of the strikers. No matter what occupation, sea-cook or stationary
engineer, sand teamster or warehouseman, in every case there was an idle
worker ready to do the work. And not only ready but anxious. They
fought for a chance to work. Men were killed, hundreds of heads were
broken, the hospitals were filled with injured men, and thousands of
assaults were committed. And still surplus laborers, "scabs," came
forward to replace the strikers.

The question arises: _Whence came this second army of workers to replace
the first army_? One thing is certain: the trades' unions did not scab
on one another. Another thing is certain: no industry on the Pacific
slope was crippled in the slightest degree by its workers being drawn
away to fill the places of the strikers. A third thing is certain: the
agricultural workers did not flock to the cities to replace the strikers.
In this last instance it is worth while to note that the agricultural
laborers wailed to High Heaven when a few of the strikers went into the
country to compete with them in unskilled employments. So there is no
accounting for this second army of workers. It simply was. It was there
all this time, a surplus labor army in the year of our Lord 1901, a year
adjudged most prosperous in the annals of the United States. {2}

The existence of the surplus labor army being established, there remains
to be established the economic necessity for the surplus labor army. The
simplest and most obvious need is that brought about by the fluctuation
of production. If, when production is at low ebb, all men are at work,
it necessarily follows that when production increases there will be no
men to do the increased work. This may seem almost childish, and, if not
childish, at least easily remedied. At low ebb let the men work shorter
time; at high flood let them work overtime. The main objection to this
is, that it is not done, and that we are considering what is, not what
might be or should be.

Then there are great irregular and periodical demands for labor which
must be met. Under the first head come all the big building and
engineering enterprises. When a canal is to be dug or a railroad put
through, requiring thousands of laborers, it would be hurtful to withdraw
these laborers from the constant industries. And whether it is a canal
to be dug or a cellar, whether five thousand men are required or five, it
is well, in society as at present organized, that th