The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-18
FIRST DAY OF WAGE FIGHT
REDUCTION NOV ESTIMATED TO
 EFFECT 1e5,O0O PERSONS.

Only a Partial Attempt to Operate Any of
 the Mills in New Bedford and Even This
 Resulted in Small Riot--A Rock Hurled
 Through Window of One Mill Ofice-
 Police Called.
 Boston, Jan. 1.-The fight between employer and employe in the New Eng land cotton mills is on, and what it will lead up to cannot now be told. The great corporations in New Bedford are silent and thousands of operatives are idle, while here and there discontent cropped out all day, the most serious being at Biddeford, Me, where S,20O persons refused to work, thus closing two mills, and at Lewiston, where one mill was crippled by 400 weavers stay ing out. The general wage cut-down is estimated to affect 125,0O0 persons in about 150 mills, although several mills have previously adopted the new sched- 'ule and several others have given notice of immediate reductions. Here and there dissatisfaction was brought to the notice of agents and overseers over mil
 nor grievances, and in most eases these were either remedied or an inquiry promised
 New Bedford, Mass, Jan. 17.-To-
 morrow not one of the twenty-two cloth mills affected by the ten per cent. re- | duction of wages will be running. The
 first day of the strike has resulted in the closing of the mills and general toly ;,, ha uyhn nf tha
 nine corporations involved, Only a
 partial attempt to operate any of the mills was made by the Bristol corpora tion, which during the day gave en1~ ployment to some fifty operatives, run ming 120 ring-spinning frames and for | ty-two looms. according to outside in formation George H. Law the super intendent, reported that he had 3S0 looms and 15,000 spindles in operation during the afternoon.
 | The final outcome of the attempt to run this mill was a small sized riot which occurred between the hours of 5.30 and 630 and which resulted in the | determination not to attempt to run 1 the mill Tuesday Inasmuch as this | was the second attempt at boisterous- ness on the part of the sympathizers of l the strikers during theAday, it furnish l ed food for reflection to those who are 1 interested in the manufacturers end of l the contest.
 The drawn curtains of the mills re- l vealed no view of the interior to those l who watched on the outside, although l the clerks in the office could be seen | busy at their desks. The crowd busted itself as it had in the morning by howls
 and groans when anybody left the mill
 Since there were but three or four peo- pie came out of the mill this sort of fun
 grew monotonous and tile crowd sought 1 a new amusement Several youngsters l on the outskirts were armed with those 1 inventions of the devil Known as bean
 shooters" and they used them to good
 effect upon the mill windows. At length one boy, more daring than the rest, ] shied 8 rock at one of the officers l windows and the crash of glass was fol- | lowed by the turning off of the electric lights in the office. At every crash of
 glass the crowd howled and the excite
 ment grew in force.
 A small squad of policeman in com"
 mand of Lieutenant John c. Parker l had been sent to the mill at the request of the management and they managed I to keep the entrance to the mill gate
 clear In the darkness it was difficult | to see where the stones came from and 1 more difficult to catch anybody in the l act of throwing stones, so no arrests
 were made. An interesting incident l with the excitement followed the att
 tempt of the police to clear balcony of
 the boarding house directly opposite the
 mill office. This was particularly
 good vantage point one woman of
 athletic proportions was inclined to re-
 sist the authority of the offices and it
 was only by some persuasion that she | moved. A tenant of the house, too, ob-
 jected to being moved and took off his
 coat to enforce his rights. Several out | breaks occurred.