The San Francisco call., 1907-06-22
LABOR DELEGATES To
Be WITHDRAWN FROM
CANCELLATION BODY
Proposed Peace Conference
Proves to Be Source
of Trouble
STATEMENTS ISSUED
misunderstanding as to the
Visits of Cabinet
Officers
STATEMENTS ISSUED

The concillation committee, which has
( been successful to a high degree in it's
efforts to settle local industrial dis
putey. may be forced to call upon out
side influence TO conciliate the members
ofsits own body. A difference of opinion
| has arisen among those organizations
which are represented on the COM
mittee and the labor council voted last
night to withdraw It's eleven delegates
The rock on which the committee mas
grounded appears to be the proposed
industrial peace conference, and in fact
there is some uncertainty as to the
/ conference Itself.
The report that three members of
President Roosevelts cabinet, Secre--
| taries Strauss, Metcalf and Garfield,
would attend the conference in San
Francisco has not been received with
the enthusiasm with which the mem
bers of the conciliation committee who
arranged the conference believed it
would be greeted The dissatisfaction
is not confined to the labor interests,
but it was stated yesterday that en-
ployers of labor as well had withheld
their approval. Those promoting the
plan believe the trouble is all due to a
misunderstanding and hold out the
hope that harmony will yet be re-
stored
At the meeting of the labor council
last night the following letter was re-
ceived from o. A. Tveitmoe and Richard
Cornelius. president of the carmens
union. and indorsed:
''On Thursday, June 90 the daily
press contained information that there
is At present a proposition to hold a
peace conference in this city on the
18th of next month 1t appears that
Governor Gillett is to preside, that Ben
jamin Ide Wheeler of the University of
California and other prominent citizens
are deeply Interested, and that three
cabinet officers, who are due here about
that time. will be invited to participate.
The meeting is to be held in the In
terest Of conciliation of industrial diff
culties in preference to strikes and
lockouts. AS an abstract proposition
nothing could be more true. We be-
lieve that it has been accepted as a
truism, and that therefore as an alb
stract proposition il needs no further
advocacy.
AS applied to the local situation you
appointed a committee on conciliation.
This committee invited the co-opera-
tion of all the civic bodies. In the
name of the labor movement you de-
clared through that committee your
willingness and earnest desire that the
parties in interest should meet, either
by themselves, or with a committee
Your committee was successful in the
Your committee was successful in the
case of the laundry workers difficulty
and also in the iron trades. They did,
however, report that they could do alb
solutely nothing in either the street
railway or the telephone difficulties, be-
cause the representatives of these COM
panies were not willing to enter into
any conciliation.
"A joint committee. consisting of 10
from the labor council, 10 from the
building trades council and Ave from
the street carmen's union. was ap-
pointed to deal with those strikes. to
finance them and to have general su-
pervision. subject. of course. to such in
structions as the two councils should
from time TO time desire to give
The joint COMMITTEES is willing to
consider any overtures for concili-
alton. coming either directly or indi- !
rectly. but this committee does believe
that 1t would be in the highest degree
unwise for the labor movement to as
sist in organizing any peace confer
ence such as the one contemplated al
present 1t is already misunderstood.
and is sure to be more so, by both
sides.
We therefore respectfully suggest
that you take such action as will pre-
vent any Misunderstanding by declining
to participate. Secondly, by making it |
known that, as far as the present
strikes are concerned, they are in the
exclusive jurisdiction of this Joint com
mittee. and that il you have any other
committee it viii be well that such
committee be discharged in order that
no misunderstanding can arise. as
they would be bound to arise with
several committees dealing with the
same matter
The letter. which provides for the
withdrawal of the IL delegates of the
TABOR council from the conciliation
committee, was approved by a vote of
64 TO Is after a spirited debate
Delegates Cornelius, Larue and Hag-
erty spoke in favor OF the recommen-
dations contained in the letter. while
Delegates Gallagher, Furuseth and
Tracy spoke against withdrawing from
the Cancellation committee. The action !
taken will leave the conciliation COM |
mittee with very little representation |
from the labor interests
Hagerty said that he did not believe
that labor could expect much from
Benjamin Ide Wheeler or the members |
of the presidents cabinet who were |
coming to California. Furuseth Joined !
issue with him on this point and said |
he believed Metcalf to be friend of |
labor Furuseth added that these visit !
ors would have nothing to do with the |
local situation in any peace confer |
ence that might be called
The committee of ARRANGEMENTS for
the peace conference met yesterday af !
ternoon at the ferry building and dis
eussed the project for more than an |
hour. The committee is composed of |
lsidor Jacobs, chairman; Benjamin Ide
Wheeler. Walter Macarthur Rev. |
George w. White, Michael Casey. A. w. |
Scott Jr., William P. McCabe, DR.. F. w. |
Gale, A c. Holmes, Norton C. Wells. I
y. L. Cadwalader and George A Tracy. |
and most of the members were in at !
tendance.
At the outset 1T was made clear that |
there had been a serious misunder-
standing as TO the purposes of the |
peace conference. Protests were re- !
ceived from both sides which it was |
supposed by the committee would in
dorse the project. On one side there |
appeared to be apprehension that the |
cabinet members were on their way /
to San Francisco to inject federal in
huence into the local controversies |
and by another faction it was urged /
that an attempt might be made to force I
the recognition of unions with which /
employers have refused to deal.
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