Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-08-15
MUST FIGHT IT OUT
Roosevelt Will Not Interfere
 In Labor War.
PUBLIC APPEALS FLOOD OYSTER BAY
Commissioner Neill Trying Hard to Reach settlement of TeleSraphers' strike-Threaten to Call Out
 Railroad Men.

NEW YORK, Aug. 15. -- President Roosevelt will not concern himself personally with the telegraphers' strike, according to the best information ob. tainable at Oyster Bay.
 Appeals to the president to take some action looking to settlement of the strike were received at the execu. tive office from boards of trade and commercial bodies of large number of cities. The applications were simi- lar in character to those formulated by the Chicago board of trade. Each en- phasized the importance of direct ac. tion by the president.
 The communications have been re- ferred to Commissioner of Labor Charles P. Neill It is understood that no instructions or recommendations have been forwarded to Mr. Neill
 From the first Mir. Neill has been ac. tiye in an endeavor to effect settle ment of the trouble. It is stated here that he has as yet made no report to the president nor has he received any messages from MT. Roosevelt touching upon the matter in hand.
 At a meeting of strikers held. here it was decided to invoke the aid of Attorney General Jackson against the Western Union and Postal companies. A committee of three was appointed to go to Albany and seek to have the attorney general begin an investiga- tion into the controversy between the companies and operators.
 Just what authority the attorney general can exert in the matter did not appear to be plain even to the proposers of the resolution calling for the appointment of the committee. It seems to be the hope of the strikers that any sort of an investigation would lead to disclosure of the causes that brought on the strike and result event ually in compelling the telegraph com panies to arbltrate.
 Arthur Douglas, legal adviser to Un- ion No. 18 and Percy Thomas and 1 Daniel L. Russell, officers of the un-
 
 will go to Albany today.
 If the attorney general cannot act" said Mir Russell, we will call out the railroad telegraphers and the men on private wires"
 Chicago dispatches say the following l declaration has been issued at the na- ] tional headquarters of the union to the presidents of boards of trade, ex- changes and commercial bodies of the United States and Canada:
 within twenty-four hours the teleg- raphers' strike, which is now general, will be extended to every branch of the commercial telegraph service and will cover every telegrapher not obli- gated by union contract This strike was not of our seeking, but WAS forced { upon us by repeated acts of bad faith on the part of both telegraph compa- nles after agreements had been con- cluded.
 'The consistently conservative atti- tude of the general officers of. this un- ion from the time negotiations com menced several months ago has been abused and taken advantage of by the homogeneous of the telegraph compa- nies.". A Kansas City dispatch. says that c. E. Kyle, chairman of the grievance committee. of the local union of the commercial telegraphers, declares that the Order of Railway Telegraphers has rendered to the commercial union men now on strike their $1,000,000 re- serve fund
 The Western Union Telegraph com pany, 1t is said, insists that railroads with which 1t has contracts must transmit commercial messages turned over to them, but the railroads show a disposition to defy the company.