New-York tribune., 1901-07-12
STEEL STRIKE NOT SETTLED
CONFERENCE AT PITTSBURG ADJOURNS
UNTIL TO-DAY WITHOUT REACH
ING RESULT.

ING RESULT.
Pittsburg July 1.-THE great labor confer
ence at the Hotel Lincoln to-day failed to come
to any agreement.
Another conference will be held tomorrow
morning The object of the conference was the
settlement of the strike ordered by the Anal
gamated Association of Iron. Steel and I'm
Workers in the mills of the American Sheet
Steel Company, and in those Of the American
Steel Hoop Company. The conference also had
another purpose in view-the prevention Of
general strike in all the mills controlled by the
United States Steel Corporation the two COM
panies in whose mills the strike had been or
dered being constituent companies of the great
steel combination.
Two sessions of the conference We're held to-
day The first met shortly after 10 o'clock in
the morning At noon the meeting adjourned
for dinner. At o'clock in the afternoon the
second session began and was continued until D
o'clock. AS settlement within reasonable
time to be out of the question, the
conference adjourned to meet at 10 o'clock to-
morrow.
The Amalgamated Association repre-
sented at the conference by the national officers
and the vice-presdents of the different dis
tricts
The steel interests were represented at the
of the operating department OF the American
Sheet Steel Company; j. w jerks, OF Pittsburg.
manager Of the American Steel Hoop Company;
veryl Preston, of New-York, late president of
the American Steel Hoop Company; Warner
Arms and William Leeds of NewYork, vice.
presidents Of the American Tin Plate Company.
and Charles w. b. Ray, of Pittsburg, chief
engineer of the same company. The United
States Steel Corporation is said to have been
indirectly represented by Messrs. Warner and
Preston
At the afternoon session, President Shaffer. in
benaf of the Amalgamated Association, formally
presented the case for the organized workmen
and the strikers He laid stress upon the fact
that until this year the union had made no ef-
fort directly TO force union in all the plants
of the combination for the reason that it was
thought best have the movement origf-
nate and be carried on among the work
men in the mills. Since last year. how
ever. a condition confronted the union
men. The officials of the various COM
panies had plainly indicated, he said. that they
working a policy for operating their nom
union plants in preference to the union mills.
and only working the latter when it is absolute
ly necessary This plan, he declared, is forcing
the union men to desert the organization in
order to get work The idle mills being union,
and the union men. being rendered poverty
stricken as the price for being members of the
organization, meant either that the Amalga-
mated Association going to be dsbanded
soon, or else the non-union mills would have to
be made union. so that equal justice would be
given 10 all
1t was a matter of life and death for the
Amalgamated association that the union
mills be done away with, as Mr.. Shaffer put the
situation. The alleged method adopted by the
American Sheet Steel Company In practically
starving the employees of the Old Meadow Mills.
IN Scottdale, into a non-union agreement was
elaborated on, and the demand made by that
company that the mill be left out of the scale
entirely in the future was taken as an indica-
ton of what the general plan of the company is
IN dealing with the Arnalgamated association. 1t
meant, he said. slow starvation, or else complete
surrender to the company, and the giving up Of
all rights organized union in their plants
In reply to the statements of President Shaf-
fer the officers Of the various companies present
gave an outline of their position. They denied
any intention of working injustice toward
union workmen in their mills The feeling for
the Amalgamated men had always been friendly.
they said and they had desire to force any
trouble among them.
The plea on both sides listened TO with
the closest attention by ali the members OF the
conference The tone each side ami
ca BILE and il apparent that the manufactur
ers' representatives were prepared to go long
way TO gain peaceful solution of the existing
difficulties.
The members of the two conference commit
tees began presenting arguments in favor of
their different positions in the trouble and this
continued until o'clock in the afternoon,
1ntil 10 o'clock tomorrow morning Both
sides said that they had more arguments to
present IN support of their propositions before
the issue is taken UP for arbitration.