The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-03-24
ROLLER RIDDEN.
THE SITUATION IN NEwPORT-SUlT AGAINST


THE CITY.
In regard to the recent riot a. Swift's
rolling mills in Newport. the Cincinnati En-
quirer reviews the situation, and says: A
reporter interviewed several of the leading
citizens. Their views of the situation were
in every case emphatically that the mayor
had not donehis duty, and that the city was
under the rule of a mob, mob, perhaps who
believed themselves right, who meant no
violence, but a mob for all that. All winter
long men have lived on the municipal char
ity at the soup houses who could have gone
into the rolling mills and earned ii e dol
lars day. sAnd when asked for, protection
such as would guarantee the hundreds of
idle men willing TO work safety in doing so,
Mayor Hayman has responded only by the
appointment ola few police of doubtful eff
cheney. When those engaged in ''the long
strike" which has lasted all winter and
which has beggared many family, were
guilty of breaches of the peace, the chief
magistrate of the town has dismissed the
cases with fine of a few dollars, promptly
paid, of course, by the "roller association"
and the boiler heaters union. One citizen
interviewed said that the citizens would take
the matter in hand, but that the near ap-
proach of the election was powerful obsta-
Gle. The strikers poll 600 votes and hold the
balance of power. The mayor he held to be
totally unfit for the place, and said that the
democracy were looking around for a
candidate at the August election with
the right kind of grit for the issues like the
present. He informed US that in the Fourth
ward landlords were unable to collect
their rents, and If the state of things con-
tinued much longer, property would seri-
ously deteriorate. He said that there was a
candidate in the field now for president of
the city council, who would be elected, and
who would take the responsibility of giving
the manufacturers all the support they
wanted. All of the gentlemen whom we
met agreed upon one thing, that the strike,
in its present phase, must stop. They recog-
nized the right OF every man to demand
what he pleased for his wages, the right of
craftsmen to band together to protect them
selves against oppression by capital, but
they deprecated against 600 men being kept
idle whole long winter, with work at the
old prices open to them, to subserve the
ends of half dozen of the 10 or 20 "bosses"
whose
FORMER EARNINGS,
at a percentage per ton, reached from SIS to
$50 per day. So the citizens to whom our re-
porter spoke viewed the situation; but there
are always two sides to a story, and the will
ingness of the many to submit to the few
seems to show that the rollers position must
be backed by arguments plausible, at least.
One of the strongest of these is that propri-
etors hold the "bosses" responsible for the
loss of metal by missing, etc., and as they
therefore take the risk of capitalists, they
are entitled to something more than wages.
All of the prominent gentlemen interviewed
said Mr.. Swift has a good case against
the city for damages. AS to the
status of the affair last night. everything
was quiet, the strikers continuing in their
disavowals of anything like violent inten-
tions. They deny that they had anything
to do with the unfortunate affair of TUESDAY
noon, asserting that the shots Of the ''black
sheep" were fired in response to the hooting
of the boys. On the other hand, tits assert
ed that well-known strikers were engaged
in the attack, and that the testimony being
conclusive, several of them will be arrested
and Mayor Mayman given one more chance |
to do his duty. Mr.. Swift claims that the
same wages were being paid in his mills as
are in force in all the other mills of the !,
country, and that he could fill his compile |
ment were men from other places assured OF
out of every fifty, he says, of the
Newport workmen would go TO work |
at the wages they were receiv- |
ing at the time of the strike, and would do |
so, were it not for the power and influence |
of the association" He claims, also, even |
of the remaining fives of the fifties, so to |
speak, all but five or six well-known and |
leading bosses are willing to make the con- |
cession asked on the first of December; |. o. |
that the percentages be reduced to the fig |
ures ruling elsewhere, so. that other mar
kets could not undersell this one. AS de- I
tailed yesterday 1t was the refusal to make |
this concess ion that caused the closing of
the mills, and the effort of the owners to |
import worknens-Mr. Swift says he con- |
suited his legal advisers. and that to- day he l
will first ask the state power for protection,
and that failing win sac Newport. III Z,