The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-28
THE NEWS OF MOBILE.
CONCEPTION STREET FRAN
 CHISE IS DISCUSSED.
Not Known By Whom it Will Be Obtained, as 1t Will Go to the Company Which Bids
 Highest.
Advertiser Bureau,


 The action of the General Council las, night in granting permit for an electric street railway company franchise or Conception Street was talked of on the streets today to a considerable extent The Board of Public Works had narrowed the street in order to come within tho pale of the charter in the matter of put. ting in street Improvements and the street, from curb to curb, as 1t now is measures but twenty-four feet. The at. torney for the citizens residing on the street who opposed the granting of a franchise argued before the special com mittee and last night before the Counci that with car track in the center of ths street a dray could not possibly pass s car in that street. He also urged that thirty of the forty-one residence owners in the district contended for had signed a petition to the committee not to allow car line on that street. It was con, ceded by many that an opposition line would not hurt the city, despite the argu. ment of President J. Howard Wilson O. the Mobile Light and Railroad Company
 By the action of the General Council last night in approving the ordinance submitted by the special committee the Council now stands ready to receive bids for the franchise. Who will get the rran- chise remains to be seen as it win be given to the best bidder.
 The strike of the longshoremen is vir- tually unchanged, neither side as yet having made any concession. The steve dores are making satisfactory progress In handling vessels in port, the new hands becoming accustomed to the work more readily than was at first hoped for. La- Dor, it is stated by stevedores. Is becom- ing daily y,la f.tr nd shoremen are ignored accordingly. Am other phase of the strike appeared to- day when negroes who for years have been making good wages in unloading grain and groceries from side tracks in Commerce street into the warehouses of merchants and grist mills. began drop ping away from work until late in the afternoon there was a marked scarcity of this class of labor. Merchants and mill men stated they had received no complaint or demand for increase of wages from these laborers who work al- together by contract per car, and the first intimation of the laying of of the negroes was obtained from a few faith full employees who said that these ne- groee were being organized into a union to strike in sympathy with the long, shorernen. The expected strike of negro draymen failed to materialize though 1t
  or reviving their former association.
 The first trouble of the strike occur red at 10 o'clock tonight at the Mobile and Ohio upper-docks. A tall negro with a Winchester leading a mob of about fifty negroes, went to the dock gate, here they were met by John D. Hagan. in charge. He asked the negro what was wanted. but received no reply. The lead CT. however. turned to his gang and said tsfN0NsAn 0vaV loading at the upper berth and this was the objective point of the leader. Ha- gan told him that the wharf was lined with officers and 1t would be death for him and his followers to go inside the gate. The leader brushed by and called to the negroes to follow, but they hung back. Hagan called to some one in the office to call up police headquarters, whereupon the gang broke for the swamp. back of the elevator.
 Lieutenant Rondeau at police headouar- ters, receiving news of the trouble, sor- dered out the patrol wagon and gather ing up the station detail and other of- ficers on the way to the docks. hurried there, but on arrival found everything quiet, the negroes having dispersed. go- ing in the direction of the orange grove district, where many of the strikers live.
 Lieutenant Rondeau. with his detail, made a round of the district in the neighborhood of the docks. but found no suspicious negroes At 11:15 o'clock he left a special detail at the docks. and with the others of his squad. made a round in the grove. Special Ohlcer Hoyle of the Mobile and Ohio. arrived here at Il: with a squad of negroes from up the Southern Railway to work on the docks.