Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-07-06
IRON STRIKE.
All Union Mills in the West
Closed,
Over 100000 Men in the Move
ment.
The Manufacturer, Begin to Yield
Eve Big Firms sIgn the Amalga-
mated Scale.

The great lockout OF the iron workers was
inaugurated on Saturday, and all the union
mills in the country, employing fully 100, 600
workmen, are now closed. Throughout
Pittsburg the employees of the day turns
worked as though it was the st work that
they might do for weeks or months. At the
mills generally, in the city, the work was
done in the b ,st manner for leaving every
thing in good order for the indefinite shut
down At noon work in most of the mills
was suspended, and what may be long rest
of the men had at last begun In the after
noon they stood around in groups discussing
the situation. They generally seemed in the
best of spirits, as they had advocated for
years a summer shutdown of couple OF
months, even if there was no lockout or strike.
At the Am ,lgamated Association headquar
ters President Wehe and Secretary Martin
were closetel COOL portion of the day with
a number of the leading members of the as
sociation. They were arranging the details
for the lockout of their members
About 10 cclock telegram was received
from the committee at Apollo, Pa. 1t stated
that the Apollo Iron and Steel company had
signed the Amalgamated scale in full This
telegram created considerable enthusiasm
among the members of the association. The
plant has seven pudding furnaces, three bar
furnaces, four heating furnaces, six anneal-
ing furnaces, the six ton hammer, eight
trains of rolls running three turns, two ID
ton open hearth furnaces and a hammer de-
partment for steel billets and slabs Later
the news was received that the Cleveland
Hardware company had also signed the scale,
and would continue operations without in
terruption.
The charge of some people, that the manu-
facturers were taking their stand for politi-
cal purposes, was emphatically denied by
Mr. Heating, chairman of Western Iron As
sociaton of Manufactures.
''This is not truen said he 81 am demo-
crat and l never heard politics mentioned
in connection with this matter. We cannot
afford to pay the present rate Of wages, and
have shut down for this reason, no other.
"Will the lockout benefit eastern manufac-
turers!"
eff the mills here remain idle for six
weeks, you may expect to see iron shipped to
Pittsburg from the east Seven carloads OF
bar iron were shipped last week from the
east TO Ch' 'cago. Tho freight rates are now
very low, and the eastern manufacturers are
enabled to enter the western markets"
President Weihe said that this made four
firms that thus far had signed the SCALE The
other two were the akron Iron company OF
Akron, o.. and the Mingo Iron and Steel
com ,,any of Mingo, o.
At Cleveland, O., when the whistles of the
Union rolling mills sounded the hour of
noon on Saturday 450 men stopped work
and embarked on an indefinite summer vaca'
tion. That was the extent of the Anal
gamated association strike in the city. II
was learned that the men employed at the
Lake Erie iron works, the Briton iron and
steel works, the Otis iron and steel works
and the Cleveland rolling mills, do not be-
long to the association. Representatives OF
the companies owning these mills said
that their men were at work as usual, and
that there was no anticipation of trouble.
At the Union mills there was no demonstra-
tion.
A dispatch from Youngstown, O., says
that every rolling mill at that place suspend
ed operations at noon on Sturdy. The
operators intimate that the shutdown is
simply for the purpose Of making repairs,
but the men seem to think tn 1t it will last
for sever i weeks.
The $500 employees of the Reading pa. iror
works, who have been working at 10 pei
cent. reduction under protest for the past
two weeks, met and decided to continue al
work at the reduction indefinitely, under
protest. This action is construed as mean
ing that the employees have surrendered.