Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-05-26
LABOR MASS MEETING
To Express Sympathy With the Strik-
ing Street Railway Employees

ILL fhObABLl NAME AID
DRESSES - THE EXECUTIVE
BOARD OF THE STRIKERS
MAKES A STATEMENT TO
CLEAR UP A MIsUNDERsTAND-
ING.
The. original project to hold a SYM
pathetic mass meeting last night, was
abandoned on account of lack of suf-
ficient time to complete arrangements.
A meeting was held at Trades Assem-
bly, hall, however, at which plans were
made for meeting in accordance with
the original idea, to be held next We'd
nesday night. The place will be corner
Seventeenth and Chapline streets,
where Eugene V. Debs and others ad-
dressed a monster meeting during the
coal miners strike few years ago.
The Rev. c. M. Oliphant, pastor of
the First Christian Church, and prob
ably one or two other local speakers,
will be invited to attend the meeting.
The committee has received assurance
that T. ]. Shaffer, of Pittsburg, Presi-
dent Of the Amalgamation, will denver
an address. Other distinguished
speakers from Pittsburg will be w. A.
Carney, all official of the AInalgama-
ton, and Patrick Dolan, President OF
the U. NJ. w. OF A. of the Fifth dis
Lrict.
To correct a misunderstanding grow
ing out OF publication in a morning
paper yesterday, the Executive Com
mittee of the Street Car Workers
Union last night handed the following
statement TO the Register for publ
cation:
melted by the article, entitled, "A
Hopeless Outlook" as appearing in
the lntelligencer of May 25th While
our union has not been officially mott
lied of the conference alleged TO have
been held by the business men of
Wheeling and the directors of the
Wheeling Street Railway Company, we
may take the Statemen. for what it
denotes, as the result Of the confer
ence, and it cannot fail to show that
the company and its directors have no
consideration for the public or the
business element of the city Of Wheel
ing.
We believe the business clement of
the city will appreciate the encourage
ment they received from the strikers
in their effort to effect a settlement
on what they regarded as most con-
ciliating terms, and we are impressed
that the prompt rebuff from the direc-
tors viii be properly resented by good
citizens.
This vicious stubbOrnness and NAL
ice exhibited by the mana gemInc of
the company will place the directors
in their proper light and reaffirm the
recent statement of this Executive
Board relative to- the position of the
company's directors. AS many are
yet undeceived relative to the advances
made by the company, we desire again
to state that the company at no time
ever made a proposition of any kind
to the strikers, and the only concilia
tory proposition they have ever put
forth is that the directors would pay
171a cents per hour for operating
their cars; that they would retain, at
all hazard, the non-union men, and
employ such other men as they pleased
without regard to their unionism. Not
one of the old men was ever assured
of reinstatement. The company has
never consented to recognize the
union, nor has it ever offered to rein
state the members of our union at 171a
cents per hour even.
On the other hand, the representa-
tives OF the men, ever mindful of their
gratitude to the public, who have so
considerably supported the cause of
justice, have made many efforts to eff
feet an honorable adjustment of the
differences, and as many times their
advances have been received with ig-
noring contempt on the part of the
directors.
The citizens have been appalled, at
the conduct of the company in plac-
ing men upon the cars whose incom-
potency is indicated by the character
of their work, and whose records in
many instances are portrayed in the
annals of the criminal courts of the
city, The citizens do not appreciate
this injection into their midst of this
element of non-unionism, and they
will resent it by their continued sup
port of the cause of right and justice.
We desire to state that we have
taken no part in any conferences
where directors of the company were
present, since April go 1899; and we
were not present at the conference al
legged to have been held between the
business men and the company's di-
rectors. 1t is true we have held in