Arizona republican., 1904-08-03
That the Butchers Strike
 Is on Its Last Legs
ARE DONE WITH UNIONS
un the Other Hand, the Stock Yards Are Filling With Unbought Stock, Indicating That There Is a Serious Hitch in the Packing Business.

Chicago, Aug. 2.-The meat packers, whose union employees are on strike. claim to be in better position tonight than at any time since the struggle began. When asked for the packers side of the situation tonight, Arthur Meek, general manager of Armour and company, said: The strike may be said to be near the end. At the rate we are securing new employees it will only be a matter of a short time now until everything will be in normal condition with us once more. When the butcher workmen repudiated their agreement and renewed the strike, after signing an agT cement to submit all grievances to arbitration, we made a special effort to win the fight, and we have been dis playing a great deal more skill in our efforts than the most Sanguine of the employers had hoped for. The old em- ployes' places have been filled so promptly that very few of the strikers will ever be able to get back their old places. and those who do will come back as individuals"
 This assertion was made by MT. Meeker tonight after the packers had brought in during the day, according to their estimates, 1900 new men, and another official Of Armour and cOmpa- ny said that the packing firms were do- ing 80 per cent of their usual business. The police reports of the number of new employees arriving at the yards | today bore out in a large measure the packers statements
 Despite these declarations Of the packers representatives, the pens at the stock yards are filled with cattle and hogs that buyers make no bids for in the market. According to commis- sion men and officials of the Union l Stock yards and the transit companies, out of the live stock received yester- ! day and today, over 19.O00 sheep and 10000 hogs were reshipped and unsOld stock is rapidly accommodating in the pens. Twelve thousand hogs remained l unsold tonight, and the prospect of large receipts tomorrow is causing live stock handlers to fear a swamping of | their facilities. According to commits sion men there are thousands of hold overs in all departments of the yards, and the cattle in the pens will not all be out of the way before Saturday night
 In the face of all this shippers are constantly forwarding stock to Chica- | go, and indications tonight are that there will be a decided slump in prices of livestock It is only on this state ment and what further information their own men have been able to se- cure, that the strike leaders base their claims that the packers are still badly | crippled, notwithstanding statements to the contrary. A considerable num- Der of strike breakers were dissuaded from going to work by the pickets. In a statement given out by the packers tonight, it is asserted that out
 of 25,526 union men who went out on
 strike, 3,O56 have returned to work. l These assertions from the unions, add
 ed to the new employees secured since
 the strike began, it Is declared, make
 the total number of men now at work 5,S4S.
 On the published statements that the union leaders intended protesting to tn : city health department that the hous- | ing of employees in the packing plants | was a violation of the city ordinances, an inspector from the sanitary bu-
 reau investigated all the plants today
 but nothing was found that would war; rat the department taking any steps
 against the packers.
 Difficulty was experienced today by the packers in bringing strike break CTS into the stock yards. Twelve Greeks from Milwaukee were captured by a crowd of strike picSets and taker to union headquarters and dissuaded
 from working. The packers had bet
 ter success witha special train bear ing 145 men and women strike break
 CTS, mostly negroes and Italians.
 short time previous to the arrival ol
 the latter a hundred strike breakers nuit OF We're scharged for incOmpet