* * * * *
Last July we told you about a great strike that was going on in London
among the engineers. We said that the fight promised to be a long and
bitter one, because both masters and men considered themselves in the
right, and both had plenty of money to help them to stand by their
opinions.
You will be surprised to learn that the strike is still in progress, and
grows stronger as time goes by.
When the strike first began, but seventeen thousand men were involved in
it; but finding the masters refuse to listen to the demands of the men,
the labor unions have decided to call out the workers in thirty other
important industries. This will make about four hundred thousand men in
all on strike.
The complaint of the men is that they want a working day of eight hours,
and do not want to work overtime unless they are paid extra for it.
The engineer's calling is a very hard one; in some branches the men are
forced to work around boilers and furnaces where the heat is stifling.
They feel that eight hours' labor a day is as much as they should be
required to give, and that, if their employers want them to toil longer
than their regular hours, they should be willing to pay them liberally
for so doing.
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