Evening star., 1901-05-17
LABOR CONFERENCE HELD
NATIONAL ORGANtzERs IN TOUCH
WITH STRIKE MANAGERS.
international Machinfsts Preparing
"
for the Event 81 May 2e-The
Condition.. a.cu..ed.

-Four OF the national organizers of the In
ternational Association of Machinists ar
rived in this city today from various parts
OF the country. These men are perfectly
familiar with local conditions in their re-
spectlVe territory, and will remain here u,l-
til May 70, the date the strike goes into ef-
rect. to be In close touch with national
headquarters. A preliminary conference
was at once held with President O'Connell,
ana an extended consultation will be had
this afternoon.
Ihese organizers are ]. J. Connally of
Boston, Hugh Doran Of Chicago, P. ]. Colon
or Sioux City, Iowa, and A. w. Holmes Of
toronto, Canada. From statements made
t@ ny tn these gentlemen it develops that the
places where the most trouble Is expected
are Cincinnati, San Francisco and the
northern Pacific coast cities.
Speaking for the New England states Mr..
The feeling in New England is that there
will be very little trouble If any. Most of
the employing firms have already signified
their intention of granting the shorter work
day together with the increase of wages
asked for. OF course, we are admirably
organized. Only last week we organized a
splendid lodge at Holyoke, Mass, and the
organization of another is completed in
Manchester, N. H. This practically makes
the New England states solid. In Boston
the majority of the employers have signed
the nine-hour agreement. Under the pres
ent conditions there will not be more than
five or six hundred men on strike In Bos-
ton on the Goth"
Five Hundred in Chicago.
Mr.. Doran says there will not be over 500
men go on strike in Chicago, whereas the
number would have been between four and
five thousand if the employing firms had
not signif1ed their Willingness to grant the
plished one great thing for the men in
Chicago" continued Mr.. Doran. The
trouble with the Illinois Central Railroad
Company has been adjusted, and uniform
rate of 20 cents an hour made throughout
the system for machinists and an increase
of per cent made in the wages of all other
shop employees. We anticipate no trouble in
enforcing the nine-hour day.
Mr.. Colon has just completed tour of
the west and south II have just completed
the organization of the lodges on the South
ern railway system into one district, said
he in discussing the outlook.
"PreviOuS to this l spent some time in
Cincinnati. I believe we are going to have
a fight in this city. The employers have a
local orga anization in Cincinnati, and they
seem to have extreme objects. However,
We succeeded in signing up seven firms
there in the last week which may cause
them to stampede to the nfne-hOur agree
ment. The Union iron works and the Full
ton iron works in San Francisco will
doubtless resist the demands of labor In
Seattle, Wash, the committee which pre-
sented the nine-hour demand was dis
charged, and a strike is on there now
This order also goes into effect in Honolulu,
where both the men and the empl oyers
are organized" =
Speaks for Canada.
Mr.. Holmes Of Toronto. Canada was
rather sportive with his brother organizers
"In Canada We are ahead of the United
States in the matter of hours. although the
same order goes into effect there as here.
Probably not over two thousand men will
go out. feature of our system has
been that We have had the Saturday half
holiday for the past fifteen years, and to
go to a straight nine-hOur day will not
make much difference in the time of the
whole week The wage demand is the same
there as here, and / believe the men will
win without a protracted struggle"
The firms in Norfolk, Va, signed the
nine-hour agreement today as did those in
Danville, Conn. President O'Connell says
today that there will be strike on the
Goth. but that each day the number of men
that will be involved grows less. At least
% per cent Of the employers of the coun-
try have now signed the agreement for a
nine-hour day. President O'Connell says
an erroneous report has been printed in
some sections of the country that new
general order had been issued. This he
positively denies.
President O'Connell has received unoffi-
cial information that a number of firms
citation of Chicago and Cleveland, had pro-
posed to their men that the question be
arbitrated, and that pending this arbitra-
tiOn there should be no strike.