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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt:...for higher wages and better working conditions (see also VIII, Porto Rico). The strikes met with little success. Charges were made by labor leaders that the police were used in the interests of the employers, and that they broke up peaceful meetings of strikers and made unjust arrests. The Bayonne Strike.--For the second time in 15 months a strike marked by violence resulting in fatalities occurred in Bayonne, New Jersey A. Y. B., 1915, p. 428). The strike began on Oct. 6 among unorganized, non-English speaking employees of the Standard Oil Co. and quickly spread to other oil and chemical plants. The Standard Oil strikers asked for wage increases of 30 per cent, for those receiving less than $3 a day and 20 per cent, for those receiving $3 or more, the eight-hour day, and "decent and humane" treatment from foremen and superiors. From causes that are not entirely clear violence soon broke out, and within a few hours after the men had gone on strike they were fighting in the streets with the police. Many citizens were then hastily sworn in as special deputies, the saloons were closed, and by an extensive use of force order was quickly reestablished. The authorities claimed that the strikers formed mobs, kept many men from work who did not wish to strike, and shot at the police. On the other hand, strike sympathizers claimed that the police used unlawful methods and terrorism not merely to secure order but to break up the strike, and that newspaper accounts of violence by the strikers were inaccurate and exaggerated. The strike failed and the men returned to work under the old conditions, except that at the Standard Oil plant the superintendent agreed to confer on their grievances with a committee from among their number. Boycotts and...