Evening star., 1904-03-16
SEABOARD AIR LINE RY
LEAVE PE;yNA R. r. STATION
WAGE DECISIVE CONTEST.
Open Shop Question the Gauntlet tt
Cause Desperate Struggle.

cause desperate struggle.
A dispatch from New York last night
says:
The ultimatum that will precpitate a
life and death struggle between the en-
ployers' organization and the building trade
unions may come now any day. Both sides
realize the exact situation and both will
fight to the end, for. clothed and disguised
by other causes, the gauntlet will be the
open shop.
Another tie-up of the building trades.
more serious in its consequences than that
OF last summer. will follow the declaration
of war. Then the employers were in more
or less of a temporiZing mood They were
eager to resume work and were willing to
recognize the unions and to pledge them
selves to employ only union men.
Now. if they find themselves unable to
maintain peaceful relations with their
workmen under the arbitration plan they
are ready to throw trades unionism to the
winds and declare the open shop policy.
Both sides are quietly preparing for the
battle.
More than one thousand iron workers
joined the bricklayers and laborers in idle
ness at noon yesterday. These men were
compelled to quit work because of the fail
ure of the bricklayers and masons to keep
their part of the work in motion and their
sympathes are all with the strikers. Be-
ing bound by the arbitration plan they can
HOl OlHcIdily ldke part III d SyIUDdtn6tiC
strike without involving every other trade
in an open fight that would mean general
strike or lockout.
The employers have fixed March 49, as
the date for the meeting of their arbitra-
ton board to take UP the laborer's de-
mand, but as they have made the condi-
ton that the laborerS must resume work
pending arbitration, little can be accom-
plished unless the men go to work before
the date of the meeting. The men say
they will not do that. They declare that
the employers have broken the arbitration
agreement and are not to be trusted again.
They demand absolute recognition of their
union, an eight-hour day and double pay
for all overtime.
Circulars were being distributed broad
cast yesterday among the unions by lead
ers warning the men to prepare to make a
determined fight against the open shop.
These circulars contained copies of letters
that have been sent out by the National
Association of Manufacturers of the
United States and America, which in
cludes employers associations in every
branch of manufacturing and is said to be
making national campaign in favor of
the open shop. Some of the letters urge
each local association to bring pressure
10 bear ntheir senators to oppose the
Gompers eight-hour bill, which has several
times passed the lower house.
Employers in New York city say the
open shop policy is the only course left
open to them. They have tried in vain to
deal exclusively with the unions they saw
and now they will try the experiment of
throwing open their shops to any good
workman who may apply for employment
Herman Robinson, New York organizer
for the American Federation of Labor, de.
clared that movement for the open shop
in New York would injure the employers
more than the men.
AS a result of the open shop policy five
hundred house wreckers and second hand
building material handlers caused strike
and small riot at 18th street and avenue
b yesterday. Three employing firms re-
fused to renew their annual agreement
with the unions, saying. they had decided
TO employ non-union men If they saw fit
The men struck. An effort was made to
put non-union men in their places and the
police had to be called out