The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1898-01-20
AH6TLABOR STRUGGLE
Great Cotton Fight on In New
England.
WAGES OF $4,000 ARE REDUCED.
We Labor Leaders Making Test Fight
at New Bedford, Mass, Where the Re
suction Was Refused-Tbe situation
Quiet at Present.

Boston, Jan. 1S.-The fight between
employer and employee in the New En-
gland cotton mills is on, and what it
viii lead up to cannot be foretold. The
great corporations in New Bedford are
silent and thousands of operatives idle,
while here and there discomfort cropped
out all day, the most serious being at
Biddeford, Me-, where 5000 persons re-
fused to work, thus closing two mills,
and at Lewiston, where one mill was
crippled by 400 weavers staying out.
The general wage reduction is esti-
mated to effect l25,OOO persons in about
100 mills, although these mills have pre-
viously adopted the new schedule and
several others have given notice of i'm
mediate reductions. Here and there
dissatisfaction was brought to the no
tiCe of agents and Overseers over minor
grievances, and in most cases these were
either remcdied or an inquiry promised.
Today finds the textile operatives
everywhere intently interested in the
New Bedford struggle, for here the test
of strength and endurance will come,
and upon the outcome will depend the
question of an industrial battle the en-
tire length and breadth Of the New
England states. Ike chief point in
this battle will be discipline and the
first command of organized labor
brought well nigh perfect obedience.
The day passed quite peacefully, but
one incident is in some quarters feared
as Il fOrerunner of the odds the strikers
will take if driven to desperation.
From the point of view of the mill
owner, the New Bedford situation is
now lockout. Intervention by the
state board of arbitration this week is
hardly likely 20 be allowed, and no overt
act ON the part of the strikers and no at.
tempt to open a mill is expected for
number of days.
The New Bedford strikers will receive
strike money from operatives elsewhere,
but the sum total will be reserved until
protraCted battle brings on want and
hardship, which the unions will then
try to relieve.
In several mill centers, namely, New
Bedford and BiddefOrd, SaCO and Lew.
istOn, Me-, dissatisfaction among the
millhands is intense and strikes are on.
The Is mills of the former city, which
give employment to 5000 hands, have
been shut down because the operatives
have refused to accept the reduction, and
the contest thus inaugurated promises
to be one of the most stubborn in the
history Of the textile industry. The
situation in New Bedford is very gloomy.
Business there had not recovered from
the depression which followed the fail.
ure of six mill corporations last spring.
p The $500 employees at the Laconia and
Pepperell mills in Biddeford, Me, re.
fused to go to work under the new
schedule, and it is thought the strike
there will not be settled easily. Some
of the employees of York mills of Saco
also joined the movement.
The Androscoggin mills in Boston and
the King Phillip plant in Fall River
were handicapped by strike of mum.
Der of hands, and the Queen City mills
of Burlington, VT, have been closed on
account Of strike which followed the
posting of notices of reduction.