The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-04-26
STRIKE IS STILL ON
TUG FIREMEN MAKE 1T DECIDEDI.Y Y
INTERESTING FOR TUG TRUST.
en-Return to work on the Eve
OF Victory-Peculiar Special
Meeting Attended by but a Few
Regular Meeting AbandOned-
Tug Firemen Induce Men to Quit.

The tug firemen's strike has assumed
great proportions. Nearly every tug
fireman and lineman along the chain
OF lakes In the employ of the tug trust
went out this week in sympathy with
the Duluth firemen. The firemen have
met the trust on the community of
Interest" plan of organization. The
trust was afraid to grant decent wages
to the Duluth fremen, not because
they were not entitled to it, butt simply
for fear that the men down the lakes
would ask for the same rate of wages,
The boys in Duluth had the strike
about won, when the engineers and
captains lost their nerve and returned
to work, hiring whoever they could
get as firemen. They We're fairly
successful getting men Thursday, but
on Friday the union succeeded in in
ducing the non-union men to quit, and
as soon as they would come off new
men were hired.
The firemen have not lost hope.
Whatever is done in Duluth will make
little difference. The support that
they get down below will offset the
harm that is done here.
the actions of the engineers and cap
tains. The firemen had all the time
banked on their support to the end.
Last year when the strike was on, the
firemen were true to a man. They
would have refused to go to work with
a non-union man, but this year when
the tables were turned the engineers
have not proved as true as the fire.
men.
Thursday a few of them got to-
gether and agreed to go to work. It
was supposed to be a special meeting
of the union, although it was irreg-
ularily called. The regular meeting
was to occur on that evening, but they
could not wait for that, and somehow
the regular meeting failed to materi-
alize
All Of the engineers cannot be blamed
for this occurance. for the action of
one or two would be enough to dis
courage others. Talk about the solid
arity of labor. 1t completely failed in
this case. Some day the engineers and
captains may want the support of the
firemen. They little realize that they
are now making men who may some
day take their places under like cir
cumstances.
Have the firemen got a grievance?
They say that they ought to be satis-
f<d with the raise they have got in
the last few years. The men who fire
the tugs, are some of them in the same
condition as the engineers, and have
the same domestic conditions to con-
tend with. With this in mind is $4,000
per month too much to ask for?
1t is true that the tug trust was will
ing to compromise, but there was a
string to even the compromise, that
to accept 1t would not be honorable
for any body of men.
1t is to be deplored that the licensed
men who have weakened in sight of
victory have not yet learned the value
of federation. What is one laborers
cause is another's, and the sooner they
learn this, the quicker will they find
out where their strength is.
If labor can not stick together in
this terrible stru6s ie for better con-
ditions and higher wages, how can
they expect to ever have peace in their
own household? The tug companies
constituting the tug trust have learned
the lesson of organization. When will
labor learn it?
1t makes little difference to the tug
trust whether the captains, the engi-
neers or the firemen are on strike it
knows how to act in the premises, but
labor. jealous labor, weak labor seems
almost too selfish to grasp a favorable
situation.