Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-06-20
THE EMPLOYERS UNION
An Attempt to Meet Organized
Labor on Even Terms.
WILL TRY TO MAKE IT NATIONAL

Several Cities Already Moving
Building Contractors Taking the
Lead-Not So Radical and Violent
as Parry-What Union Labor Thinks
About 1t.
Following on the heels of the annua,
meeting Of the National Manufacture
ers' association, at which President D.
M. Parry declared war upon organized
labor, come organization and rumors
of organization of employers. particll-
larly in the building trades. Mr.. Parry
has been upon the stump, so to speak, I;
great part of his time since the New
Orleans meeting of the Manufacturers
association, and his attacks upon labor
unions have been so violent as to call
forth comment, mostly unfuvOrable.
from labor men, editors and public
men in ali parts of the country. Eut
Mr.. Parry has not been left to fight
alone. Some other employers have
Joined him in radical denunciations Of
the labor unions. In one city-Omaha
an organization of employers has
been formed upon lines indicating
sympathy with the Parry programme
Of a war of annihilation upon labor
unions. But. while the employers Of
the country generally appear to be at
tackled by the fever of organization,
there is a disposition upon the part Of
the majority to approach, or to appear
to approach, the matter in a quiet and
conservative manner.
AS has been said, the organization
movement has taken its greatest i'm
petus among the employers in the
building industry. This may be ac-
counted for on the ground that this
spring there have been an unusual
number of strikes in the building trades
and disagreements which interfered
with the expeditions and satisfactory
filling of building contracts.
While other cities have had their
troubles and while out of those trou-
bles has grown a desire for organiza-
ton among the employing builders.
New York has taken the lead and has
attracted widest attention because Of
the large interests, both in money and
men, involved in the building industry
In the greater city. The large tie up Of
building work in New York occasioned
by the conflict between the United
Brotherhood Of Carpenters and Joiners
and the Amalgamated Association Of
Carpenters was, according to one Of
the leading builders of the city, the
last straw. and the movement to organ
1ze the employers in the building indus
try was hardly suggested before it had
the hearty approval of nearly all of the
contractors in Greater New York.
There has not, however, been the same
unanimity over the form of .organiza-
lion that is desirable. and there are
nearly as many notions of what should
be the proper aims of such an associa.
ton as there are employers in the build
ing industry in New York.
4 q At the first meeting in New York, at
which it was stated that the hope was
To perfect an organization that would
be copied by the employers of the other
cities Of the country, letter congratu-
Iating the New Yorkers on their stand
and urging them to action came from
the Building Contractors council OF
chicago Another was from the Build
ers, league of Pittsburg. There was a
telegram from the Philadelphia build
ers 1.-THE rest Of the messages. which
made pile Of paper big enough to fill
/ 4 peck basket according to q local