The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-07
SARGENT STRIKE SETTLED
DIFFERENCES SMOOTHED OUT 1T
 4 CONFERENCE

Representing the Strikers Yesterday | NIsapprehonsion-Th Nlem Have Lost
 S5,OOO or S6,0OO in Wages Because of
 Lost Time.
 J. B. Sargent, president of Sargent & 1 Co.,, in an interview with a Journal and | Courier reporter last evening, stated | that the strike of Workmen at the com pany's factory had been settled and
 that some of the men would go to work
 this morning and the rest next Monday
 morning. He said that all would re-
 turn to work to-day except for the fact
 that there is always half holiday on 1 Saturday.
 committee of five men representing
 the strikers called upon MT. Sargent at | his office at 2:30 o'clock yesterday af- ! ternoon. MT. Sargent was busy at that | time getting out a cargo and told the committee that he would see them in an hour. At the end of that time they returned Three of the members of the committee were Sargent & Co.'S em- | ployes and the other two were men em- ployed elsewhere and representing the union.
 The committee had a small paper which they said contained a statement of their grievances but MT. Sargent said that he did not care about that but wanted to talk over with them what the strike was about, It seems that a man employed at the factory
 spoiled some work on which he was en-
 gagged and was charged for it. He ob-
 jected to paying for the spoiled work
 This trouble was carried to a man who represented the recently formed union, to which the strikers belong and he or dered the strike.
 This difficulty which was the cause of the strike was talked over with the committee by MT Sargent in a perfect ly friendly manner MT. Sargent in- sisted on the point that the man who spoiled the work must pay for it. The members of the committee acknowledg- ed that this was fair although they said that the man had not acted ma liciously or Intentionally in spelling the work. Then MT. Sargent requested that the man who spoiled the work and the man representing the union who had brought about the strike be brought before him. Of these two men the former had been employed by the firm two years and the latter fourteen years in an inferior position. MT. Sar- gent told the committee that the union man had overstepped bounds in making such a fuss about the little difficulty and the committee agreed that this was true.
 MT. Sargent told the committee that the company took no exceptions to unions and would employ men whether they belonged to the unions or not They would make no distinction against a union man He thought that the unions were behaving better now than formerly when they were much more arbitrary.
 The two men went before MT Sar- gent as he had requested and he eX- postulated with the union man who had fomented the strike. He told the other that if he had gone with his grievance to his foreman the matter would have been brought to MT Sargent's attention and further difficulty probably avoided.
 Finally the man who had spoiled the work agreed to pay for it and all shook hands and said that the men would re- turn to work.
 The published reports that the team sters and workmen in other branches | of labor at the factory had taken up | the quarrel of the strikers are untrue. | A few of the teamsters did quit work, | not because they wanted to but because | they feared bodily harm if they stayed | at work Some of the men who struck | quit work with tears in their eyes but | struck because they feared abuse from | their fellow workmen if they remained | The teamsters and other ordinary la borers will go to work again to-day and the rest Monday.
 It now appears that the whole strike was due to a misapprehension and to l union man exceeding his authority. 1t is estimated that the strike cost the men S5, 900 in wages lost because of lost ime,
 The man whose disinclination to pay Or spoiled work started the difficulty | md the other union man who coun- ;elled and ordered a strike will go back Q work and things will go on now, it S expected, as though no strike had oc- ,urrad