When in 1861 the armies of the Union and of the rebels confronted each other for months without moving or doing each other any harm, an Englishman said, when the question came to the American Civil War, - "Yes, a very Civil War indeed". In a similar sense we have now, here in Chicago, a very civil strike. The workers employed by local shoe factories have quietly, after finishing all current work, stopped working because they ask $12.00 weekly instead of $9.00. The owners declared that they are willing to pay $10.50 but could not pay $12.00, because otherwise the prices would rise beyond those demanded by the Eastern factories or those of local firms which sell prison-made goods.

If there was ever a strike which should end with a peaceful agreement between the employees and employers then this is one. Here would be a case for an industrial court of arbitration, such as are being demanded in Europe, and in some ways have been successfully introduced. Instead of this the guild forces 2itself between the two parties with its ironclad regulations. The Guild of the "Crispines", a sort of union of shoemakers, prohibits the workers from negotiating directly with the employers of certain factories. All transactions are to go through the Board of the Guild, and any concessions made by employers to the workmen are not considered without approval of the Guild Board.

What now? If the employers really cannot agree to the wage demands without ruining themselves, and instead of yielding, simply stop business by closing their factories? What would the shoemakers then have gained? Hundreds of families instead of having $10.50 per week, would have nothing to live on. Could, would, the Guild assure compensation? And if so - for how long? A means to force the reprobate capitalists to work their factories, does not exist.

Both parties, employees and employers, agree in the present case, that the competition of cheap convict labor is the main reason for unfavorable wage 3conditions. To imagine that the employer merely wants to oppress the workers out of malice and pure wantonness - there is apparently no foundation. The evil of cheap convict labor cannot be lifted by this strike; for that quite other measures are needed. It is necessary to win a majority of the State Legislature for doing away with the system of leasing convict labor. But the majority in the Legislature consists of representatives of the farming population, and there is so far very little understanding of the evils of this system. For them the situation presents itself simply as that one should permit the convicts to loaf at the expense of the taxpayers, and of that they are not in favor. Now, it might be that one could persuade the farmers in the course of time; however, in the time from tonight until tomorrow morning it cannot be done.

There is, today, in Germany, in scarcely any trade a workingman who earns half the $1.75 per day offered by the employers here. That should be well considered. If the shoemakers can obtain $2.00 a day nobody will grudge it to them. But if it is impossible for the employers to pay more than $1.75, will, then the Guild seriously expect workers to cease work and starve rather than labor for this pay?