The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-07-12

helu anu MS n0n-U mon foreman, MIR. ThOmp-
son, on Saturday. for the purpose of ascertain
ing how the strike of the Tribune printers had
originated and how the fight had sped Some
OF the incidents narrated in the course of full
least
1t was sharp work on Friday pieht. ,June %.
to get the Tribune into type aud on the press in
time for delivery to its readers on SATURDAY.
morning. The particulars of the scere that
occurred in the editorial rooms just prior to the
strike have not been published and we give
them now in detail, in order to show the change
that has taken place in the relations of employ
ers and employed.
In the afternoon of Thursday, June %, Mr..
Reid notified committee of the printers that
the Tribune intended to draw out of the ranks
OF the Union Offices" and handed to the
chairman of the delegation memorandum
which read as follows:
What we want and would like our men to consid-
1. A reduction in the price Of our composition ON
night work to forty cents and day work to thirty
three cents-or about one fourth of from the very
highest prices before the panic.
ii. No work to be done which we don't want and
can't use-in other words, no bogus, and allow
ance in place of it.
III. Work to be done at fair prices in whatever
way we may think most to our interest-by the
piece or on time, at the foreman's option.
lV, No double-price matter.
This memorandum has already been pub
lished but without the explanation which
should have accompanied it. The first section
is explicit enough. The second section which
is perhaps as Greek to the reader unyersed in
technlcallties of newspaper office, means
simply that printers, like other skilled mechan-
les, insult take their chances of getting constant
work. Ii there is nothing to do they are not
to be paid for doing nothing. The third section
means that the foreman of an office is to be the
foreman-de fdctO as we'll as de jaire not to del
egate his powers to the chairman" Ca CON-
positor) employed at the case and chosen by
MS fellow workmen to enforce the regulations
laid down by the Typographical Union, bat to
decide in the interest OF his own employers
what kind of work shall be done, and what
shall be paid for it. The fourth and last sec
tion OF the Memorandum which declares
that no double-price matter will be allowed,
means that tabular work (rules and fgures)
shall be paid 6y the hour or otherwise, at the
option OF the foreman. 1t is against this part
OF the Memorandum" that the printers speci-
ally protest-yet the result of q weeks expert
ment prove that with a competent and consci-
entious foreman, the journeyman printer loses
nothing under the new rule.
These explanations clear. the. field for what
follows.
The delegation kicked against the Memoran-
DUN. They were tolc to take their time in
arriving at a decision. A week was given
them in which to make answer. But they
didn't wait week. On the contrary, they hur-
rled the business, and on the following day
lErlday) again waited upon the editor Of the
Tribune, and presented to him the following:
lCOPY.l
TRIBUNE COMPOSING Room,
Friday, June q, 1871.
Whaeldao Reid, ESQ.,:
Dear Strive have deliberately and dispassionate-
ly considered the four propositions submitted TO
| in your memorandum addressed to Mr.. Burke, and
uecide that we cannot accede to any one of them.
our designations to take effect Immediately,
tSigned by all the Tribune printers
Mr.. Reid-Gentlemen, this is short notice.
1t is now o'clock In the afternoon. The
Tribune has to come out tomorrow morning.
DO understand that you propose to strike to-
night?
Chairman-This is not strike 1t is a res
| igndtiOn
Mr.. Reid accept it. Good afternoon, gen.
tlemen!
Chairman Surprised d)-But. Mr. Reid, can't
we compromise this business?
Mr.. Reid don't see that you have left any
door open Tor compromise. Your document
says that you have deliberately and dispas-
sionately considered the four propositions"
and that you decide that you cannot accede to
any one of them" Language could not be
palmer, and although the Tribune never will
ngly parts with any of its people. it will not
prevent any OF them from bettering their con-
dtion if they can.
The delegation being thereupon bowed out q
company OF some 20 non-Union printers, held
| in reserve, was summoned and the paper was
set up in short handed fashion without the
aid of "Bg Six
Foreman Thompson, nevertheless, has had
an uncomfortable experience. One night last
week he had to spend an hour in digging
brewer spaces out of minion matter-that is
to say, somebody mixed up two sizes of type in
the same line, putting the Tribune in immi-
nent peril of collapsing into comprehensive
dish of 'pi."
On another occasion the stock table in the
financial column (set in agats) was spaced out
with type (minion) two sizes larger, and tho
fact was discovered at the last.moment. These
are specimens OF a f0reman's tribulatiOns In
strike time.
The most ingenious device forl upsetting
things, however, was pithily described to the
Commercial man as an internal mix" And
it was. Paragraphs of articles finished by the
printers, and properly numbered upon the
galleys, were divided in the middle, and other
paragraphs interjected-so that when the proof
came to be pulled, it was Herculean effort to
separate and readjust the fragments This
trick the new foreman attributes to Union men,
who, he insists, have been sent into tie Office
to disturb the arrangements. It is to be hoped
the officers OF the Union will disclaim COM
plcity in this business, or punish the men en-
gagged in it. The story smacks too much OF the
flavor of Charles Reade's Trade Upion novel.
The conclusion of the whole matter is: That
the experiment of buying free labor in the open
market for newspaper work has been tried so
successfully that the Tribune's composition bills
are reduced more than $40 per week, while the
men who work independently of the Union get
steady employment at an average of $40 per
Smiths or inferior wofkmen, is no greater
among non. nion than among Union men
that the contest between Labor and Capital in
this case, as in so many recent ones that have
attracted public attention, is being narrowed
down to the common sense limit of demand and
supply-that severe blow has been struck at
Typographical Union No. 6, which formerly
numbered 2, 200 paying members, and is now
reported to have but 1300-and that it Is time
for that body TO revise its code and to adapt its
rules and regulations to existing conditions.
The Commercial showed by plain facts and
figures in the time of the great strike in 1872,
when 10000 workingmen went out" and held
out for thirty days at loss to themselves of q
million and half of dollars, that in the long
run "a large majority of strikers prefer to eat
the bread of honest industry rather than to
MUNICH the husks of abject pOverty'-snd the
later illustrations in the printing offices of
Troy, Philadelphia, and New York prove that
what was true tive years ago is true now. The
| army of the unemployed doesn't nowadays
take much stock in Trade Unions.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
There was the best of generalship in the way
the emergency was met Every man in the ed
itorial rooms that had ever set stickful of type
volunteered at once to take case. The edito-
| rial staff furnished three compositors, but the
reporters did themselves proud by furnishing
seven, and some of them very good workmen.
| too. took look into the composing room
| about IL o'clock Reid was foreman and night
editor rolled into one, and the whole staff was
| working with will. Some of the boys had
paid their way through college with type set
| ting, and one was the son OF well known col
| lege president; Others had been graduated from
| newspaper offices. One and all were very proud
| OF their clean work. One set up seven "takes''
| with but single letter wrong. Besides these
| there were perhaps twenty compositors who
| had been gathered in. Down stairs the chief
| editorial writer's were condensing the market
| reports and the like, so as to make the burden
of composition lighter and reading proof Ev-
erything was rnnning smoothly, and the whole
staff seemed to be getting good deal of fun
| out OF this Typographical picnic. Away down
/ in the street was black crowd of strikers kept