Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-02-27
on THE OTHER SIDE
Employees Of the School Furni-
ture Company Heard.
THEY ASK ToTELL THEIR STORY
A Meeting Held and Resolutions Adopted.
.The Hsgs,d'' Is Requested 70 Pus-
'.sh Them-T commit,se.

1ilr cJfUtttt3 VI taS >f-3ttA 49, 49,
School Furniture company have al aid
socsoty organized within tassr Own
ranks whose object - "a assist any os
their utinsber VINO may get slck or d.
abled. Al . meeting OF this society
held dursng the neon hour THURSDAY,
the matter "a tie differences between
tie company and the anlaa iaoldere
came up tor discussion.
II WA decided that TIE viev OF the
situstoa as taken by the employes oi
the company he given To thu pueim
THROUGH tue local press. a committee
OF n,ne was appointed to draw up. reso-
intions aad To calf n.se;iny OF all EN-
ployes fer O'Clock. Al. the O'Clock
meeting the committee made report,
which was adopted. Yesterday thee
members of the co.nnit'ee, Messfs. u.
b. G. Phelps, b. I. Underwood aud r.
Frelng. brought the resolutions 10 THE
HERALD Office and exhibited nearly 900
signatures requesting that their state
quest is herewith granted.
a Plain statement.
awe, the employees OF the Grand::Rap'
ids School Furniture company, mot IN
Guiding any OF the niolders.) knowing
that the public has been deceived by
libelous and false reports, which they
have caused to be published in the city
papers, and feeling that these false
sta tements, II they injure the company
also injure us and our families; and
he!ieving that the public ought to
know what is the truth of the matter,
as we know it to be. do submit the fol-
lowing reply to the numerous articles
referred to:
"At q meeting of the p. of I. recent
ly held IN tins city, one A. w. Fisher,
alias George Fisher, represented tho
sc.called locked out molders and made
| statements OF which ne could have
known nothing, he having been dis
charged from the company six weeks
previous to the so-called lock out. The
police record of this city shows A. w.
Fisher WAS arrested May l3 for being
drunk, was fined 81 aud costs $3.50, but
through leniency OF the court was al-
lowed twelve days III which to pay his
fine, taking advantage Of this he left
town. A commitment was issued for
him, returnable IN ten days, which
time expired before the return, which
was after the walk out. We denounce
as false his statements that the average
pay of the molders WAS $3.50 per day
for only seven months in the year. The
facts IN the case are these. The aver
age pay of nioldcrs was So per day of
| nine hours for at least eleven mouths
| in the year. They might in fact have
| worked more than that, il it werc not
| for the fact that occasionally some
mountetank hand organ and monkeyor
some other trivial amusement hap
pcned in the city, which Was taken a.
sufficient excuse for dropping their
I, work and
shutting Down the Foundry.
This was done time after time, re-
| gardless of the needs or wishes Of the
company, the molders caring nothing
for that, nor for the other departments
auxiliary to theirs. whose work de-
| pended on the output OF the foundry.
| We denounce as false tho statement
that the company locked out these
moIders. We know it to be true that
these molders quit work and walked
out for no other reason than the decis-
ion of the company to make no dis
| t:nctiOn between union and nOn-union
men in hiring molders. The men quit
work in the hope of lpjuring the COM
pany, and regardless of the interests OF
us. their fellow worEmen, might all
have retained their places If they had
wished TO. On June - last there were
$50 men employed in tho various de-
partments by tins company. Only
twenty eight Of these were moldcrs, the
remaining 30S represented the various
trades. for which the molders had no
respect or thought whatever. This can
be seen by the position they took in re-
gard to the excursion given by the e,ck
benefit ASSOCIATION (of which they We're
all members) to Muskegon June 20.
At ell the meetings Of the society pre-
vious TO the excursion. there were
none who were mure anxious for the
excursion. They represented that they
would use their influence with the
molders' union and have them attend
the excursion in body. knowing at
the same time that
/ Thev We're Auttcfpatine Trouble.