Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-05
IN LABOR CIRCLES
c.

Conditions in the building trades remain
| in an unsettled state, owing to the failure
of the recent conference between members of
the Employers Association and the executive
committee of the Building Trades Mechanics
Council to settle the dispute between the
| master plumbers and journeymen plumbers
The plumbers have decided to ignore the So
| called Oyster decision and declare that they
will abide only by the terms of the con-
| tract Of 1908. 1t is said the board of gov
ernors Of the Employers Association will
meet and determine upon a definite and
aggressive plan of action. The outcome of
the affair is anxiously awaited by both
employers and workingmen. 1t is feared
that the action of the Allied Trades Me-
| chanics Council last night in deciding not
to abide by the oyster decision will bring
| about lockout by the Employers Associa-
ton against all the structural trades but
the bricklayers
The announcement is made that the sub
ordinate unions of the Bricklayers and Ma
sons International Union Will vote in the
latter part of June as to whether or not
that organization shall affiliate with the
American Federation of Labor. This propo-
sition has been Voted upon several times
before, but has always been defeated by
the referendum
Under the caption, None of Your Bust
ness, the Tailor, official organ Of that
craft says:
I'm the recent message of President
Roosevelt to Congress regarding the Pana-
ma canal he makes the following statement:
1t certainly ought to be unnecessary
| to point out that the American working
man in the United States has no concern
whatever in the question as to whether the
| rough work on the isthmus, which Is per-
formed by aliens in any event, is done by
aliens from country with black skin
or aliens from another country with a yell
low skin. Our business is to dig the canal
as efficiently and as quickly possible;
provided always that nothing is done that
is inhuman to any laborers, and nothing
that interferes with the wages of or lowers
| the standard of living Of our own work
men,
IF this statement is true then the wage
workers of the United States have no bust
ness to be tolerated citizens of this
country, and 1t would be advisable on the
part of the government or some one else TO
deprive every wage worker of the right of
suffrage and of the right to take any in
terest in the affairs of his government.
When a President of the United States can
declare that the workingmen of the United
States have no concern as to who does the
work upon the canal he has gone to a
length in belittling and insulting the work
ing people of this country that no other
public man has ever done since the nation
| was founded, and 1 doubt if any European
ruler or statesman could be found who
workingmen are not interested in who
does the work of the government of a
rough character, as designated by the Presi-
dent in his message in reference to the
canal, l would like to know who In the
world is interested. They are the people
who do this work in the United States, and
they are the people above all others who
are interested, directly Interested, as to
who is to do this class of work for the
United States wherever the United States
may have any of II done. whether it be in
Panama, the Philippine Islands, Washing
ton, d. c., or anywhere else
]. L. Rodier, member Of Columbia Typo
graphical Union, and active in the general
labor movement for many years, is in Phil
adelphia an organizer, under the aus
pices of the American Federation Of Labor,
working in the interest of the carriage and
wagon makers. Mr.. Rodier is often
lected by President Gompers for special
work Of this kind, his gifts a public
speaker combined with his extensive and
| intimate knowledge of union affairs, making
his services exceedingly valuable. In fact,
there is phase of the labor question with
which he Is not familiar, and as one Of the