Waterbury Democrat., 1901-04-16
MACHINIsTs' MASS MEETING.
Will Be Held in City Hall on Next
 Thursday Evening.

The 'machinists of Waterbury will have a mass meeting at City hall Thursday evening, which will be ad- dressed by James O'Connell and Sam uelS Gompers. Meetings are being held in the principal cities of the states Of the one to be held in New Haven the New Haven Register says;
 There is considerable interest mani fested i'll the coming meeting in this city under the auspices of the Interna- tional Association of Machinists, with the object of securing shorter hours Of labor for workers in the metal trades. This meeting will be addressed by James OConnell, president of the asso- citation, and President Gompers will also talk on the efficacy of organized labor.
 A meeting will be held at Hartford tonight and the movement will be faithfully exploited all over the state. 1t is proposed to secure an eight hour day for machinists all over the coun- try and if present plans are followed unless these shorter hours are secured a general strike will be ordered May
 In conversation with a Register re- porter a member of the Machinists' union said: While there are few trades that call for greater degree of skill than machinists and toolmakers, and there are none that are numerical ly stronger, they are the last to reap the benefit of unionism and afhliafion. sometimes think that is is the mere force of numbers that makes the movement of this trade so slow. They are unwieldy simply through magni- tude. I have had considerable infiu- ence in securing members for the union in working on their pride. Ma chinists are an intelligent class of workmen and as soon as they realize the absurdity of their having to work until 6 o'clock when the iron mould CTS, boilermakers and bricklayers quit at 4:3O, then they will commence to act.
 "The machinist sees the price of ev- erything he has to buy advance, but his wages and hours remain the same. Think of skilled mechanics working for $2.25 day, while the union scale for bod carriers is 25 cents m hour. Under the present industrial conditions the manufacturers have no excuse for not shortening hours of labor, but 1t is an absolute refusal to share prosper ity with the men who contribute to it.
 T have worked in a factory so long that I know the influence of that in cubus of the machine shop, the old woman He is the one who knows where all the odd tools are, who re- members how they did work fifteen years ago and forgets what he learned yesterday who gets the foreman's ear two times a day and tells who broke the new 3-S's drill. His influence is mighty among the timid men, and he it is who has held back the naturally aggressive spirit of the American workman. I have job now that manage to get $2.75 a day for ten hours work. My cousin, an eleetri- elan. gets $3 for eight hours, and my sbrother-in-l earns $3.5O for eight hours laying brick. They don't do a thing to me Sunday, when we talk over business.
 .'The meeting Wednesday evening will give every one attending plain statement of the facts of the case. Even If those who attend don't learn anything new, it will do them no harm and they can learn what other people know"