Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-15
WITHOUT ORCHESTRA MUSIC
Annual Banquet of Federation of Labor
Lacks Musical Accompaniment
SPEND The DAY PASSING RESOLUTIONS
Endorse the Hoycott of the Typo
graphical Union AGAINST the New
York Sun-Envor Reducing
Standing Army.

DETROIT Dec. 1.-THE annual banquet
of the American Federation Of Labor was
held in the Griswold house tonight lacking
the usual accompaniment of orchestral
/ music. The reason was that the orchestra
provided for the dinner was discovered to
be nonunion The latter fact was duly
reported in ,oday's convention. along with
resolution declining the invitation to
he banquet rendered By the local commit
tee Despite assertions Of the Detroit men
that it was the best they could de- under
the circumstances, the difficulty would not
down until it was announced that the music
would be left out Of the program. Nearly
all of todays session was taken up with
discussion and action upon resolutions.
The report of the boycott committee on the
New York sun lockout was the special or
der. The committee recommended adoption
of a resolution offered by the Detroit Trades
council demanding endorsement of the sun
boycott by the Federation.
Several speeches were made. Delegate
O'Rourke Of New York. who had been en-
joined by Judge Bookstaver of the New
York supreme court from talking about the
Sun matter stated these resolutions did not
emanate from his typographical union. He
intended to obey the courts order. but If
he was arrested on account of the acts of
this convention he was willing to go to jail.
He was not in favor of any war for eXtcrmi-
nation of the newspaper. President Bowman
and other members of the printing press
mems national union spoke for the resolu-
tions and Judge Bookstaver's action in en-
joining ORourke was strongly criticised
On ordering of the previous question the
resolution was adopted unanimously
For Reduction Of Army.
A resolution declaring for reduction of the
standing army to $4,000 men was adopted
after striking out the first paragraph, which
read as follows:
Whereas, The tendency Of the present ad-
ministraton is to unnecessarily increase the
number of men in the standing army" etc.
Other resolutions adopted were:
Urging state legislatures to outlaw all
kinds of competitive convict labor; against
permitting slavery in the Hawaiian islands;
reaFirming seamens demands; congratulate
ing f. w. Palmer, public printer, for paying
increased wages in his own discretion to
printers and bookbnders; favoring same
leaves of absence for employees of naval
yards and arsenas as for other govern
ment employees; appropriating $500 in aid of
the Cramp shipyard strikers; inviting the
letter carriers to affiliate with the federation
and providing a special organizer for the
Pacific coast.
, Resolutions were adopted during the aft
ernoon to aid in the introduction and recog-
nitiom cf The stamp of the Coopers union;
asking boilermakers, iron shipbuilders and
horseshoers to refrain from working upon
the product Cf Troy On. " iron company
on account of the company having refused
to treat with the Coopers' union; declaring
for giving all possible assistance toward ad-
vancng the sale of potteryware bearing the
union label; congratulating and commeld |
ing the Buffalo longshoremen for having
gained every point for which they conten led
In their fight against the saloon boss steve |
dbre system; resolving that the federation
through its officers and organizers, give spe
cial aid to the tobacco workers in pushing
a boycott against all brands OF toba co
made by both the American and Continental |
Tobacco companies; relntroducing the to- |
bacco workers blue label, asking all af |
fiated labor unions to vigorously use the |
tobacco boycott and that every member |
demand the blue label ON all tobacco or
cigarettes he may purchase.
President O'Connell took the stage to pre-
fer SERIOUS charges" against the three for |
eign fraternal delegates. Their punish
ments proved to consist of gold union
made" watch to British Delegate Haslam
and an engraved gold-headed walking stick
for his colleague, Delegate Wlkie, with a
brooch for Mrs. Wilkie and diamond ring |
for Canadian Delegate Carey. /
The committee reorganization of the
Detroit stage employees reported
having met the local theater manag -rs and
with them prepared an agreement, which
is in a fair way of being accepted by both
parties, which agreement contained an
bitraton clause and other features ACCEPT
able to employers and employees. The re-
port was accepted and the committee
thanked.
The convention decided to hold no morn
ing session after roll call tomorrow, The
half day to be devoted to committee work.