The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-15
TO FIGHT THE
TRADES UNIONS
British Employers Form
ing a Combinat
CORRUPTION FUND PROMISED
BIG SUM OFFERED FOR USE IN
PARLIAMENT.
Scheme Being Arranged by Which 8
Firm Fighting Strike Will Get
Indemnity Equal to Aver
age Profits.
Copyrighted. 1888. by the Associated Press,

Copyrighted, 1898, by the Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. 1.-THE power of the
trades union is gone so far as Great
Britain is concerned. The British en-
ployers are forming a gigantic combt-
nation to fight the Workmen with their
own weapons. The Engineering Fed
Grafton, which proved so powerful in
the recent strike, has invited employers
in all the trades crush the tyranny"
of trades unionism. One object of the
combination is to secure legislation ia
vorable to the employers.
The Railroad Review asserts that one
firm has placed $3.50 at the disposal
of the organizations parliamentary
committee, though how it could be ex-
pended legitimately does not appear. If
such a thing happened in America it
would be called corruption fund"
The second object of the organization
is to secure for employers freedom to
make contracts with individuals in
stead of with the unions. The employ
ers pledge themselves not to negotiate
directly with strikers, but to deal
through the committee of the organiza-
| ton.
The backbone of the scheme is found
in the arrangement by which a firm
fighting a strike will receive indemnity
equal to its average profits. Even the
Daily Chronicle, the workingman's or
gan, warns the labor leaders that they
have been carrying matters in little
| too high handed manner, and admits
what every one knows that the
standard days work fixed BIZ the unions
is below the capacity Of the average
man.
The unions will not permit their
members to exceed the standard and
also assert the rights of Workmen to
| take holidays whenever they please, re-
| gardless of their employers in this and
protect them for so doing. The en-
! ployers complain that they cannot in
! duce idle men to work even at the high
I wages which prosperity warrants. The
Chronicle admits that there are many
workmen living on the union funds who
| could get employment if they chose.
The American Society here is taking
! extraordinary measures to check the
great notoriety attained by Colonel
| George GOurand, who, of his own mo-
ton, assumed the leadership of the
American wing of the Anglo American
movement in London. Colonel Gourand
| first came forward on the occasion of
| the arrival of General Lord Kitchener
| of Khartoum in England. The colonel
went to Dover to greet him, and is the
most conspicuous figure in the kfneto-
! scope pictures of the event shown in
| the music halls. Since then he has
| deluged the papers with letters, writing
/ always in the name of the United
States army and of the Americans in
London, signing a string of titles TO
| his name, of which the first was 'the
one-time assistant inspector general of
artillery on the staff of General Sher-
man" He pledged the Americans to
/ contribute $1,000 to the fund for the
! IS .io1 al
lege at Khartoum and issued circular
with glazing headlines, requesting con-
/ tributions to found an educational
! chair of science" The colonels latest
appeal is for money for the Englishmen
who enlisted in the United States army,
helped TO defeat Spain and were after
wards discharged, Of whom ne says
by some of the papers as corroborating
| the assertion Of Cunningham Graham
! that the best fighting in the Spanish
war was done by Englishmen.
| The whole business has made the
! London Americans a laughing stock,
/ and the executive committee of the
! American Society has issued a letter to
editors and others declaring the col
! onel has no warrant to speak for any
! one but himself.
John w. Bookwalter of Ohio, whose
/ views on Russia were published in
! dispatch from here to the Associated
Press, under date of December %, is
returning to the United States with the
intention of writing a book describing
his three months travel in Siberia.
Incidentally, this work viii be plea
| for an American alliance with Russia
/ intead of Great Britain. He says his
observations in this country have
strengthened his pro-Russian views
and adds 1.-The interests of the United
States and England are radically an
| tagonistic, and the attempt to foster an
alliance is an artificial movement, so
far as England is concerned. 1t has
not yet captured the hearts of the peo-
pie and is merely political device
with two aims First, to divert Amer
ica's attention from conflicting inter
ests in her own hemisphere; second, to
make the United States Great Britain's
| catspaw in her diplomatic game in the
East She thinks that if she can point
] -. rIlAT Will