Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-24

I The committee of ministers compos.
 Immaculate Conception parish, pr
 Anderson, pastor of the First Congre- ga tiona1 church, and Rev MT Stock dale. pastor of the First Methodist
 church, spent the greater part of the ] day hearing the statements of the trolley company and the men with view to getting the matter in shape so that they may be able to see what can be done towards settling the differ ence. The committee heard the com panys side of the case from General
 Manager sewell at the Waterbury club
 where the whole matter was talked over and questions asked by the com
 mittee and answered by the company's representative. Later they met the strikers' committee in the mayors of fee and heard what each had to say 1 in support of the vote passed two I weeks ago ordering a strike of all
 motormen and conductors. It was close onto o'clock when the hearing closed in the mayors office and as the three ministers walked out of the hall nobody not aware of what was going on would have suspected that | they had anything unusual on hand.
 They acted as if they were chatting
 about the weather or some other con-
 mon-place topic and by so doing got past the crowd that happened to be
 standing on the City hall steps without
 attracting any attention. They will get together tonight and probably will also give the evidence some attention tomorrow so as to be able to give the
 public an expression of opinion on l the question Monday. If the commit l tee decides that the men are in the l wrong that will end the strike and if
 on the other hand they find that the company has not been treating the
 help fairly the snarl will be very apt to
 be strengthened out, too, for it is but fair to assume that the public will abide by whatever this committee re-
 commends, even though that might mean long walk. a } .-r! .- '. I E R. c. Tessier, who was mentioned as being oneof those union men who pa- tronizes the cars, says 1t is not so, that he hasn't rode on the cars.
 An East Main street grocer is said to have lost about thirty customers be- cause his wife has been riding on the trolley cars during the strike
 A lady who had, just arrived from train at the Dublin street station, stopped in store in the east end yes terday and asked the proprietor if she could wait there for the trolley car.
 He politely told her that his store was not waiting station for the troll ley company while the strike was on.
 The Plumbers union, Local 43, met last night and indorsed the strike of the motormen and conductors of the trolley company. They also voted to assess each member fifteen cents per week for the purpose of carrying on the fight A lump sum was appropri- ated to make up the unions fifteen cents per capita to the strike fund for the past two weeks. It was also vot- ed to fine any member convicted of patronizing the cars during the strike the sum of $25 for the first offense and $50 if he comes up again.
 Judge Peasley said to-day that in day or two he will draw up law to be passed by the legislature for arb1-, tration in strikes. There is an arbi- tration law on the statute books at present, but it is not compulsory. Either side to a strike may call upon the state arbitration board, but the other side Is not compelled to present its side of the dispute, nor submit to the decision of the board. Judge Peasley's law will wipe out these vol untary features and insert ones that will make both sides submit to arbi- tration. He said it is not fair that the public should be inconvenienced as it has been during the past two weeks. In the present strike the opinion of the public seems t6 be that the trolley company is in fault in this respect. Several times the strikers have volun- teered to have the dispute arbitrated, but the company. so far has not con- sented to any of the proposals.