The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1894-09-01
n.hs and Gnrnnrrs.

DI Ds ana S0mpePS-
CHICAGO, Aug. 25-President Dsbl
was called again today by the strike COM
mission. Iu.replg to questions, he stated
be did not favor compulsory arbitration
in settling labor troubles. He did no,
believe such method would prove uni
versally satisfactory. Qe6s said before
the strike be had been among the tele-
graphers, and the statement that there
were not more than 900 American Rail-
way Unioc mea on the r pck Island road
vtne said was absurd.
Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation of Labor, was the
next witness. He prefaced his testimony
with aD outline of The aims and principles
of the federation and gave figures show
ing the membership. Gampers reviewed
the proceedings of the conference. Pres
ident Cleveland, be said, had paid not the
sIghtest attention to message asking
his aid IN q settlement of the strike.
GompeTs told of the conference of the
heads of labor organ cations in Chicago.
He said that after dcliberation they de-
cided to request President Cleveland to
settle the strike,
I'VE thought, Mr. Gompers said, "lhst
If Mr.. Gladstone could do so in the Eag-
lish strike, such an attempt would not
be beaeath the dignity of the president
of the United States. Accordingly, a
telegram was sent to Mr.. Cleveland ask
Ing his aid To that be did not delgD to
reply. 10 fact, he took not the slightest
notice OF it.
I'VE considered the strike carefully,
and finally decided that we could not or
der general strike; that 1t would be an
usurpatlon of power, and would tor many
reasons be uOwlse. The delegates ex
pressed their sympathles with The mover
meut, and soon afterwards adjourned"
Mr.. Gompers then read from the secre-
0Fy's report detailed statement OF The
Proceedings of the conference. Gompers
implied tnat in the event ot general
strike of all the union, all must agree on
the action, and he said it would have
been impossible for the conference to
have declared sTmpathetic strike. He
was asked his opinion as 10 the methods
of preventing strikes.
Il do not condemn strikes, heartily as
do most men," he sad. Il believe that
So long as the present conditions exist
they are necessary, and / believe all
strikes do good in calling attention to the
fact that the labOrlng men will not be
driven further down into poverty. I
think the action of the strikers ln paraliz-
ing the railroads of the country was
justifiabie."
Tue witness was rather frank and un-
Complementary regarding. the strike CON
mission.
II think this thing is rather late IN the
day." he said. "This examination by the
commissioners is rather in the nature OF
an inquest on dead body. l do not an
tlclpate good from the present investiga"
tlon."
The witness had something be wanted
to sag about the injunctit rs issued oy
the court. He hed these injunctions
were not rightly based on ;he interstate
commerce Jaw; that The law was not in
tended to apply to labor organizations.
He said the lDiunctions were based upon
court made laws, upon decisions given In
the absence of law, When Gomper fin
ished, the comm ssion adjourned until
Monday.
An error crept into last nights report
of the proceedings before the commission
the Pullman strike, The
was made that Mr.. ST. John,
general manager of the Rock Island, tes-
tilted that a list of names had been pre-
pared for the General Managers Associa
ton containing the names OF the most
active strikers Mr.. ST. John made no
such statement, but testified that neither |
the Rock Island or the ASSOCIATION had
ever Kept blacklist, or bad such at the
present time.