Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-19

| tion is settled and every possible effort | will be made to induce strangers from | taking the places of the men, and in any case it is doubtful if the different 1 factories could get help enough to come here to do their work. Good mechanics
 whether they belong to the union or
 not, will hesitate before coming here | under existing conditions, and it is a notorious fact that botches will not be
 able to fill the positions vacated by | the strikers so that even though the factories should hold out until every
 striker in town had secured job else
 where it is hard to see why they would
 not be in worse box than ever.
 Conservative citizens regard the exo-
 dus from the city of so many of our :! skilled mechanics with considerable 1 alarm and claim that it is sure to have
 a decidedly bad effect upon the manu- l facturing industries of the town. for it I is agreed that one of the things that
 made Waterbury what it is to-day was | it's superior class of factory hands. At ! the present time there seems to be no
 reason why the question at issue can. not be adjusted on a basis acceptable ! to all concerned. The machine shops, ! it Is said, are willing to come to an un- derstanding with their men, but they 1 fear the manufacturers will not make
 a move unless the big manufacturing
 plants lead the way. On the whole, it lis bad mess and the claim that the
 strikers are trying to ruin the business l interests of the community. loses all l it's meaning when it is remembered that short time ago almost all the shops were satisfied to make terms
 with the men on the basis of nine
 hour day, everything else to be left
 out, but refuse to take advantage of it
 now and thus put an end to the wrangle. But it is a glorious battle and both
 parties are conducting 1t along lines which show that no matter what else ! may be said of Waterbury, on one can say that it is not law-abid1ng place.
 Some of the things that have come
 to light since the labor troubles start
 ed in Waterbury ought to serve as eye
 openers to the manufacturers, who con- tended that their help was being used so well that they had no reason to com
 plain. No doubt the managers of the
 different concerns about town are hon.
 est enough, but the fact that under
 strappers have been making good mon
 ey unknown to them by selling jobs to
 the highest bidders shows how easy
 it is to fool them with all their knowl-
 edge and wide experience. There is
 nothing new in this whole matter ex-
 cept perhaps that the thing has become so pronounced. "the fellows in the of f1ce' may catch on and fire some of the schemers who persist in making busi- ness of it. The difficulty in bringing about a remedy for the abuse is due almost entirely to the fact that it is hard to get the superintendent of con- cern to believe that any of his fore men would be guilty of such con temptible trick and on this account the evil is apt to remain with us. Then there is another obstacle to doing away with the system. Some people will 7ell you that this is all newspaper talk and that the allegations are nothing more than trumped up charges pre- ferred by employees who had been discharged for not at tending to their work. If this be so some of the foremen in the factories of Waterbury must be remarkably modest men. When one of them will put up somewhere between $35O and S4OO to settle a case of this kind against him rather than face the music, it looks as if there was more than rumor back of l it. 1t is an unfailing source of revenue | to man who is in a position to play-I the game for all there is in it. A boss | who has 75 or 100 persons in his em- ploy can keep letting them go and talk ing others in the year around and if | the aggrieved parties should appeal to l the superintendent it is safe to state !! that they would find that the boss had | been there ahead of them and made l himself solid by satisfying the office | that the best interests of the company | demanded that this one and that one 1 be discharged. In every instance the | employe who has to make room for | some one that is putting up'' for his | job is superior worker and the person | who supplants him poor stick and as | result some of the departments quick | ly get crowded with an army of incom- | potent help, and then the boss has to l start on the clearing out process again | It should be remembered that no one | pASlGhdS lO SLSlS ludlf l1lS practice IS | general It isn't, but even so We have | entirely too much of it for the good | Of the shops and the peace of the community.
 Half a dozen men left town yester- day to go to work in as many places. About 100 men ail told, have left the city.
 The pickets at the various factories this morning great activity among the manufacturers yesterday. What caused it they could not. find our, but they surmise that something of an unusual character must have been go- ing on.
 Letters from some of those men who got work in other places, say that they found no lack of opportunities to get work in the places they visited The strike has been amicably adjusted in almost all places they were in and the demand for good workmen is increas- ing.
 The Manville Machine company de- nies that they have lost one of their workers, the statement in yesterdays paper to the contrary notwithstanding