The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1893-04-11
WORLDS FAIR EMPLOYEES STRIKE
Five Thousand Artisans Stop Work In
One Day.
DIRECTORS WON'T ARBITRATE
Walking Delegates Arc Hustled of by
Columbian Poiice-New Men Being
Set to Work.
DIRECTORS WON'T ARBITRATB
Associated Press.

Associated Press.
Chicago, April 10.-At the most crit
ical time possible for the Worlds Fair,
the big exposition today encountered
it's first great strike. A thousand union
men in the various building trades,
quit work, with the prospect that four
thousand more would join them before
night.
BY 9 O'Clock the number of strikers
had been increased to two thousand,
and later one thousand and five hun
dred electrical workers quit Then the
constructive department decided to
take positive action, and the Columbian
guards were ordered to eject any walk
ing delegate who openly endeavored to
get the men to stop work. Very soon
came repeated calls for the patrol wag-
on and the officious representatives
were hustled out Of the grounds. This
made the strikers on the outside of
| the grounds mad and they began to in
dulge in threats, and finally began an
attack on the non-union men, who re-
fused to be pursuaded not to go to
work. Occurrences of this sort soon
became numerous and a squad Of po-
| lice were called and drove the strikers
away from the gates, not, however,
without resistance, resulting in several
of the strikers getting cracks over the
head.
BY p. M 1000 men were out, in
Guiding probably over dozen trades.
To make matters worse, at this juno
ture, one-third of the employees of the
installation department, 200 in number,
knocked off They were teamsters who
had been getting $1.6O per day, and de-
manded 50, which was refused, and
they quit.
The strike leaders are confident of
success, and the managers of the ex-
position say they have no difficulty in
filling the strikers places.
A meeting of the fair directors and
Tthe strike leaders was held In the al
ternoon, but nothing was accomplished
at the conference, President Higgin-
botham taking the position that there
was nothing to arbitrate.
Every man who presented himself
for work after the strike was imme-
diately hired. The impression this af-
ternoon is that there will be no serious
collisions with the strikers before to-
morrow, when trouble might arise If
new men are put to work in any con-
siderable numbers under police protec-
ton.
Chicago, April 10.-The great strike
at the Worlds Fair is a thing of the
past, and the men who walked out this
morning will walk back again tomor-
row morning and ninety-nine out OF
every hundred of them will work for
the same wages for the same number
of hours as before the strike. For the
first time since it's incorporation, organ
lied labor came squarely in contact
with the United States government |
and while all questions Of wages were
satisfactorily settled, the right of the
the employer to use non-union men or
union men, the right Of the men to be
in the ranks of organized labor, or
without them, was insisted upon by
representatives of the national govern
ment and acknowledged by the union
rnen themselves. For twelve hours to-
day the results Of the painstaking ex-
penditure of more than s200OO,OOO, the
good name of this mighty nation and
IFS pledges to the nations of the earth
were imperilled and endangered, while
the men who reaped the benefits of the
expenditure of that money argued with
the men who controlled 1t over ques-
ton of FIVE cents an hour and the right
OF men to think and act as they pleased
within the law. 1t took cool heads and
temperate blood to guide the desperate
to a peaceful issue, but fortunately
these elements were not lacking.
It was 10 o'clock tonight when the
meeting between the caunsel Of the adj
D1inistration and the representatives Of
the building trades council came to an
agreement, which is to continue
throuout the entire period of the expo
sition and under which future troubles
eeem impossible. The men have r.
ceived a formal concession Of a mini
mum rate OF wages and have yielded
to the demands Of the exposition Off
cials that they may employ any man,
whether he be or ben OF a member OF
any labor organization. The first step
looking toward peace was made this
afternoon when committee from the
strikers submitted to the council for
the administration proposition to ar
bitrate on April 18th. Use council was
in session and promptly returned the
answer that it was not prepared tol
meet the men at once. To this the COM
.-,t++oa aoreed and the result was a