Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-05-06
THE GAS COMPANIES YIELD.
sTRII<I>G PLUMBERS GAIN TWO SIG
NAL VICrOUIES.
A Long hut Fruitful Council Held
Lust >ight-Mast-r Plumbers Re-
fuse To Meet the D"mnnds-
Painters Are sucrc-,iui.

The union gas nttors and plumhsr- gain
ed two signal victories yesterday. Shortly
after noon the Kansas city GB- Company
yielded to the pressure broush, 20 boar
upon itand at II o'clock last night The MI
souri, Gas Company had also consented To
conccdc the demands made by Nh" men.
The night with the Missouri was 4 much
harder one than that with the old com
pauy and towards evening 1t seemed prob
able that settlement of tho difficulty
would have To be postponed % another
day. The burden Of the strike now lias
with the boss plumbers, vino are according
tu all accounts, prepared for long siege.
Members Of several leading firms dpun.d
the uveralls yesterday and turned their
hands To work which they had not touched
conference Of the master Thmhor-
welded the Gavcl ana attended To tho gen
oral rpnduri nf the meeting. I'm" session
able discussion. II was found To be- III,
sense of tn" meeting that the hossos couli
financial and business outlook i1ofd To
meet IN" demands Of tn" union. Tn"
plumbing houses represented ware' IL J.
Co.'S Hesiins and Plumbing Company, var,
G Eirrlog r. Sry FSrIay. r. s MaIony and Dent
Yates After coming TO the, above Gonriu-
sion the mast,r, adjourned i2r iCn days; ;,o
Kansas 'Ity Gas Company, agreed to con
c'dc tn" demands of the strikers. The
Of tn. speedy settlement Of their difficulty
that = parade was speedily formed. which
marched along Walnut street ani Grand
avenue with the Plumbers union banner
AZ the head. and wound mp NJ the Labor
Exchange hall, where an afternoon session
was held.
Meantime the conference committee was
wrestling with Superintendent Sw'rtnln
IN tho Missouri 'ias Company w"rksh hop.
What took place at this secret conference
was not diyulged. further than that Mr.
Sw"etman had proposed 10 meet the de-
mants with certain conditions ana reser-
yatlous. n was learned from the confer
once committee TINT one of the principal
bones Of contention was with regard to
the men who had come from Chicago
under contract to work tor the Missouri
Gas Company AT s2.ap day. Seven dol
lars. ihey said. have been kept back out
Of the wages OF thffe men; beng Two @
two weeks they have worked The men
Were under contract to work ninety days,
and would forfeit the TWO days wages and
the dollar week II they broke their
contracts. This the conference committee
did not considCr fair arrangement, but
could not get Mr.. Sweetman to give way
Oh the point,
Al 5;i5 O'Clock the conference committee
proceeded to the Labor exchange TO report
to the general meeting. When the meet,
ing was adiourrd about 7:l5 1t was learned
that the terms offered by the Missouri
Gas Company had not met with the ap-
AT O'Clock the conference committee
again sought Superintendent Sweetman
in the office of the Missouri Gas Com
pany, and went into executive session
with him. The meeting lasted till after
II o'clock. but the men finally gained the
day.
Superintendent .sweetman was seen after
the strikers had left the Missouri Gas
Company's oihce. last night. Talking Of
the matter of 81 having heen kept back
from the men who Esre BROUGHT here from
misunderstanding in regard to our CON
tract with the Chicago men, and the mat
ter would better he put in proper light.
As a matter Of fact, we paid the railroad
fare of these men from Chicago. under
an agreement that they were 10 work
ninety days for the company. The state
ment that We have kept back 81 out of the
matter Is that their working week ends
Thursday and they are paid on Saturday,
They have not yet worked two weeks. so
that all that Is due them Is $3.50 for the
first week, We were also to hold back
ii week. which would be returned to
the men at the expiration Of the ninety
days. This was the only way We could
secure ourselves against the mon quitting
work before the terms OF the contract had
expired"
ii was stated last night by one OF the
conference committee OF the strikers that