The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-09-22
ITALIAN LAB0RERS
Take the Places Of the Striking
Freight Handlers.
WERE IMPORTED FROM BOSTON
BY BOAT YESTERDAY.

The Strikers Are Confident of Forcing the
the Maine Steamship Company to
Adopting Their Schedule of 30 cents an
Hour.
The strike at the Maine Steamship
Company's wharves still continues and
the situation has..not changed much since
Monday. The freight handlers who re-
fused to work for 25 cents an hour and
who will return to work for 30 cents an
sat about the lumber at the head of the
dock yesterday and basked in the warm
sunlight while they talkedSoyer the mat
ter. They are a good crew of men and so
far not one Of them has been seen intoxi-
Gated, nor have they attempted any Yio-
lence whatever.
1t was not very much of surprise to
the freight handlers yesterday morning
when about 60 Italians accompanied by
their padrones and carrying their few
belongings, walked down over the gang
plank of the Boston boat and started for
the freight sheds of the New York boat.
The strikers expected that the Maine
Steamship Company would attempt some
thing of this kind, and so they gathered
about the dock to watch the fun. The
Italians hardly had time to eat a few
mouthfuls of dry bread, which was doled
out to them for breakfast, before the
work of loading sthe Cottage City was
commenced. And for the Italians it
proved to be very hard day indeed. The
little fellows from Sunny Italy, were
not accustomed to the handling of the
heavy freight and they made hard work
of it. Many were the accidents that befel
them and the big cases of goods or rolls
of paper which they were trying to
handle. In one case big box got to go
ing too fast down the incline to the boat,
and before the Italians could stop its
Roadway over the side, into the water
the box went. It was fished out without
having been much damaged, but the Ita1-
ians were great deal frightened by the
affair. Then little fellow on the tail
end of a big truck attempted to wheel
along heavy package Of goods. Up
tilted the truck and the italian was
dangling from the handle bars with his
feet several inches from the wharf. Then
when it came to handling the big rolls
of paper the little fellows had hard time
of it indeed. They could barely handle
one of these rolls with eight men while
the experienced freight handlers were
wont to hustle them on ship board with
only two me to a roll. 1t took the Ital-
ians two hours to unload two freight cars
which the strikers say they could have
unloaded with ease in IS minutes. The
strikers by twos and threes gathered
about the shed to watch the work and
were very much amused by all that they
saw, but they attempted to do no vio-
lence, nor will they do anything that is
not right in the matter, so one of the
leaders among them assured PRESS
reporter. They intend to hold out for 80
cents an hour or nothing, and yesterday
afternoon the men said they believed the
company would yet be forced to agree to
their schedule.
The Italians come here under contract
of padrone and they will live on the
wharf for few days until other quarters
can be provided for them. These laborers
do not live very sumptuously. For break
fast, dinner and supper they had dry
bakers bread and cold water. The work
was too much for them and they began
to lag fearfully about the time that the
regular freight handlers would ordinarily
have been hustling at their BEST One of
the wharf bosses who superintends the
work became vexed towards the latter end
which things were going, and stepped up
to one of the Italians, telling him ''to
get move on himself" The Italian
dropped his truck and waving his hands
about excitedly said in pigeon English:
NO can hurry, pretty soon die. - Then
the poor fellow picked up his truck ham
dies again and went staggering down the
wharf behind his heavy load. The ida
goes'' as the strikers call them, are too
slightly built for this heavy work, and
it is doubtful if they can stand it very
long. The crew which arrived here yes
terday morning by boat, had to work all
day yesterday and all of last night. They
were pretty well tagged out when it came
to unloading the John Englis, which ar
rived with big cargo of freight from
New York about o'clock. This steamer
has to be loaded and away by tonight
and SO the Italians were not allowed much
time to rest. On this mornings boat
from Boston it is stated that another big
crew of Italians will arrive, and these
two crews will alternate and spell one
another at the work of handling the
freight.
When one of the local officers of the
Maine Steamship Company was inter
viewed about the situation, he said:
eve have hired these men to take the
place Of the strikers. They are cheerful
lot and take hold we'll. They have had
more or less experience in handling
freight and are not green hands by any