Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-08-10
BEGINS IN EARNEST.
schlitz Beer is to Be Boycotted
Throughout Iowa.
UNloNIS1S MEET THIS MORNING
All Labor Unions In the City Resolve TO
Help the Striking Beer BottIers
In Their struggle for
Better Wages.
From Wednesdays Daily.

0etter wages
From Wednesdays Daily.
The strike at the bottling works of
". v. Silvers & Co., local agents for
the Schlitz Brewing company, has ter
minated in boycott being placed on
Schlitz beer throughout Iowa. This
action was decided upon this morning
at meeting of representatives from
every union in the city after the board
of arbitration which met last night at
Labor hall for the purpose of adjust
ing the differences between the firm
of w. v. Silvers & Co. and the strikers
failed to arrive at any terms of settle
ment and dissolved. The board was
COMPRISED of S. r. Cheadle and Charles
Bensberger, representing the firm of
w. V. Silvers & Co., and the strikers
We're represented by j. +. Byrne and
7. 2. Baer, the four selecting Morgan
Griswold as fifth member. Griswold
did not, however, serve.
As soon as the action of the board
of arbitration was announced, meet
ing of the representatives of every un-
ion in the city was called. The ASSEM-
bly, was held at Labor hall this MORN
inc at $3.50 o'clock and was largely at
tended, every labor organization being
represented. The meeting was called
for the purpose of placing boycott
on Schlitz beer and providing fund
to assist financially the strikers in
their efforts to uphold the wage scale
of the organization to which they be-
long. The propositions met with hearty
response, each union voting to stand
its share of the expense necessary to
carry the strike through. 1t was then
and there decided to boycott Schlitz
beer, both the bottled and keg pro-
duct, whether purchased through the
Silvers agency or not, said boycott to
strikers are satisfactorily settled.
The boycott will extend all over the
state of Iowa, which is included within
the Jurisdiction of local No. TAG of the
American Federation of Labor. A COM
naittee of twenty-five was appointed
at the meeting to visit the saloonmen
of the city, and if possible induce them
not to handle Schlitz beer as long as
the trouble is pending. The Trades and
Labor Assembly at its regular meeting
tonight will take the matter up and
endorse and enforce the boycott, I'M
less a settlement is arrived at in the
meantime.
Bottlers, Statement.
A statement from the Bottlers'
union which has been withheld pend
ing the result of the sitting of the
board of arbitration, has now been
given out to the public and is as fol-
lows:
1--WE are compelled by the published
statement of w. v. Silvers & Co., to in
form you of the true status of the
strike now existing in their bottling
department, the local agents of the
Schlitz Brewing Co., and submit to you
our side of the controversy, for your
earnest consideration. The minimum
price for men employed in the beer
bottling department of the Milwaukee
hreweries, as per letter received, with
full particulars of scale, is $1.75 per
day. We cannot take into considers
ton the wages paid to boys, and we
deny the scale offered by w. v. Silvers
d Co. to our union Saturday night, is
the scale of any bottlers' union in
this country, but scale made by w.
v. Silvers & Co. themselves.
"The beer bottlers received in West
Superior, Wis, $12.5O per week of
nine hours a day work, and, as stated
above, in Milwaukee, the men receive
$1.75 per day at the lowest, for nine
hours; and so we as men refused to
accept $1.25 per day, which barely
means an existence.
do not believe any statement of a
scale that is lower than $1.75 per day
for men employed in the bottling de-
partment of any union brewery in the
United States. To refute all state
ments of w. v. Silvers G. Co. as to the
scale paid in Milwaukee, we will say
that at the outstart of this strike they
stated to newspapers that the scale of
wages to the bottlers paid by the
Schlitz Brewing Co. in Milwaukee was
from $3.50 to $500 per week. If the
Schlitz is union brewery they should
be ashamed to have such starvation
wages exposed to the public.
In conclusion we ask you to lend
an ear to this appeal of honest and in
Idustrious men in their effort to compel
w. v. Silvers & Co., agents of the
Schlitz Brewing Co. ian immensely
wealthy corporation) to pay living
wages. We are not boys, as was stat
ed, but are grown men. If you think
our cause worthy, we ask your sup
port. 1t was not the Bottlers' Union
that refused to accept the scale paid
to bottlers in the Milwaukee breweries
but on the other hand w. v. Silvers &
Co. refused to accept such scale and
tried to force upon the Bottlers' Union
of Ottumwa scale of their own.
"We have the support and endorse
ment of all the unions of Ottumwa
and the surrounding territory, and are
as confident today of victory as the
day we walked out, and with firm
belief in God and man, we ask your
consideration.
"The Schlitz Brewing Co., claiming
to be union brewing, cannot expect,
nor neither will it receive the sup
| port of any honest man SO long as they
persist in deceiving the public by first
pledging to stand by the union scale
and then wilfully ignoring their
pledge of honor and submitting a
starvation scale of wages assumed to
be paid by the Schlitz Brewing Co. We
deny the accuracy of the statement of