Waterbury Democrat., 1903-01-21

ne SCrlkorS executive COIHIulItSc issued the following statement this af- ternoon at o'clock:
 Eleventh day of our strike, every man answering roll call and as firm as at the start, two conferences be-
 tween Manager Sewell and the strik- CTS and the situation practically the same as it was week ago, briefly ex- plains the condition of affairs at this writing.
 "In order to test the truth of ru- mors that were flying thick and fast yesterday of some of our men weak ening, acting the role of traitors, etc, we took crucial test at yesterday af- ternoon's meeting. Each man was informed of the rumors. Then it
 was explained to them that test would be made in the way of a secret
 ballot. Typewriter ballots bearing ives" and "no'' on them were handed
 to each man. He was clearly inform ed that if he felt, that it was policy to 1 accept the proposition of the company
 to take the men back at the old scale and start working again today, he
 was to vote mo-" which meant that the struggle was not to be continued.
 If, on the other hand. he desired to stand on the issue on which the strike
 was called, he could vote "yes,' mean ing that the struggle was to be fought out to finish on those lines. Tn or 1 order to make it impossible to have one man able to discover how another voted, each man as he ented left the meeting room and came back into it through9a q corridor, depositing his ball. l lot. into the hat. of Secretary Ryan, a disinterested person as he again en-
 tered the hall. Out of the 80 strik- l CTS, B were present. the other seven being accounted for either by being on l picket duty or being absent for cause. The result of the count showed the en- tire 73 votes cast ives" The result ] was received amid the greatest en- thusiasm There was no further need | of paying attention to the rumor that half of the men, or more, were ready and willing to go back at the old scale. l "The strikers committee of three
 ret Manager Sewell again at o'clock yesterday afternoon. About the only
 action at that time was the taking of
 an adjournment until 10 o'clock last
 night when, at Manager Sewell's re-
 quest, the committee brought with them seven more of the strikers. At the agreed time this committee of ten 1 met Manager SewelI at the Y. M. C.. A. After lengthy discussion of the situation, Manager Sewell came out point blank and stated that he would
 not recognize the union. He would agree to take the old men back, pro- vided they made personal applications through him. The conference closed
 with no understanding by either side
 that another would be held later. At the meeting this morning the commit.
 tee submitted it's report, which was accepted. The proposition of Manager
 Sewell was unanimously rejected. At the present time things are just as
 they were when the strike started. we asked Manager Sewell if he l would agree to a conference with MT Barrett, before a committee of ten of his old employees. After considerable thought he agreed to such a confer
 ence with MT Barrett before two of the men. Afterwards, however Ii.
 asked the object of such conference,
 and when informed that it was for
 the purpose of clearing up some pub
 lie statements credited to him con-
 corning Mir Barrett, he became very
 nervous and decided to let the matter
 rest until he had seen the articles re-
 ferred to. When asked if he would
 allow MT Barrett's case to be left to
 an arbitration committee of three re- putable citizens, one to be selected by each side and these two to choose the
 third, he refused and stated There
 is nothing to arbitrate'
 "The large amount of work on our hands has prevented Us before now from taking exception to portions of the public letter printed in Mondays pa pers from Senator Tracy. By the way. we noticed this morning that in the senate yesterday Senator Tracy pre- sented the application of the Connecti- cut Railway and Lighting Go to extend its lines in Waterbury. But to get back to the senator's public letter.
 which has evoked the endorsement of J. H. Whittemore, the wealthy manu- facturer of Union City. Senator Tracy has either not been reading the papers recently or if he has, failed to read our side of the matter. He says the ques- tions concerning the charges brought
 against some of our men '.are all sus-
 ceptible of positive proof and that
 without a single days delay.' His point is what we have urged from the Il.
 We want a public arbitration commit
 tee to hear both sides at public hear
 ing, and if we are wrong we will take
 the consequences. If not. we expect
 the other side to take their medicine senator. Tracy can have the cars run
 ming tomorrow if he can bring suffi-
 cient pressure to bring about just what
 he suggests. We have been clamoring for that very thing from the start. It
 is now up to the worthy senator to
 make good. Further on in his open letter Senator Tracy does us an injus- tice when he intimates that we have
 during the past week "championed' the side of wrong-doing or semploved [ some of the disgracefrl methods used' We hardly feel it necessary to make a vigorous denial of this. Our mems conduct since the strike speaks for itself. Senator Tracy surely must have