The Portland daily press., 1898-01-17

that their meeting could not legally b.
held before January %. This would no
accomplish the desired end and the agita
tors OF the movement gave it up.
The operatives who earn enough money
TO bank a little each Saturday nigh
| were conspicuous by their absence about
the TWO saving institutions this evening
tomorrow morning the strike commit
tees OF the various labor organizations
will meet to draw up plans for the bic
battle which will begin Monday. AL
labor organizations in the country will be
asked to help out the strikers in this
city. The weavers will place pickets al
every mill gate and "scabs'' will be
roughly dealt with.
City Missionary Hersey has issued the
following open letter to the manufactur.
ers and operatives concerned in the labor
trouble:
| Gentlemen: The board of trade, the
city council, the state board Of arbitra
| ton and the Evening Standard have en-
tered their protests from the standpoint
of the calamity which the threatened
and to the material welfare Of our city.
| Isswish to enter protest from the side Of
humanity and benevolence and charity.
am no expert in manufacturing, nor
am l any labor agitator. | do not profess
to be able to solve the labor differences
between the manufacturer and the en-.
ploye, but I can SEQ clearly the awful
offering which long strike here in the
dead of winter will bring to many in our
city. A strike is industrial warfare, cruel
and unsparing. 1t may sometimes be
just aud righteous and necessary weapon
of defense in the hands of workingmen
but it issalways to be deplored, and should
never be entered into lightly. There
ought always to be better way for in
telligent, enlightened men in these clos
ing years of the 10Th century to adjust
their differences than by trying their
powers of endurance, of loss of employ
ment, and want against loss of profit
properly. 1t is not the manufacturers
who will suffer most in this strike, nor
yet the men who belong to the strong
unions; it is not these parties who are re-
sponsible who will bear the burden of
suffering either of the strike or the cut
down. The real sufferers will be the help
SIS wives and children, the widows with
young families, the non-union laborers and
their families working at small pay, the
Iaborers who earn from $50 to Sc per
week and can only by the mostrigid econ
omy and perchanee by the help of friendly
charity keep out scanty and meagre ok
istenoe, bare of all that goes to make
most of our lives tolerable. 1t is upon
these that the strike or the cut down
will bring the most terrible sufferings It
is these silent, waiting, fearful people,
whose pale, worried, wearied, anxious
faces appeal to me and whose sufTerings /
beg the unions and the manufacturers to.
take into consideration, to see if there
cannot be some way to avert this calaIn.
j ty from our city. Many ofssthesa people
have absolutely nothing ahead while
many of them have not succeeded in pay
ing off their debts incurred in the last
strike. There is no outlook for them but
cold and hunger and to many I fear
disease and death. Cannot both sides
ooncede something, and save these uufor-
tunate ones who are thus caught between
the upper and neither mill store from
being ground to powder?
9. Sineerely yoArs zs ~
sc. Il. Hersey, City Missionary"