Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-03-27
INDUSTRIAL PEACE
Samuel Gompers, President A. F. of
L., Presents Views of Laborers.
CIVIC FEDERATION SETTLES STRIKE
Reports From ottumwa Labor organi-
cations Indicate Great Prosperity
Federation Favors Remembrance
Against Anti-Injunction Bill.

[Th. matter published in this col.
umn is furnished by the officers of the
Federation of Labor.
| iFrom Wednesdays Daiy.J
| In the short space of time since it's
organization the National Civic Fed
Grafton has had but one case before it,
which it has settled to the satisfaction
touch with matters respecting the in
might be said that the Civic Fedora
ton is beginning to solve the much
mooted question of capital and labor
Speedy Settlement.
After a conference which lasted two
days, the National Civic Federation
settled the first strike that has been
submitted to it for adjustment.
The strike was that which has been
on for two years in two of the sixty
departments of the National Cash Reg
lister company, of Dayton, Ohio 1t has
been declared off, and the boycott vot-
ed against the company at the annual
meeting of the American Federation
of Labor, held at Scranton last Deem
Der, was also removed.
Had this action not been taken it is
said by labor leaders that the Dayton
company would have found itself in
volved in a general strike that would
not only have shut down it's works, but
would probably have affected many
other concerns.
Settlement Satisfactory.
The conference was attended by
PrpSihnnf of ho No
tional Cash Register company and
four other officials of that company;
President Lynch, of the strikers I'M
ion; Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation of Labor, and
Secretary R. NJ. Easeley, of the Ma
tional Civic Federation.
President Patterson agreed to union
ize the two departments on strike. His
company was officially declared fair
to all organized labor and to the gen.
eral public, and the conference in the
headquarters of the Civic Federation
adjourned in perfect harmony
Secretary Easeley said that the
highly satisfactory agreement had a
particular pleasing significance to or
. ganized labor in that it assured it of
the friendship and support of Mr.. Pat
terson.
Much to the satisfaction of the cap
italists and wage earners of the coun-
! try the National Civic Federation is
! taking up the strike of the iron trades
in San Francisco and will undoubted-
ly settle it along the same lines as the
difficulty with the National Cash Reg
lister Co.
San Francisco is one of the first cit
les to feel the benefit of the organiza-
ton of the National Civic Federation.
When the iron trades of San Francis
co found the conditions of their servi-
tude so unbearable that half starva-
ton was preferable to ten hours of
poorly paid toll, they offered to sub
nit their grievance to the arbitration
Of any disinterested persons. This
offer was contemptuously refused by
Henry T. Scott, manager of the Union
Iron Works, and courteously refused
by the managers of the Ridson Iron
!. Works, which two concerns, for some
unexplained reason. seemed to control
the actions of the other employers OF
labor in the iron trades. I'VE have
: nothing to arbitrate," said Henry T.
Scott. "If the men don't choose to
work for what We offer to pay them
and for as many hours as we demand
they can quit and we will put some
one else in their place"
Nearly ten months have passed since
Henry T. Scott made that statement
and he has not succeeded in getting
men to fill the places of the machin
lists, boilermakers and shipbuilders
that laid down their tools rather thar
work for less than fair wage. From
that day to this scarcely one stroke
of work has been done in the Union
, Iron Works on tn, government vessels
; being built there, and but little work
of any other kind has been satisfac
torily completed. But the Union Iror
, Works is corporation backed by mil
| lionaires, who have invested sums q
/ money ranging from a few thousands
to one hundred thousand. 1t has
made but little difference to then
whether they drew their dividend OF
not. But the National Civic Fedora
ton has determined that the matter
can be adjusted satisfactorily to all
hence, they have taken the matter il
hand and the men on strike expect &
satisfactory adjustment within foul
months.
For Industrial Peace.
Samuel Gompers, president of tn,
American Federation of Labor, in al
address delivered recently before civ
ic conference in New York declare,
the views of the laboring man witt
regard to industrial peace and spok
in part as follows:
"The whole struggle of the human
family has been to secure better con
dition for those who work. In the ear
ly history of man, when his tools O
labor were identical with his weapons
of offense and defense, the wars O
conquest went on, but those capture,
in battle were not retained by thei
conquerors; they were put to death.
1t was a marvellous advance that diff
ferentiated the weapon of war from
the tool of labor. The first step in thi
direction pointed the way to the fiji
thest and most effectual advance in thu
history and development and the pro
gress and civilization Of the human
family.
/ shall not attempt to trace the his
torical development of the workers
struggles for recognition of theil
rights, except to say this, that the
change went on from slave to serf. ant