The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-28
CIGARMAKERS FROM TAMPA.
MEMBERS OF LA RESISTENCIA
UNION EN- ROUTE TO NEW YORK.

Ohe OF the members or committee
Says All Members of the Orgnniza-
ton Will Leave Tampa at the Ex-
pense of the UniOn-They Rave No
Difficulty In Finding Work in
Other Cities-The Party Now Here
Numbers Twenty-nine and VIII
Leave on the City of Augusta To-
day-Marus Claims That Deported
Leaders Are in a Schooner on the
Florida Coast.
A party of twenty three cigarmakers.
members of the La Resistencia Union
of Tampa, the wives of two of them,
and three children, reached Savannah
yesterday afternoon in charge of A. M.
Marus, and will leave to-day for New
York on the City of Augusta.
La Resistencia is the union, the
members of which have recently had so
much trouble with the citizens of
Tampa, trouble that reached so acute
a stage that the Citizens League, with
self-constituted authority, deported
fourteen of the leaders of the union to
some unknown place, though Marus
claims that they are aboard a schooner
off the coast somewhere.
Marus himself is one Of the commit
tee that is the governing body of the
union. He says that he missed depor-
tation with the others only because he
did not happen to be at the meeting at
which the others were captured. The
present plans of La Resistencia are, he
said, to get all of its members away
from Tampa and secure work for them
in other places. This will not be diff
cult, he says, because all of the mem
bers of the union are first-class work
men, and the services of such men are
in constant demand.
For the members of the party now
with him he says he has secured places
in New York factories, and also places
for forty or fifty more who will pass
through Savannah about the middle of
next week. How rapid is the work of
getting the members of the union out
of Tampa is shown, he continued, by
the fact that yesterday afternoon fifty
left for Key West and another party of
the same number for Havana. There
are now left in Tampa only about two
thousand, Just one-haf of the numer
that were there at the beginning of the
trouble.
The members are taken to other
places of work at the expense of the
union which, also, is at present feed
ing two meals a day to those now in
Tampa and out of work, and their fam
lilies, in all about 10000 persons
Marus told the story of the trouble
between the union and the manufac-
turerS, familiar to the readers of the
Morning News. He said, however, that
the reason the members of La Rests
tencia would not join the international
Union is because the members of the
first mentioned organization are all
first class workmen, makers of clear
Havana cigars, while the members of
the International are mostly Germans,
makers of the cheap grades of cigars
and tobacco cigarettes, and in conse-
quence receive smaller wages.
AS to what he thought the ultimate
outcome of the strike would be he said
that it is only a question of a few
weeks before the manufacturers would
come to the strikers terms, and that
then probably the greater number of
the workmen will go back to Tampa.
The majority of the merchants OF
Tampa, he said, are in favor of having
this result brought about, because the
absence of the members of La Resis-
tencia from the city means tremen-
dous loss of trade to them and hurts
the city in other ways.
So far as the action of those that de-
ported the leaders hurting the carry
ing out of the propaganda of the union,
he said, it amounts to nothing, for, for
every man taken away there are a
hundred ready to take his place. Be
sides, he said, and laughed, of the four
teen taken away only four or five were
members of the committee. Then he
continued, saying that only Monday
another member of the union, Alexan-
der Rodriguez, had been captured and
made away with, but that Rodriguez
was not member of the committee
either, and his only connection with
the union was that of foreman of the
weekly paper published by the union,
La Federation
Far from there being any trouble
about getting work, he said, not only
have the men individually and collec-
lively had offers from all over this
country and from Cuba, but even some
of the factories have had offers from
other cities asking that they be re-
moved to such places and offering
them all kinds of inducements to do so.
Members of La Resistencia going to
other cities will be we'll taken care of
for there are branches of the organiza-
ton in Key West, Havana, New York,
Brooklyn, Montreal, Detroit and Du-
luth. While these are not under any
one head, but are independent, they
nevertheless work in harmony with
each other.
Marus expects to return to Tampa
soon and bring away with him another
lot of the strikers.