The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-11
PETITION TO GUST MIR. IVES
(Coutinued from First Page.)

to the controversy without q hearng. i continuance of Mr. Ives membership on the board would shake the confidence heretofore held by the public in the im- partiality of that tribunal. and would absolutely destroy it's usefulness as a mediator. beg, therefore, as a citizen, interested solely in securing for state law and state boards the fullest meas ure Of respect and public confidence, to i thus bring to your notice the alleged statements Of the arbitrator heretofore named, with the request that speedy in- vestigation of the matter be made, and that should it appear to your excellency that MT. Ives has given expression un- der the existing circumstances to the words above quoted, his resignation be immediately requested.
 I have the honor to be,
 Very respectfully yours, James F. Bree. The following is the Meriden papers report of the most important parts of Mr Ives statement:
 My sympathies are entirely with the company. The men have absolutely no grievance whatsoever. As understand it, and the members of the board looked 1 into the matter thoroughly, the com pany discharged some men who spent 1 their time for which the company was paying. in electioneering and trying to help along union affairs. The company officials say that they were perfectly willing that man should do this kind of work on Sundays and nights in the
 week, but they objected to it in busi- ness hours.
 When the strikers representatives l spoke they said that the men had been discharged because they belonged to the union, but I am satisfied that this is not
 so. The trouble was that the men while on duty went into saloons and such places, electioneering for their union.' 1 When MT. Ives was told that the gen. eral impression among Meriden people
 was that the road people were at fault, and that the strikers were in the right, he said that he recognized the fact that the opinion had become current, but
 that so far as he could learn there was absolutely no foundation for it. He 1 added:
 What would the people of this city say if their car lines were tied up? Do you think that they would be in favor of those who had stopped the electric car traffic? I hardly think so and es- pecially when it is considered that the men who did it did not have any real grievance. There was no complaint be- cause they did not receive enough
 money, or that their time was too long. Neither did they object to the treat ment which they received.
 '"Ehey wished as they say, that their union be recognized. It seems to me as
 though they were asking that every
 man on the road be a Catholic or a Protestant, or they would not work
 with him. There are other members of
 the board who are disgusted with the actions of the strikers. They do not
 think that they have an atom of justice 1 on their sde. One of them, who is a strong labor man, told me himself that he was disgusted with the whole busi- ness, and especially the part in which the strikers were engaged.
 'The merchants and the people are not in sympathy with the strikers. but rather many of them believe that their actions were much too nasty, and then again that they did not have sff1ucient
 cause to strike They did not consider i the terrible consequences of a prolonged
 railroad strike, and fear that that is
 what will ensue. Neither side will &C., cept the others conditions"