The age-herald., 1901-05-18
MachinisfS' Executive Board As- sembIed at WashIng-
 ton to Be Ready,
AN ADDRESS TO TIE CRAFT
United Labor Has Struggled for Short CT Working Hours and Machinists Are Urged to Enforce To
 Stick to Their Plans.

Washington. May 17.-The executive board of the National Board of Machin- ists assembled here this afternoon to be prepared for any emergency in connec- ton with the general strike, and also to prepare the report to the biennial conven- ton at Toronto on June 8. The board con- sists of representatives from Boston, New York, Chicago, Toronto and Sioux City. They will act in both advisory and judicial capacities during the threatened strike, and will be In readiness to send out to different cities where executive officers may be needed to arrange the local situation. Reports received today announce that all the firms at Danbury, Conn.,. and Norfolk. Va, have signed the nine hour day agreement.
 President O'Connell said there was no possibility of averting the general strike. From the statements of the executive board it develops that most trouble is ex- pected at Cincinnati, San Francisco, and the North Pacific cities. J. J. Connolly, the Boston representative on the board, says there will be very little trouble in New England. Hugh Doran, of Chicago, says there will not be over 800 men on strike there. We have just adjusted the trouble there with the Illinois Central railroad, !" he added. ss.and a uniform rate of 25 cents an hour will be made through out the system for machinists, and an in- crease of per cent in wages for all other shop employees"
 An Address.
 As result of the meeting of the gen. eral officers of the association the follow ing was made public tonight:
 The Machinists' Craft: .-4.
 Greeting: From time immemorlal to the great goal to which united labor has struggled, and to which it has given it's best effort, has been a shorter working day. In the majority of crafts, both skilled and the so-called unskiiled, this effort has been uniformly successful, and they have for a number of years enjoyed the pleasures that come with greater leis- ure. Machinists,' owing to the fact of their isolation in the past from the la- bor movement, have not enjoyed this right and privilege until now after a decade of education, they have concluded that the time. has arrived when they, too, should share in the same enjoyments In reaching this conclusion and in seek ing similar favors they know they are not stretching their demands beyond the bounds of reason or seeking something to which they have no valid claim. More than a quarter of a century ago our brother craftsmen in Great Britain se- cured 9-hour day, and it is conceded by all manufacturing interests who gave the subject consideration that machin- ist produces more per diem even on an S-hour basis than does his brother crafts man in that country. Such being the case it is eminently proper and strictly in accord with the spirit of the times that the machinists of the United States, Canada and Mexico should make con- certed movement in the same direction The time has come, the moment Is ripe and the demand is now made.
 ITO the initiated few words explana- tory of the position the machinist occu- pies in the domain of productive labor and in connection with shorter work day, may not be out of place: owing to the peculiar nature of our trade and the great inroads made into 1t by the intro duction of more perfect machinery, great deal more now Is produced than ever. The increased production contin- ues to increase with the succeeding years, but in spite of this no material or per manent increase in wages has been secur- ed by the man who manipulates the ma chine. He produces more but receives
 
 demand is made for a fairer share of what we produce, by shortening the work day one hour, without any decrease in pay.
 ''This demand is not made without due warning Twelve months ago notice was served on the manufacturers of the United States that on Monday, May 20, 1901, the International Association of Machinists would demand a nine hour day. and that if the demand was not granted it's mem bers and those in sympathy with them would suspend labor until the demand was granted. We do not advocate a strike with all the attendant mistakes of the past, but merely peaceful cessation of labor until we can start work on a nine hour day basis.
 ''We appeal to our fellow craftsmen to rally with us in this effort to eevate our manhood to improve our minds, to puri- fly our bodies and our lives; to make of us exemplary citizens, to make our homes more homelike with our presence and to show the world that we, too. have as- pirations "a little higher than the brutes and scarcely lower than the angels !"
 The address is signed by the officers of the association and the general board of truafaes