The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-13
Prices Have Been Advanced at
Many Points Already.
$4,000 PERSONS IDLE.
Thirty Thousand Moro Likely
to Be Added by Night.
Killing Resumed on a Small
Scale at Kansas City.

|
of hope in the butchers strike today
was the possibility that arbitration
may intervene to prevent a labor war
fraught with suffering and priva ton to
the strikers and heavy loss to the
packers. Nor is the effect of the strike
confined to the employees and packers
in the nine cities where the fight will
be centered. The consuming public will
bear a large share of the burden in
higher prices for meats. Reports al
| ready have come from various cities
that prices of the product have been
raised. This advance too was said to
be a forerunner of others if the con-
f1ict continues long.
| In addition to the 90, 900 employees al
ready on strike upwards of 10000 more
are involved indirectly and most of
them probably will be made idle before
/ tonight.
In addition to all the slaughtering
plants being tied up. the. strike affects
branch industries where such articles
as butterine, soap, buttons and combs
are manufactured. The canning de-
partments where beans, soups and all
| kinds of meats are put up are also hit
hard, the union employees having gone
| out in a body.
Forty thousand persons approximate
| ~ find employment in the big packing
| houses in Chicago, and this number al
ready has been reduced ,one-half. The
erect of the strike upon the mechani-
| cal and other departments, it is de-
clared will increase this army of unem-
ployed in Chicago before the end of the
week to nearly $4,000. Arbitration is
looked upon as the only means to avert
a prolonged strike. The strikers de-
clare that they will be willing to con-
slider any reasonable proposition sub
mitted from the other side.
LAT of
yards has been increased in number
and all night long the officers patrolled
the strike district and the streets ad-
jacent to the yards, in pairs
There was considerable specula ton as
TO whether the packing house team
sterS would go ont on a Sympatheti
strike. George Golden. business agent
of the union, set all doubts at rest at
a meeting of the joint council by an
nouncing that the teamsters will re-
main at work as long as there is work
for them to do.
A crowd of men and boys numbering
more than 5000, for the most part strik-
ing employees, ga tnered in squads today
about the entrance to the stock yards
and discussed the situation In general
the greatest good nature prevailed. The
only activity specially noticeable with
in the great, gloomy and deserted look
ing buildings was at the Swift and
Armour plants. In the canning depart
ment of the Swift eSta bliShment a num-
ber of men were at work, while at
Afmour'S a gang of men were busy
loading provisions into a string of re-
frigerator cars.
Workmen were also busy tearing up
the rails of the Chicago junction rail-
way within the yards and replacing the
old rails with new ones. This fact was
taken by some to indicate an expecta-
tion by the railroad officials that the
resumption of traffic will be delayed
for several days at least.
With seeming certainty of a meat
famine should the strike last more tnan
a week, both the packers and strike
leaders took a serious view of the situ-
alton today. Each side thoughtfully
considered the arbitration channel of
escape from the entanglements. Indeed,
predictions were ventured that an
armistice might be arranged within "a
hours. Such optimism. however, was
received with a good deal of incredul-
ty. President Donnelly, of the Butcher
WorkmenS union, expressed regret tnat
the packers offer to arbitrate had not
been made earlier. Had it been the
strike might have been averted.
THE delay of the packers to ogree to
arbitration he said. lis responsible
for the strike. They did not make
known their position until after the
unions had declared the strike and then
it was too late for me to do anything
to stop the trouble. L will be an ex-
pensive war, but apparently it will have
to be fought out. We are strong
stronger, strange as it may seem-than
the packers. We have the whole coun-
try to draw upon for sustenance and
have no dividends to pay. If the pack
ing plants are idle month It will eat
up all their dividends for two years"
In spite of expected hopes for an early
adjustment of the difficulties the pack
ers have hurried preparations for a
siege. Every officer employed in the
stock yards was ordered to report an
hour earlier than usual and all were
told to hurry through such office duties
as We're absolutely ESSENTIAL. The office
soon found themselves in the
houses acting as substitutes
for the strikers 1t was claimed by the
that there would be no trouble in sup
plying all vacancies within a day or
two with capable men.
Information credited to union sources |
was to the effect that $50 colored work !
men presumably from Kansas City and
st. Louis, were being brought to Chi |
cago by the large packers and that an |
order mad been placed for 500 more cots. |
Morris & Co., If was said, were |
supplied with $50 colored nonunion |
workmen during the night. The men
were reported to have been smuggleo |
into the yards in covered wagons.
Four independent small packing |
houses inside the stock yards were re-
ported running. These were Boer & Co.,
Roberts & Oaks Boyd & Lunham and /
Phorkildsen & Co.
At Kansas City.
Kansas City, Mo. July 13.-At one
of the six local packing plants, Ar
mour's, which were shut down yester,
day as a result of the butchers and
meat cutters strike, killing was re-
sumed today on a small scale. The
other plants expect to be running soon
with new men. The big retail dealers
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