y effective these
labor combinations have become, and how completely they hold the country
at their mercy, as in the strike of the locomotive engineers on the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad system in March, 1888. Here
were, perhaps two thirds of the men in the country qualified for the
responsible and onerous work of running a locomotive engine, firmly
banded together to advance their own interests and secure assent to
their demands. Granted the will, the courage, the discipline, and it was
possible, yes, easy, for them to have obliged the railroads to raise the
wages of every engineer in the brotherhood to $10.00 per day, for on a
refusal they could have enforced the extreme penalty of bringing down a
total paralysis upon the business of the country. It speaks volumes for
the good sense, the honesty and moderation of the men and their leaders,
that, notwithstanding the fact that their demands were not immoderate,
and that the failure which came permanently deprived of a remunerative
position a thousand members of their brotherhood, they refrained from
the extreme to which they might easily have gone, and permitted
themselves to be defeated, when they had the power to have forced a
different result.

Organized workers in many trades have the power to force wages much
higher than they have done. Would that the Sugar Refineries Company, and
some other monopolies of production, were as moderate in their demands
upon the public as are the workingmen. But though their demands are in
one sense moderate, it is yet true that in so far as they exceed the
amount which the laborer would receive when the market for labor is
open to free competition, they are the direct result of the artificial
monopoly which the laborers have created by their combination, and, in
effect, levy a tax upon the community. To illustrate: let us suppose
that if every man were permitted to follow the trade of bricklaying who
wished to do so, the equilibrium between supply and demand would be
found at a rate of wages of $3.00 per day. At that rate, if the price
rose, more men would wish to follow the trade and at the same time less
people could afford to build houses, thus raising the supply above the
demand. If the price fell, some of the men would prefer to work at some
other trade and more people would conclude they could afford to build
houses. But when the rate, which, without prejudice, we call the natural
rate, is at $3.00 per day, suppose