The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-05

TORTY or more journeymen plumb
ID ers will strike today unless Mas
Il ter Plumbers H. c. Brown and
Sullivan accede to their demands
and discharge from their employ four
plumbers who arrived on the steamship
Sonoma last week from Seattle. via
San Francisco. The uItimatum was
sent forth from the headquarters of
the journeymen plumbers association.
The threat is not an empty one, and
either the master plumbers or the jour-
lneymen must recede from their position
by o'clock this morning or the strike
! will be declared on.
The four plumbers are employed by
Brown and Sullivan. They are men Of
/ families, sober, industrious and excel
lent workmen and worthy of their
daily wages. The master plumbers
+ state emphatically that the journeymen
plumbers association is controlled by
number of men who are not skilled
workmen, but who have in some unac-
countable manner secured the ascend
ancy in the councils of the association
and at present rule the roost." These
men, it is claimed, are at the bottom
of the present impending trouble.
Careless workmen themselves, they are
now endeavoring by Illegal methods to
prevent the employment of skilled men
lin their line Of business by overt acts
], OF conspiracy which bring them be-
1 meath the thpmb-af the law.
! During the days of the plumbing
trust the journeymen,s in endeavoring.
ito prevent newcomers from joining the
union increased the initiation fee from
SO to $25. Since the four workmen
from Seattle arrived the initiation fee
1 has gone up to $50. Unless the men
pay this extortionate fee they will be
prohibited from obtaining membership
I in the local union and thus unable to
secure employment. The men. who
were brought here from the Coast by
their present employers, say that the
/ fee is extortionate and requested only
in the hope that it will prevent them
from joining. All four are members in
good standing in the Seattle union and
as such entitled to entrance into the
local union Notice has been served on
Messrs. Brown and Sullivan that the
men must pay the fee or quit their en-
lploy If that is not done then the en-
tire union body of plumbers will walk
out of the shops and declare a boy
lcott.
IC. Brown. 'I brought these men. Nc
/ Coy, Judd, O'Brien and one other whose
name I forget just now, and put them
Ito work at once. They are union men,
have their Seattle union cards with
i them are sober, industrious men, in
itelligent, and yet they are set upon by
birds of prey the moment they arrive,
who have entered into a conspiracy to
prevent them from working. What is
the reason? They don't want them to
come into this field and compete with
them. It is a dog in the manger policy,
land they will pursue it until they are
emphatically called down.
Here are two of the mems chests
: right here in my shop. They are full
of tools and very few of these jour-
neymen in town have any tools of their
lown. It's an outrage. and I mean to
stand by my guns and keep my men,
In order to make war upon these four
, men and Sullivan's and my establish-
ment they intend to drag the entire
Ijourneymen and master plumbers or
: ganizations into the fight. have con-
suited Col. Baird, the United States
District Attorney, and he tells me thai
such action as the association contem-
= pilates is against the law, being in re-
straint of trade That being the case
u the men are criminally liable and the
r offense is actionable. These men have
q their families with them. The initia
> tion fee has been raised to an extor
! tionate figure simply to keep the mel
out"
: ATTORNEY BAIRD FIRM
United States District Attorney Bairt
takes a decided stand and says: &c
have instructions from the Unite'
States Attorney General in regard t
trusts or other combinations in re
lstraint of trade, and the contemplate,
+ act of the journeymen is within tn
: lscope of my instructions. If they com
6 NIT any overt act, such as has bee
: reported to me today, I will procee
!, against them, as under the Unite
States statutes they are committing
), rnisdemeanor. For instance, I can ge
+ at them by injunction. Take sectio
8 of the statutes under which proceed
q ed against the plumbing trust a fey
months ago. The rule is applicable i
n this case and the Anti-monopoly &C
: lapphes because this is one of the form
4 of conspiracy treated of, that is, tha
an. nrr1 o