Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-03

Secretary Foster received letter today from
Grand Master Workman Powderly of the
Knights of Labor reviewing the circumstances
OF the troubles over the discharged plate print
ers in about the same tone as that of the public
statement printed this morning as coming from
MIR. Powderly.
The Secretary declines to give the letter out
for publication at this time 1t is understood
that Mr.: Powderly intimates in his communi-
cation that the President will be appealed TO in
behalf of the knights.
THAT LETTER TO JORDAN.
The Secretary said to . STAR reporter this
afternoon that the letter which Jordan claims
to have received from him. offering him his
Old position in the bureau, was not sent by
him he explained the circumstances sur
rounding the writing of this letter as follows:
we were discussing the whole case and
nad made number of propositions to the
knights that were not altogether satisfactory
was wiling to oappoint the seven men to places
In the bureau, with the understanding that
Jordan, who Is making good living outside,
would not return to work. They wanted
more than this. They said that they were
AFRAID that II Jordan were offered the place
with this understanding and it should get to the
ears OF Meredith he would crow over them and
make 1t his boast that they had been defeated.
went SO far as to draft letter to Jordan.l
ihere had been several papers written during
the conference in about these terms: Places
were to be found Tor the other six men. and
would he accept position in the bureau.
agreed TO give them this letter, to be given to
Jordan, if they should promise me on their
honor as men that they would either return it
10 me or hand me Jordan s declination. This
was to soothe Jordans feelings, as it we're.
THE FEDERATION OF LABOR DELEGATES.
All this was contingent upon our reaching an
.l
naugh this letter they declined my terms and
showed the letter to one side with the rest of
the rejected manuscripts. We were dis
cussing the situation further and en-
deavorIng to find another solution when
L received the card of the delegation rep
ressntinS the Federation of Labor. Leaving
Devlin and Cavanaugh for a few minutes /
went over to talk to these new comers who
told me some facts that did not know
before. For instance, they informed me that
there are now about fifteen apprentices in
the bureau waiting for presses. who. under the
chance men. This would SO reduce the availa-
BILE new work that the men who
are now on the chance roll would
not all get presses in the new building Thus
to put on the seven dismissed men would throw
out printers who are ahead of them After
further talk on the subject l returned to Dew
lin and Cavanaugh and soon afterward the con-
florence was broken up.
THE LETTER STOLEN.
The letter to Jordan, though signed. was but
draft and was not intended to be sent. If he
received it the delegates from the knights of
Labor must have taken it from my desk. 1t
had previously been rejected by them. do
not accuse them of stealing the letter.
but l do say that the letter should
never have gone to Jordan. 1t was
null and void. When l returned to my desk
and said good-bye l swept the papers into n
drawer, but did not notice that this letter was
gone. l have reason to think that they also
took the note sent in to me by the delegates of
the federation, from which Mr.. Powderly gets
his information about. the "Gompers Fedora
ton business. The name was put on the card
by Mr.. Wymre in order to identify the people
in my mind.
l had very satisfactory talk last even
ing with Mr.. Gompers. He is a bright,
shrewd man and seems to have a very
thorough understanding Of this case. He
said that if he chose he might raise the
point that as these seven men had been dis
charged for cause had no right to reinstate
them or reappoint them at all, but in order not
to complicate the case he would confne his de-
mands to the one matter Of having them put
back at the foot of the chance roll.
JORDAN THE STUMBLING BLOCK.
"You see" added the Secretary, "Jordans
case was the only stumbling block in the way
of settlement l objected to his going back
to the bureau because he is so obnoxious to
Meredith, and they were rather afraid of
his because he is a saloon keeper
of'n'f of Iabol sn' So sais' it of the hss n9sh'
wrote that letter in order to remove the obsta.
Gle. depended upon the integrity and honor
of Devlin and Cavanaugh to follow out my
terms.
That is the truth of the transaction. Ihave
H. Al Al 4