Omaha daily bee., 1906-07-03
Oua Letter BOX
Le.,. side OF the story.


OMAHA, July 2-To the Editor OF The
Bee: In relation TO an article which ap-
peared in your paper OF a recent date, be-
ing an interview with one william McGill,
acting as spokesman for the Eurkendall
employees, as he claims. 1. being the W.
NJ Lee referred to in that article. will AJAX
you to kindly publish my side Of the case
which is as follows: In the first place, i
was legally elected at a regular meeting
OF the local union. held May 3, TO represent
local 92 at the national convention Of the
Boot and Shoe Workers union, held at
Milwaukee, Wis, the vote standing 2 to
in my favor.
At the following meeting. which was held
May II. a motion was made to reconsider
the action Of the previous meeting. The
motion was lost by a vote OF 30 against 70
Is for reconsideration, which practically
elected me the second time.
AS TO the statement made that one OF the
general organizers was here to influence
votes in my favor, / will state that no
general organizer was in Omaha at the time
Of the election and had not been here
since February II, but an organizer did
come here on May IS, which was after the
election, and also after the attempt had
been made to reconsider. He was here for
the purpose OF arranging with Mr.. Kirken-
dali for the absence OF the delegate to the
convention, Mr.. Kirkendall agreeing at
that time to give the delegate leave Of alb
sence, provided he furnished a man to take
his place.
After the organizer had left the city Will
lam McGnl came to me in the factory and
told me that II 1 went to the Milwaukee
convention that could never work in
the Kirkendall factory any more and that
they would not allow anyone TO work in
my place during my absence. After this the
firm seemed to lean that way also. then
notified General President Tobin of the
conditions and Organizer Robinson was
sent here to try to straighten matters out.
He called on the firm, telling them that l
had made arrangements with a union man
and a good workman to take my place
during my absence and that he would re-
port for work Monday June Is, which he
did, but was not allowed to go to work.
! went to the convention at Milwaukee and
McGill followed me there and protested
my seat in the convention. He appeared
before the oredential committee. The fol-
lowing is taken from the report of the
credential committee:
The credential committee met at l D. m.
today monday June 49, and the parties
Interested In connection with the Lee case,
Brothers Lee McGill. Robinson and Laird,
appeared before us. Brother McGill, in his
evidence before US, stated that the election
of Brother Lee was entirely legal. and he
was perfectly satisfied when on May
Brother Lee was duly elected In addition
to that. an attempt was made to reconsider
the vote and that motion was lost by a
vote Of 80 to Is. In addition to this he
made the statement before us that II
Brother Lee was seated at this convention
today that Brother Lee would not be
allowed to work in Omaha, or words to
that effect. The committee therefore, in
this case recommends that Brother William
Nj. Lee be seated in this convention from
local 292 Report of the committee was
adopted by the convention.
In conclusion. I will say that instead of
125 members OF the union in the -'rken-
dali factory. that there are not than
seventy in ALL and at least 80 per cent
of them will remain in the union
AS to the little girl apprentices earning
but 50 per week, they are not members of
the union. therefore. do not have to pay
% cents per week and for that matter such
cases are left entirely with the local union.
The statement that Mr.. Kirkendall has
taken no hand In the matter, I will refer
to the statement in the same article in
which he has offered to give 500 TO the
seceders in forming a local organization.
w. NJ. LEE.