Huntsville gazette., 1886-04-03
CLOUDS GATHER AGAIN.

O@OSOS ia A1AIN.
Mr.. Gould Claims There Has Been Misun-
derstanding and Flatly Refuses to Ent ,r-
tain the Knights of Labor Proposition of
Arbitration, Lraving Everything In the
Hands of MIR. Hoxie--The Correspondence ce
on. the Matter.
NEW YORK, March 30.-Just before
three O'Clock yesterday afternoon the fol-
lowing letter was delivered to Mr. Pow.
derly at his room in the Astor House:
lPersOnal.j
MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY,
New York March 90 I
To T. Y. Po,cdersy Esq, Neac York City:
I DEAR SIR. The papers this morning pub
| lished the following:
Jay Gould has consented to our PROPOSE
Vice. President Hoxie. Order the men to re.
sume work at once.
lSgnedl I. V. PowDERLY, G. NJ. W.
They also published an interview with you
which leads one to think that the officers of
your order in st. Louis may misc onstrue
your message into a consent on the part Of
this company to conform to the require
ments contained in the letter from the Sec
rotary of your order, dated Philadelphia,
March 81, 1886, which in my letter to you of
the same date ! declined to consider. You
Sunday said to you that the position of
this company was unchanged in this respect,
and that the whole matter was left in
president and general manager, with
the Instructions contained in my
telegram to him which was written before
the time. The telegram stated: "We nave
no objection to arbitraie any differences be
tween the employees and the company, past
or future" While feel confident that your
understanding of this matter is the same as
my own, write you this in order that there
may be no grounds for misunderstanding
h'rfslsss ssnsa Very respectfully Ay y0Gass GOULD,
President Missouri Pacific Railway Company
Mr. Powderly dictated the following
reply, and it was conveyed to Mr.. Gould's
office:
Do understand yon from your personal
| letter Of this date that your company refuse
| arbitration, and must so telegraph Martin
| Irons?
Mr.. Gould being absent from his office
| when this arrived, it was considered and
responded to by Second Vice-President
Hopkins, who returned this response:
"You may say distinctly to him (Mr.
| Powderly) no, we do not. He is not so
to understand that letter, but he is SIM
ply referred to Mr.. Gould's written COM
munication to him, which he (Gould) is
prepared to carry out in every particu-
lar"
This having been reported to Mr.. Pow.
| derly, he sent the following letter to Mr..
| Gould's house about 7 80 last evening by
special messenger:
ASTOR HOUSE,
| NEW YORK, March 90.
Mr. Jay Gould. President Missouri Pacific. Rail
DEAR SIK-f regret exceedingly that my
| sickness to day has prevented me from
keeping the engagement made by my asso-
| of viii UnJlf hiS far.
| noon. Our proposition that the men should
return at once to work on the agreement
should be submitted to arbitration was
| made in perfect good faith, and when,
after the receipt by you of our letter
Of Saturday night. and our conference
| of Sunday you made the telegraphic order
| to General Mana er Hoxie contained in your
| letter to me of the same date, in which WAS
used the following language: 1--WE see no
| objection o arbtrating differences between
the employees and the company, past or fu
| ture" We accepted your approval of the
| general principles of arbitration in equal
| good faith, and at once issued our order for
the men to return to work We are not
| particular in the adjustment of the
present difficulties whether the ahitrators
| who are appointed by your company shall
| be named by General Manager Hoxie OF
yourself or whether their number shall con
sist of three, five or seven. In case they con
| sist of three my associates have named me.
| If sickness prevents me from serving, One OF
| the other members of the board will have to
| take my place In case tney consist o nVe,
| Mr. w o. Mcdowell would be associated
| with me. In case of seven we would add a
| third man. We can imagine no greater mis-
| fortune for your company than that the I'm
| preston should go forth, not only to the
| members OF our organizations, but to the
| community at large, whose interests are
! suffering as a result of the present condI
| ton of affairs, that O break has occurred
| between the interests which you represent
| and those which represent by reason OF
| tecbnicality. The gentleman who waited on
| ft,ofi VIZ q N
meet with you this afternoon at three O'Clock,
| that | was to meet you to morrow morning
at ten O'Clock hope to be able to keep the
! engagement at that time. After the receipt
| of your personal letter to me, and reading
the interview with you published in the pa
| pers this evening, the following telegram
| was sent to each of the following gentle
| men, viz: Messrs. DAILY, Irons and Houx al
Sedalia, st. Louis and Fort Worth:
NEW YORK, March 29.-Complications have
| arisen since morning as to the method OF
| arbitration. Another conference Will be
| held to morrow.
tSignedl T. V. PowDERLY, u. NJ. w.
JAY GOULD EXPLAINS HIS POSITION.
NEW YORK, March 30.-Immediately
before forwarding his communication to
Mr.. Powderly Yesterday, Mr. Gould gave
out the following statement: "The tele-
| gram to Mr.. Hoxie was prepared before
my conference with Mr.. Powderlv yester-
day, and was not the result of anything
Mr.. Powderly said. In it is expressed
the stand which the Missouri Pacific has
taken from the beginning, that is, that
the company is always ready to arbi-
trate any differences it may have with its
employees. Mr.. Powderly seems to have
assumed from that telegram that l have
agreed to the plan submitted by
the executive board of the Knights OF
Labor on Saturday, providing for the ap-
pointment of an arbitration committee,
three member of which are to be ap-
pointed by myself and three by the
knights of Labor, and these to jointly
| choose seventh member. Now, l
smphatically deny that there was
anything in my telegram to Mr.
| Hoxie or that there was anything said at
the conference yesterday to warrant any
one in believing that for moment as
sented to any such plan. Inc
| whole matter rests in the hands OF Mr
| Hoxie, and if he can arrange basis ior
arbitration which will include both sides
of the question, will make no oblectlon.
But the whole matter viii have to be ar
ranged with him. l am now preparing
letter to Mr.. Powderly which will clearly