30,000 workers of the Westinghouse Elecfric Co. in Pittsburgh. Unorganized iron miners on the Mesaba range in Michigan were on strike from June to October. In the same year there were also strikes of longshoremen on the Pacific coast, and street railway employees in several cities. Coal strikes affected 350,000 men. Some 10% of the strikes that year were in New York City where more than 300,000 workers were out, chiefly in the garment trades.
After the United States entered the war the American Federa- tion of Labor discouraged strikes in essential industries. Dis- putes were settled by negotiation. A number of strikes did occur, however, in some cases involving large numbers of workers; the great majority were settled by Government committees. Those responsible for war labour administration were of the opinion that the period of the war should be one of truce in the industrial field. Demands for closed shop or for radical social change were barred. The truce was not always respected by workers or em- ployers, but on the whole it was adhered to. Local machinists' unions in Bridgeport and Newark came under radical socialist leadership. As many of the Allies' war orders were placed in Bridgeport there was great demand for machinists and the town became overcrowded. The men were dissatisfied because their pay was lower than that of men in the shipbuilding yards, and because employers discriminated against the unions. In the summer of 1917 the men demanded the 8-hour day, 10% increase in wages with certain minimum rates of pay for each class of workers, right of union membership and shop committees for the adjustment of grievances. The answer of the employers was to ask the U.S. attorney-general for criminal action. Various Federal agents were sent to Bridgeport but were unsuccessful in preventing the strike which occurred in May 1918. The strikers, however, were persuaded by the Federal mediator to return to work. Hearings were held in Washington before a special board of the Ordnance Department, and on June 8 the award was made public. After some protest the workers accepted it, but the employers refused, with the result that the men again went out on strike June 26. The War Labor Board took up the matter, but unsuccessfully, an umpire was appointed, who granted the 8-hour day, arrangements for collective bargaining, and wages increases for the most poorly paid workers; but not classification of workers with minimum wage rates. The men felt that the Government should have sustained its earlier award, and they refused to accept the second, which seemed to them to be a compromise with the employers. A third time they went out on strike. President Wilson then wrote to the strikers threat- ening that unless they returned to work immediately, they would be refused employment in any war industry in their community, they might not claim draft exemption on the grounds of employment in an essential industry, and that the U.S. Employment Service would refuse to find them work in other localities. On Sept. 17 1918 the men voted to return to work. The President also required the employers to reinstate all strikers. The collective bargaining machinery provided by the award never functioned.
In the summer of 1917 the entire lumber industry of the north-west was disorganized by strikes. The chief demand was for the 8-hour day. The President's Mediation Commission was unsuccessful in its attempt to settle the difficulties. The employ- ers continued the ro-hour day, but they had difficulty in keeping men, and those who did accept employment practised sabotage. In the shipyards workers refused to handle " lo-hour lumber." These conditions continued until Col. Brice P. Disque, sent into
