The age-herald., 1900-06-25
Trades Council Adopts the Min-
 erS' Suggestions.
NEGRO DELEGATES ALLOWED
Council Passed Resolution Opposing the Adoption of Gas Contract by the City Council-Boycott on
 Southern Railway Raised


 taken at the instance of the Alabama Dis
 trict of the United Mine Workers.
 Since the organization of the Trades
 Council several years ago no negro dele
 gates have been admitted to its meetings,
 which fact has occasioned some complaint
 on the part of labor organizations that ad-
 mitted negroes into its membership. The
 United Mine Workers of the district had
 been asked to affiliate with the Trades
 Council, but refused to do so on account
 of the color clause.
 At a meeting of the Trades Council held
 some time ago resolution was adopted
 calling on the Alabama District of the
 United Mine Workers to require its meln-
 bers to employ only union labor on what
 ever work they might have to give out,
 This resolution was presented to the miners at their convention last Thursday, but action on the same was deferred until
 a conference could be had with the Trades Council The colored delegates at the con- vention urged this course on account of what they alleged to be a fact that they
 were barred from the union of the carpen-
 ters the brcklayers and other artisans,
 and that it would be unjust to them to re-
 quire that they give their work to white
 men when there are negroes competent to
 do it and who were bidding for it. Contracts to Non-Union Men It was claimed that members of the United Mine Workers at Pratt City and Wylam had let contracts for building houses to non-union carpenters and brick layers, and this was the ground on which the Trades Council based it's resolution. The miners convention held that the point raised by the colored delegates was we'll taken, and tabled the motion to adopt the resolution presented by the Trades Coun- cil until a committee appointed to confer with the latter body with reference to the matter could make a report
 The action of the Trades Council yester- | day will have the effect of admitting to | its meetings any delegate, whether white | or black, that any labor union in the dis trict may send.
 The American Federation of Labor, with which the Trades Council affiliates prohib- | it's the drawing of the color line by any organization connected with it, and this was one of the reasons that influenced the Trades Council to take the action it did yesterday.
 Ban on the Southern Raised The ban placed on the Southern and the Alabama Great Southern Railways dur ing the telegraphers' strike sometime ago was raised yesterday. It will be recalled that the telegraph operators on the South ern and the Alabama Great Southern Rail- ways inaugurated a strike about the mid dle of April, claiming that the company bo1 tp and also that the company had refused to rec ognize their order and that the company had failed to live up to certain promises. The operators were out for few weeks, but rturned to work, or so many of them as could get their old places back the lat ter part of May, and the president of the Railway Photographers Union called the strike off. This fact being placed before the Trades Council motion to raise the ban was adopted.
 Against the Gas Contract The Council adopted a motion in op- position to the contract for thirty year franchise presented by the Bir- mingham Gas Company to the city at the meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen last Wednesday night The motion also embodied clause favoring the purchase of the plant of the Bir- mingham Gas Company by the city, and appointed a committee to go before the City Council tonight in furtherance of said motion.
 Mayor Drennen and John W. ONeill, president of the Board of Trade, appeared before the Council in the interest of the proposed State Fair to be held next fall in this city Mayor Drennen stated that the fair grounds and buildings had been do- mated to the city for the purpose of hold ing a State Fair The Trades Council, af- ter listening to the speeches of Mayor Drennen and Mr. O'Neill, appointed a con- mittee to meet with the citizens at the head of the fair movement one day this week.
 A committee consisting of J. H. Leath and J. H. F. Mosley of the Typographical Union, MT. Judge of the Carpenters Un- ion, Fred Williams of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Work CTS, was appointed to draft a reply to the recent statement of N. F. Thompson before | the Industrial Commission, in which an at- | tack was made on labor organizations. A resolution endorsing the movement for | a two weeks pay day was adopted. | A few other routine matters were dis l posed of, after which the Council ad- l journed.