The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-29
Parisians Suffering From Laun-
dry Women's Strike.
ASK FOR HIGHER WAGES
HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND
FAMILIES AFFECTED.
Possibility of Serious Labor Troubles
When Thousands of Workingmen
Are Thrown Out of Employment
By the Completion of the EXPOSE
ton Buildings-Fair in Order.

Copyright, 1900, by the Associated Press
Paris April 2S.-A famine of clean
linen is more disturbing to Parisians
than the INCOMPLETE condition of the
exposition grounds Eight thousand
Paris laundry women have struck for
higher wages and shorter hours, and
serious. Inconvenience has already been
caused. The hotel managers and keep
ers of restaurants bitterly complain
that half their linen is not returned
from the wash. and private families
are also feeling the pinch.
The strike commenced at BOulogne-
Sur Seine and spread to several other
environS where laundries are situated.
The laundry work people around Paris
number between 10000 and 100000 and
il the strikers succeed in securing their
adhesion, the mass of PariSianS will
have to go unwashed.
The fact that the influx of visitors
to the exposition is begun, necessitat-
ing heavy demands on the laundries,
gave the washer women an opDortun-
ity to put the screws ON their employ
ers, who naturally are much incensed
by this attempt to force their hands
now. when they have already cOnclud-
ed contracts III many cases with hotels,
restaurants and other establishments
for the exposition season at determined
rates.
Refuse to Compromise.
The masters offered a partial in
crease in wages. hut the strikers have
thus far refused to compromise. Bands
OF work. people gather IN the neighbor-
hood of the laundries where work is
still partially continued and try to
persuade the non-StrikerS to join them.
No serious disorder has yet occurred.
but the police are taking precautions,
and attachments of gen d'aTneS have
been drafted to the districts where
trouble is possible.
This ebullitiOn Of labor difficulties
calls attention to the serious possibility
of such graver disturbances arising
from the throwing ON the labor mar
l-et of thousands of wOrkmen by the
completion OF the exposition and of the
central portion of the new MetropOli-
tan railway. These great undertakings
attracted to Paris vast numbers of
provincial carpenters, masonS, painters
and unskilled labOrers, and the prob
lem the government has now TO face
is the dispersal of these men through
the country, or to avoid a great labor
crisis in Paris, the consequences of
which it would be difficult to fOresee
The first measure of the government
has been to post at all centerS Of work
placards enumerating undertakings in
the provinces directed by the minister
Of public works 1t is estimated that
three days will absorb about l., 900 and
free transportation will be given to the
places where the men are required.
Many VIII Want Work.
There still, however. remains a large
number for whom jobs are wanted.
The oct nzF secretary of the labor eX-
change calculated that so, 900 WoTl1n-en
came fc Paris last year. OF this num-
Der perhaps two-thirds intend to re-
turn to Their homes.
The secretaries of the several trades
unions take a more pes imiStfc view
of the situation. The secretary of the
painters organization reckoned that
the completion Of the exposition will
leave over 10000 PAINTERS alone uneEn-
plOyed waile a committeeman Of the
unskilled laborerS' union claims thai
the number Of that class who viii be
thrown on the streets viii reach &c, 000
few Of whom will consent to go to the
provinces This latter reluctance is ar
important factor in the crisis as the
COuntrymen. intoxicated by the glitter
of the metropolis. are disposed to hans
on as long as possible
The rOrtnlghtS work on the EXPOSE
ton since the opening has done much
TO bring order out of chaos which OBJ
tanned when President LCubet declared
the exposition open. Perceptible prog
ress is beng made daily, and sight
seers can find sufficient TO repay them
for the trouble of a. sit.
The galleries are filing up with the
exhibits, which are being rapidly in
stalled. The foreign sections in this re-
spect are further advanced than
Frances own buildings, and the Ameri-
can EXHIBITS are keeping we'll abreast
of those of other countries. Most of the
foreign national payilions now are on
the eve Of Inauguration, and several
have opened, Bohemia and Hungary be-
ing the latest to unclOSe their doors
Both Of these offer charming interiors
and are characteristically and artist
cally representative of their respective