Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-26
ASTUBBORN REMNANT
Chicago Carpenters Still Fighting
Against the Old Bosses.
SCORES OF BUILDING CONTRACTS
Revoked by Impatient Owners and As
sumed by Strike Managers.
THE COMING CONTEST In PITTsBURG
ESPECIAL 1fIRanAm To TIL,

| fsfECIAL TELEGHAM TO THE DIsPATCH.I
CHICAGO, MAY 25.-Although the car
penters' strike is practically over, the fight
ing is going on actively as ever between the
Workmen's organization and the one hun
dred and sixty odd contractors who have not
yet agreed to pay their worfmen IS cents
per hour and 3711 cents per hour after
August 1, and adopt the eight-hour day,
according to the terms of the settlement.
It is estimated that there are 8, 900 carpen-
ters in Chicago, of whom not more than 800
are now out of work, taking the figures
given at the strike headquarters. Of the
5000 all but about /, 900 are claimed to be on
the rolls of some one of the four organiza-
tions by which the strike has been fought
and won. The United Brotherhood OF. Car
penters and Joiners, of which P.
j. Mcclure is Secretary, claims
5000 members in Chicago. The Amalga-
mated Association of Carpenters and Joiners,
an international organization with head
quarters in London, is credited with about
900, nearly all English or Scotchmen; the
Knights of Labor with about ], 900. and an
independent local union with about 400. All
of these are represented in the Carpenters
Council, the central organization by which
COMPARATIVELY FEW IDLKRs.
Mr.. Powderly's recent effort for financial
assistance in the East would thus seem to
apply only to small fraction of the men
who were engaged in the strike and the
number of Knights of Labor now out of en-
ployment to be benefited by it is not yery
large. An assessment of 20 cents per day
has been levied on the men who are now at
work for carrying on the strike, but it seems
that this has not yet been collected, for the
reason that most of the men have
not been at work long enough to
have reached their first bi-weekly
pay day. The actual expenses OF the
strike now are about $500 in cash per day, a
part Of which goes to keep up committee
OF SIX men at each railway station whose
business is to intercept new men who come
to the city and induce them not to 90 to
work for the "old BOSSES" by which the
contractors who have not signed the new
scale of wages are known. In addition to
these there are abont 250 men scattered all
over Chicago and Cook county, under a
systematic arrangement. whose business it
is to go to each nOn-union job and persuade
the workmen to leave it and join the union.
The converts are Immediately put on full
pay at 35 cents per hour-S2 80 per day-at
the expense of the Carpenters Council, and
as soon as possible are given jobs under
some contractor who pays union wages, even
if union men have to leave in order to make
places for them. The number of nom union
workmen has thus been reduced to about
$50, if the statement made at strike head
quarters to-day is correct, and it is probably
not very far out of the way, and the nom
union bosses have been seriously crippled.
STRIKERS AS CONTRACTORS.
Another scheme which the strike man.
ayers have worked very successfully is to 90
to the owner of building in process of con-
struction and get him to revoke his con-
tract with the builder. The strike commit
tee then furnishes workmen, puts them un-
der competent foreman, the material is
furnished by the owner, and the job is put
through as rapidly as possible. For in
stance, II. Disston & Sons, the Philadelphia
saw firm, were erecting a building on the
west side when the strike came. Their con-
tractors refused to acceje to the terms of
settlement, and it became evident that the
building would not be completed within
the time agreed upon. The Disstous there
upon revoked the contract at the suggestion
of the Carpenters Council. They were inl-