Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-12-04

| Foremost among the leaders of labor who will take part in the Boston Con- vention will be Grand Chief Peter M
 B. Arthur, of the Brotherhood of Loco- motive Engineers. When the Elevated 1 Railroad engineers, several years ago, made their famous fight for nine hours, | MT. Arthur was their leader, and it was | largely owing to his coolness and sagacity that they won. No indication of the contemplated strike was per mitted to leak out and it was unsus- pected till the moment when the dele 1 gation of engineers presented their bill 1 of grievances and asked for a confer | ence. At that time all the engineers | on the entire system of elevated roads were prepared to go out on the signal. | At the wish of the managers of the roads the strike was deferred till next day, whom conference took place and l the difficulty was adjusted. Conces- sions were made on both sides, but the engineers had the best of the agree ment, getting full pay for their work | and saving half an hour day. Mir.
 Arthur is an old surface engineer and used to handle the throttle on the Grand Trunk road, many years ago. His | first experience as 8 labor arbitrator l was while he worked upon that road, | and he has so high an opinion of arbi- l tratlon and so poor an idea of strikes
 that he will never willingly give his | consent 10 the latter save as a last re- l sort Arthur is natural leader of | men. Cool, conservative and clear
 headed, he is the most respected man
 among the 25,oO0 members of the
 brotherhood of which he is President
 He lives in a handsome residence at | Cleveland, O., which he owns. He has
 grown old in the labor cause, and has l no higher ambition than to help his l fellows in their struggles as long as he | lives.
 Another notable figure IS that of MT. l A. Strasser, the President of the Cigar makers Union, which numbers 2S, 900 mem mbers. Like MT. Arthur, MT.
 Strasser is strictly conservative in his methods, and has endeavored to carry l out this principle, as far as possible, in 1 dealing with the 260 local assemblies
 that call him chief. But the cigar
 makers are very different class from
 the engineers. Principally foreigners,
 and large proportion of them very ing that their differences with employ CTS should frequently result in bitter l feeling and the precipitation of strikes l that might, under calmer auspices, have
 been averted. Still, with all this un- l trained material to embarrasS him, l President Strasser has been singularly l fortunate in bringing up the union to a | | and financially. He is devoted to the l work, and has the very fullest confidence l of his associates. He is about forty l five years of age and has held the ex-
 ecutive office for several years, during
 which he has piloted the organization l through half dozen serious strikes l with rare generalShlp and exceptionally l good fortune.
 l o. c. Evans is the controlling spirit
 in the Natianal Federation of Miners l and Miners Laborers, an organization
 with a membership of 35, O0O men. This
 is distinct from the three amalgamated
 associations of miners in the States of l Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. which
 have27, 900 members alone. MT. Evans is | of Welsh descent, as are thousands of 1 others in the mines, south and west. | His presidency began about three years ! ago and he has, since that time, pushed ] the Miners National Association to the l very front of tho labor organizations of
 the country, only one other union-the ! Brotherhood Of Carpenters and Jolners-
 exceeding it in point of actual member
 ship. A clever organizer and a capital 1 orator, President Evans will be heard
 from in the Boston Convention should
 he attend as a delegate.
 Other labor men who will come to the
 front when the convention assemblies, l and who will make interesting reports
 to that body concerning the condition
 of labor in their respective trades, are
 Presidents E. r. O'Shea, of the Brother | hood of Brakemen; T. O'Dea, of the
 Bricklayers and Stonemasons; F. V.
 Debs, of the Brotherhood of Locomotive
 Firemen; P. Fitzpatrick, Iron Mold
 CTS; w. Weihe, of the Steelworkers; R.
 Howard, of the Mulespinners, and the
 president of tho smallest of all the or
 ganized bodies, A. NJ. Taylor, of the
 Wool Hatters' National Union, which
 has roll of 900 members.
 'We propose" said the SC cretary
 ''to work entirely independen tly of
 Legislation for the eight-hour day. and
 the plan to be adopted by the conven-
 tion will be arranged with view to
 making the crusade short and effective.
 No other subject of equal moment will
 be discussed. We settle one thing at e
 time. The other business will be of a