The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-27

deviltry turned loose on him II he had.
with probably strike 70 cap the climax:
The rules laid down by tho unions Tor
their employers became d more ov and Ssva more
apprentice to every four men. Further
more, union plumbers systematically re-
fused to teach apprentices the mysteries OF
their craft.
II boss plumber worked on lob him
self. he was not permitted to have more
If he had two or more the JOB was done too
quickly. Delay. above all things, was the
union motto. No plumber employee was
permitted to 60 TO a Job on bicycle. He
got there too soon. 1t might be an emer-
gency job. A fine house might be in danger
OF being flooded with water. That made
no difference. The plumber must walk
II his employer gave him car fare he might
take a car-not the first car that came,
but the second.
Then each h shop must have aye S,s Union
was to see to il that no man worked In It
unless he had union card. He must see
to it. too, that the union rules In all par
ticulars were lived up to by the union men
In the shop. It took anywhere from a
look after this union business. Union
rules are sometimes complicated. hut the
boss must pay the steward for full days
time every day.
Then again there was an ironclad union
rule which prohibited any member OF a
union from belonging TO the National Guard.
Probably there was none of the union exao-
tons which reused more popular indigna-
ton outside OF the long suffering master
builder circles than did this one. Jersey
men are proud Of the National Guard,
and this attack on it created general
attention to the union tyranny, OF which
heretofore only those who Immediately
suffered from it had complained.
1t was then discovered that money was
being driven away from the town by the
insolerable labor conditions. One block
OF seventeen houses was planned and
abandoned because Of union exactions.
Houses costing many thousands of dollars
were held up and half finished and de-
teriorating for months. standing monu-
ments to the uncertainties which any
body who contemplated building in Mont
clair must face. furthermore. union ex-
actions were running the cost OF buildings
TO such figures as were in many cases pro-
hbitory
Montclair, from being on the crest OF
wave of progress and prosperity. began
to drift toward slump-toward actual
retrogression.
These things created the public senti.
ment at last which fully supported and still
supports the master builders In their re-
volt and in their stand for Independence.
ne CRASH CHUle WIN slIhc VI
carriers for $3.50 per day, bod carriers in
every other city in New Jersey getting
81. 10 per day. Even at this the worm did
not at first turn. The master builders
proposed arbitration. The hod carriers
accepted the proposition in this unique
letter:
LABoREEs PROTECTIVE UNION No. |.
MoNrCLAIR. n. j., June o. 1904, J
To INC Mdster Mdsons' Association, Mont
clair, ". 1.-The offer contained IN COM
%SsdSs %r dse Cd yun 5e se Sssf
the offer of 81. so a day and the choice Of
referee. said referee to be instructed TO grant
decision Of 81 so day IN favor Of the laborer,
we. the )aborers Of No. Laborers Union
do hereby accept said offer.
JOHN MCKEE, President.
PETER kEIGHKR, Financial Secretary
This, being interpreted, meant that the
hod carriers consented to arbitrate, their
sole condition being that the arbitrator
be instructed to find for their side OF the
case.
But even at that the efforts to arbitrate
did not end. A COMMITTEES for the unions
asked President Carter of the Montclair
Trust Company to act for them, and he
consented. At the time and place APP
pointed Mr.. Carter and the master builders
waited from 2 o'clock In the afternoon until
5 o'clock for the union committee to appear
II did not appear, but, at the hour last
sent a note declining to submit
to arbitration.
That broke the patient donkey's back.
There had been twenty strikes In three
years Things could not be much worse
The long suffering builders at last dis
covered that they had backbone. The
result is that now they at last are free and
that Montclaiir is going ahead once more