Labor organizations ordered 63.46 per cent. of the total strikes, and of these 52.86 per cent. (of establishments involved) were successful, 13.6 per cent. succeeded partly, and 33.54 per cent. failed. The corresponding figures for strikes not ordered by organizations are 35.56 per cent., 9.05 per cent., and 55.39 per cent., this advantage of or ganization appearing for each of the twenty years. As to cause, 28.7 per cent, of the strikes were for increase of wages, 11.23 per cent. for the same with reduction of hours, 11.16 per cent. for reduction of hours. 7.17 per cent. against reduction of wages. 3.47 per cent. in sympathy with a strike elsewhere, 2.34 per cent. against employment of non-union men, and 2.35 per cent. involving recognition of the union.
Among historic American strikes have been the great strikes of 1877 on the Baltimore and Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other railroads, in which much damage to property was done and troops were called out; the telegraph operators' strike in 1883; the strike on the Gould system in 1885; the Homestead strike at the Carnegie works in 1892. the bitterest in American history and in volving a sanguinary battle between Pinkerton detectives and unionists; the Chicago strike of 1894, which grew out of an effort of the newly organized American Railway Union to boycott Pullman ears in order to aid strikers at the Pullman works: the bituminous coal strike in the summer of 1894; street railway strikes in several large cities (1900-01) ; the steel strike (1901); and the great anthracite coal strikes of 1900 and 1902.
In England, strikes being illegal, until 1824 participants could he and were punished for con spiracy. At that date the combination laws were repealed, and since then a number of statutes have defined the legal position and rights of workmen in labor disputes. The better-developed English unions have adopted a conservative pol icy in regard to strikes. Employers are more accustomed to dealing on equal terms with their men than is true in the United States. The formation of unions of unskilled laborers has been accompanied by many strikes, among which the great Dock strike of 1889 attracted a re markable amount of public sympathy and assist ance. The engineering strike of 1896 roused much discussion as to the effect of unionism on English trade supremacy. In 1900 there oc curred in Great Britain 648 strikes and lock outs, involving directly 135,145 employees; 202 of the disputes resulted in favor of the employees, 211 in favor of employers, and 221 were com promised. In Germany (1900) there were re ported 1433 strikes, involving 122,803 workmen; 275 strikes succeeded and 505 succeeded partly. In France for the same year are recorded 1229 strikes and 432,324 strikers; 371 were wholly and 363 partly successful. In 1890 a famous strike occurred in New South Wales, beginning as a strike of the Shearers' Union against non union men, but spreading to the railroads, and finally to nearly all industries. The report (Sydney, 1891) of the commission appointed to investigate it is one of the most valuable books upon the subject.