The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-05-16

night and they kept this agreement.
but this morning the fighting about
the plant started early. The first
trouble occurred in the beam room,
where few of the men from The
office and some of the superintendent
were at work. making an effort TO seve
the leather IN the vats.
One Of the strikers crawle6 through
a window into the beanroom and with
a leveled pistol he made an effort to
force the men to quit work, but be
was promptly taken into custody by
Police Officer Christensen and taken
to Jail. He gave his name as Matt
Ztbulker and he was former employe
OF the plant. While Christensen was
taking the man to the Jail his friends
made an effort to take him from the
officer but Christensen pulled his
revolver and fought his way through
the crowd and landed the man in Jail.
The arrival of the Milwaukee detec-
t1ves was the cause of another Skin
mish and James Kohler, an Italian of
the Rener aud Wilson agency. was
roughly handled. He had been sent
out to find out what had been done by
the strikers and when they discovered
that he was a detective they made for
him and assaulted him with clubs and
bricks. He was rescued by Sheriff
Pfennig, Chief O'Hare and the de-
tectives and taken out of a danger.
Later message was sent to Mill
Waukee asking that all available men
be sent to Kenosha by the detective
agency and that a good supply of
arms and ammunition be forwarded.
The second installment of detectives
arrived just before noon.
This morning the men sent formal
demand to the managers of the plant
stating their demands. These de-
mands included an increase of wages
ranging from Is to so per cent. In ad-
dition to this some of the men de-
manded half holiday for Saturday
with full pay and an hour as washing
time. This demand was considered at
a conference, at which C. w. Allen,
Nathan Allen, E. C. Theirs, w. C.
Quarles and Mayor German were
present, and it was refused.
After reading the demands of the
men Charles W. Allen reiterated his
statement of Tuesday that the plant
would have to be closed down for an
indefinite period. He said: 1.-THE de-
mands of the men, and all of them
have not made any stated demands on
the company, are absolutely unreas-
enable and it would be impossible for
US to meet them. Some of the men
ask for an increase of from Is to so
per cent, and added to this they ask
for all sorts of things. The fact is
just this: We have leather enough OF
hard at the present time to make it
possible for us to shut down for the
entire summer. We have been cut
ting prices on the finished product,
but we have not been able to find
sale for it. In one of our warerooms
we have $4,000 sides ready for ship
ment, and in the other we have double
that amount. This would be leather
enough to provide for the business
for the next four months or longer,
and with such condition we can not
think of paying any increase in
wages. At the present time we are
paying as high wages as any of our
competitors, and we certainly with ali
this leather on hand could not increase
wages. l say now that we will shut
down the plant before we will meet
the demands of these men. The un-
finished leather in the plant will be in
pretty good shape by night, as fifty of
the men are at work removing it from
the watts and we will be able to save
all of it."
While the men were engaging in
small riots at the tannery the report
was spread about that the strikers
were buying arms and the Chief of
Police at once visited all of the hard
ware stores and stopped the sale of
FIRE arms. The strikers are mostly
armed with clubs and bricks.
Every police officer and deputy
sheriff in the city reported for service
a. TIC lduuSIy Cn1S morning.
The strikers held two hour meet
ing at Congress hall from which point
the demands were sent to the man
ayers of the plant who we're in session
at the Office. An answer to these de-
mands was sent to the men just after
eleven O'Clock. Mayor German was
present at the meeting of the men as
well as at the meeting of the tannery
officials.
Just after 2o'c1ock this afternoon
the managers of the company sent a
formal answer to the demand that had
been made by the strikers, in which
they offered a counter proposition as
a means of settling the conflict. The
offered to pay all men em-
ployed on the scale of wages prevail
ing in Milwaukee tanneries.
This would be slight increase for
a few of the men, but would in no way
cover the seventeen distinct demands
made by the strikers. The company
further agreed that in the adoption of
the Milwaukee scale no wages in Ke-