The Portland daily press., 1897-12-31
ON VERGE Oh A STRIKE.
Sentiment Stronger Than Ever Be.
fore in Fall River.
LEADERS MAY NOT BE ABLE TO
RESTRAIN OPERATIVES.

izations Last Evening-The Committee
Resolutions Adopted by All Except
Mule spinnora.
Fall River, Mass, December 30.-Meet-
ings of five of the labor organizations of
the city were held tonight and with the
exception of those held by the weavers
were largely attended. In all save the
mule spinners' association, the senti-
ment, while marked by ID stronger strike
feeling than the leaders had been led to
expect was in favor of accepting the re-
duction for the present. The spinners
were red hot for strike and had q vote
been taken would have voted to leave
their mules by an overwhelming ma.
jority. The feeling was SO strong that
they postponed action to another meet
ing.
The leaders found that 1t was danger
GUS to attemptato urge strongly the ac-
ceptance OF the conference committees s
resolution, and after heated discussion,
decided upon @ postponement oflall action
to Saturday afternoon. Secretary O'Don.
nell addressed the meeting which was the
largest in the history Of the association,
the hall being crowded to the limits of
its capacity. Nearly every member Of
the organization was present and the re-
marks of the secretary were listened to
carefully.
He urged the postponement of strike
until more favorable time and advised
the members to be careful and to meet
the question at issue fairly and not rash
ly He tried to get the In smbers to adopt
the resolution, but soon found that it
would be impossible in tho face of such
opposition. After he had finished speak
ing one of the members said that he
thought the secretary must have been
reading ghost stories, and this expressed
the sentiment of the majority OF those
present.
Treasurer Golden, who was also mem
ber of the conference committee advised
the acceptance of the resolution and ex-
Secretary Robert Howard addressed tho
members, He reviewed the general sit
uation and told the members that it was
a bad time to strike. He spoke of the
increase Of the industry in the south and
said that the manufacturers there had
said frankly that the reduction was not
q remedy because 1t would decrease the
A motion to postpone the vote to Sat-
urday afternoon was almost unanimous
ly carried and the balloting will begin at
2 O clock. The roll of members will be
called alphabetically, beginning with the
| American linen and continuing through
the rest Of the list. Voting will be con.
fined to financial members only and ac-
cording to the bylaws of the union, it
will require a tWO-thirds vote of the
| members to effect a strike. A meeting OF
the association will be held at O'Clock
Saturday evening to hear the result of
the voting and as there are some mills
| in which the notices have not yet been
posted, the question as to whether or not
the spinners in them are to be called out
will be considered. These mills are the
Durfee, Conanicut, Kerr thread, Globe
| yarn and Sanford spinning.
The size of the weavers' union oom-
PEELED the holding of meetings in various
parts of the city and the results were
quickly obtained. They voted to accept
the reduction for the present by a MAORI
ty of 153 out of S99 votes cast. The vote
| was small IN comparison to what the ex-
ecutive committee had expected for they
anticipated about 1000 votes. In the CEN
/ tral district the vote stood 10S for accep-
tance to SO for strike. In the southern
district, two meetings were held and the
vote was 1874 to 81 at one, and 80 to % at
| the other, both for acceptance Of the reso-
! luton. In the eastern section, the vote
was 10S to 81; in the southeastern 65 to
Al, and in the northern 81 to 58, making
| total of SIC for acceptance, against 373 for
/ strike. The leaders We're surprised at the
strength of the strike sentiRent Two
or three members CT the legislative COM
mittee were sent to each meeting to urge
the acceptance and all found tho same
strong sentiment to combat.
Out of a total of 145 members of the
lctas f,QTC
ent and the discussion was heated. The
vote was finally taken and stood 81 to AZ
for acceptance of the committee resolu-
| ton. AT the next general meeting, the
members will vote to increase tho dues
and to adopt measure for the organize-
tion OF the slashers in other cities to the
end that they may | G better able to
offer resistance in the near future. The
meeting of the spoilers and Wrappers WAS
| largely attended and ne feeling among
the girls was strongly in favor of strike.
The leaders urged them to wait and the
vote taken resulted in the acceptance of
the resolution, SS to 81.
The meeting of the mill fire1uen was
held at two different times, the night men
voting to accept the resolution
Tonight the day mon considered the
question and after discussion voted so to
30 to strike, but later reconsidered the
vote and decided to accept for the pres,
ent
Secretary Tans of the carders was
asked if his union will meet again to
reconsider their accpatance of last night
and said that he thought not, though
they will prepare for long and severe
fight in the near future
The feeling IN all Of the unions had
been much stronger than has been antioi
pated aud many Of the meeitngs would
have needed but a little more frery de-
bate to have turned the whole result.
Tho loom iixers and maohinists will
moot tomorrow night and it is expected
that the former will vote to strike. The
same result is almost q foregone ccnclu-
sion in the spinners' union. and if ii
should be the case, the result will depend
entirely on the ability of these men 10
close the mills. In mills where there is
a stock Of yarn on hand. the striking of
the spinnerS will not shut out the rest,
but the action of these two may lead to
reconsider again in some of the other
unions. On the whole the strike outlook
is stronger than at any time since the
first announcement of the reduction, al
though it may not include all classes of
help.
/ Ii is said tonight at the weavers' head