Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-05-12

ds some of the new structures to-day than there has been since the strike was declared, but the trouble is not over by any means. although the boss es appear somewhat more confident to- day and claim that as many laborers as they could accommodate applied for
 work this morning. Operations have
 been resumed on the Lewis building on the site of the old ScovilI house
 building, but the number of men em-
 ployed is small compared with the force on hand when the row started.
 One of the bosses said this afternoon that he had met no committee from the hodcarriers, and that in any case nothing would be done towards sign ing agreements until after next Tues
 day night and he didn't know whether
 anything would be agreed to then OF
 not, but he was positive that the con tractors would put on all the help
 they could get hold of and push their contracts from that time on.
 The HOdcarriers' union met last
 night and discussed the situation pro
 and con. Addresses were made by several members, nearly all of whom favored a vigorous stand for the sign ing of their contract before returning to work A committee was appoint
 ed to confer with the master masons and find out what objection they have
 to appending their names to the con- tract as submitted. Members of the organization who were seen to-day said that the appointment of commit tee to talk matters over with the
 bosses must not be understood as sign of weakening on the part of the
 hodcarriers. They wanted it to be
 taken in the spirit it was introduced and acted upon, which was something in the nature of holding out the olive
 branch and correcting the imputation to the effect that the hodcarriers could
 not be approached the same as mem bers of other crafts They still deny that their new contract calls for any thing not included in the old one, so that this is still an open question. Some of the bosses are full of fight and cannot brook the thought of mak- ing any concessions to the men, while others are trifle more conservative and lean to the opinion that even at a
 sacrifice it would pay to patch up l things for the present Snd fight this thing out next winter when nobody will have anything to do. But those
 
 are in the minority and unless the oth-
 CTS experience change of base before
 next week the strike will last longer
 than some folks think. It was said to-day that the lumbermen and the
 principal builders favor open shops and that the factories have intimated that if the firms doing business here at the present time do not start open
 shops this season a new company will be formed here where any man who has cash or credit can get what he wants, whether there is "a strike on or not The factories feel sore over This and as result as many of them as
 can get hold of desirable carpenters and masons are hiring for the year
 round. It seems there is nothing against this so long as the men hired out receive the union scale of wages
 and hours.
 The few carpenters now in town
 feel confident of carrying their point.
 They ridicule the idea of anybody say ing that there is trouble at New Ha- ven on account of the number of men
 belonging in this city who are work ing at Sayin Rock. Every one of
 them went there,'' said Business
 Agent Smith. 'son Invitation of Busi-
 ness Agent F. J. McKerness of New
 Haven, and to make things as pleas
 ant as possible for them almost all the
 union men were removed from the
 White City at Savin Rock into the city
 so that the Waterbury carpenters would not have to be changing from
 one place to another. To show you
 that there is not a word of truth in it we are sending five more men down to-day, and there is room for more if we had them An effort was made to stir up trouble in New Haven, but it was the work of some of the bosses and was nipped in the
 bud by the union men of that
 place, none of whom wanted tie-up,