Waterbury Democrat., 1902-06-09
WAITING FULToN's DECISION.
Machinists Hold Sunday Morning Meet
 ing-An Interesting Address.

| Sunday meeting in tranco-American hall, Bank street, yesterday morning, there being large attendance, too large, in fact, for the accommoda- I tions of the hall. After the reports of the committees. the appointment of a committee to wait on William D. Fulton on his return, and the transac- tlon of other minor business, Isaac CoWan, organizer for the Amalgamted Society of Engineers and Machinists, was introduced and addressed the meeting. He spoke for an hour and a half and could his remarks have been heard by every employer and employe in Waterbury, the nine-hour day and other grievances would have been nearer solution than is at pres ent the case
 In starting, Mir Cowan stated that he was here a year ago during the machin1sts' strike. While the ob- jects desired were not in all cases ac- complished throughout the country by that strike, it was q victory in one sense, in that it showed desire on the part of the men to better their condition financially and otherwise.
 
 country he had never seen men stand together to gain q point as they did for the nine-hour day. This itself was victory in one sense, had noth- ing else been gained, but in many places the shorter work-day and oth- CT concessions were granted. He said that ill q bill of complaint of ten years ago if nine points were granted the victory would not be as great as if two points out of ten were secured to-day, as at that time they were dealing with individual employers and to-day with collective bodies in stead.
 In referring to his society he stated that in the 51 years of it's existence 1t had paid benefits of S32. GOO GOO. distributed throughout nearly the on tire civilized globe. At present they han on hand a fund of S2.521. .OO0. The receipts from dues amounted to S335 ooo weekly, of which S20,000 was paid out 1n benefits and $3.0OO in cl1rrent expenses, leaving $12,00O surplus week " to be used in time of need. The organization had had many battles many justifiable and q few. not-as they were not angels and like others did make mistakes, but in the main they had been in the right and been successful. The finances of the or salllzatlon are so arranged that the amount per capita is the same with edch branch If, for instance, Wa tefpury, New Haven and Hartford each had q branch of 100 members with S1,OO0, $1.5O0 and S2,OOO in their respective treasuries, the average per man would be S15, Waterbury being but $1O and Hartford $2O. The Harf. Iord branch would be called upon to turn over 5000 to Waterbury to make the average right. Only last week So,OO0 was received from England to bring the United States branches nm to where they belonged.
 The Amalgamated Society. be Said did not believe in strikes. excent xvba,, all other means failed. No officer could order them. and they were only brought about by a secret ballot of the members, a three-fifths vote beino necessary for such action. By tho secret vote men had time to consider what they were doing and did differ ently from what they would at times when under great enthusiasm. on the impulse of the moment. He mucb preferred the word request" to de .mand. If conference was had and some point reached on which it seem ed impossible to agree, lay it aside for the time and pass on to the next. Tn this manner the employer would learn that they were trying to see how near they could come together in stead of how far apart they could ret and the result, in the end. would in many cases prove that they could ioin hands. The employers had to nur- chase labor and the men had it to sell and # proper mems were taken the employer would see that it was more advantageous to keep his .own than to secure others. No organization had the right to call men out and leave them on the street to starye. and if, they did so the men were justified in deserting that body.
 While the amalgamation of machin- lsts, engineers, pattern makers. elec- trlcal engineers, blacksmiths and Ina other kindred trades was deemed tho proper way, autonomy within the a1nalgamation was carried ont Az an example of the successful workino of this plan he pointed to the Interna- tional Typographical union with it's mailers, typefounders. stereotypers, newspaper writers and compositors. each with it's own separ- ate union, but all under one head and working together harmoniously.
 1t was saia that the AmaIgamated l society was of English origin. True. it was, but the place of birth of an organization had no more to do with 1 it's usefulness than with man. Cap ital was now international and why | should not labor be? Westinghouse. Hoe, Maxim and others had their fac- tories both here and in England and in England would treat with labor or ganizations and here would not. By making these organizations as thor oughly international as was capital | the same recognition would be accord | ed in one place as another
 A point that had been brought | against this society was that it was expensive. The laboring men could | not get something for nothing-Mor- gan, Rockefeller and those of that ilk were the only ones who could do that. E He illustrated how a man who was q member for 9 years would draw out more from the pension funa in six than all he had paid in would amount l to- Savings hanks and homnc xvo,.o 1