The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1909-07-29
THE BOOT AND
SHOE WORKERS
Lay Bare the Attempt of the Doug
las People to Misrepresent the
Facts in Regard to the Strike.
Boston, Mass, July Is, 1909.

The Douglas Shoe Co., Brockton
Mass, is sending out misleading cir
cular dated July ?, 1909, together with
extracts from q Brockton committee re-
port which they represent to be re-
port which was rendered and accepted by
the Board of Aldermen and Common
Council of the Brockton City Govern
ment.
The facts are that this is the report of
subcommittee made to larger COM
mlttee, and that the conclusions of this
report have not been adopted by either
the Board of Aldermen or City Council
of Brockton, Mass.
The report is biased in the extreme and
IS looked upon in Brockton as full of in
accuracies.
The report of the committee makes
one statement which is true beyond cues
ton when it says: ''But a small part of
its (the Douglas Company manufactur-
ing IS done here The Douglas shoes
are now being made in Springvale,
Maine, Nashua, N. H., Marlboro and
Haverhill, Mass The committee report
makes no mention Of the substantial re-
duction in wages secured by the Doug
las Co., by the pretense of transfer of
shoes from No. factory to No. =, and
their transfer back to the original loca-
ton, together with the changing of the
numbers on the factory, in an attempt
to justify the transfer, and their express
ed willingness to accept inferior work
to justify the lower wage SCALE
The circular of the Douglas Co. is mis-
leading when it says that counsel for the
company proposed to the Executive Coun-
ell Of the American Federation of Labor
in session in Washington, January IS,
1909, that President Gompers appoint Il
committee of three members of the Coun-
Gil to investigate and decide the matter
The proposition was that the Executive
Council investigate the dispute, but no
proposal was made which would bind the
Company to accept any decision and we
challenge the production of any docu
mentary evidence in support of their
statement.
There WAS absolutely no ground for
us to expect that the Douglas Co. would
accept any decision that would obligc
them to return their entire business to
Brockton, which they had removed, and
to advance the wages from 25 to 35 per
cent restoring the reduction which they
have imposed by moving their business
to country factories to escape the decis-
ions on wages rendered by the Massa-
chusetts State Board of Arbitration.
The alleged extract from u letter of
the Executive Council, printed at the
bottom of the Douglas circular, is an ex-
tract from what is known as the Dun
can letter. President Gompers, of the
American Federation of Labor, in a let
ter to us under date of February 4, 1909,
states as follows: 81 am authorized
by the Executive Council to say to you
that the letter of Vice President Duncan,
Company, was in no sense a decision of
the Executive Counci.''
The Company had persistcntly endeav-
ored to make it appear that our Unions
in Brockton were against the general or
ganization and supporting the Douglas
Co. in their controversy with the Union.
On Wednesday, June %, 1909, at SYRIA
cuse, N. Y, the Convention of the Boot
and Shoe Workers Union, endorsed the
action of the General Officers in refusing
to allow the w. L. Douglas Shoe Co. to
reduce the wages by trickery and decep-
ton. The vote was 237 affirmative to 3
in the negative, and there were 20 dele
gates in the Convention from Brockton.
This decision by our Convention, which
is the only tribunal that has any right
to decide questions of this kind for our
organization, we believe will be accepted
and will be fully justified by all right
thinking people in defending our wages,
not alone in the Douglas factories, but
above all in their preservation in other
factories that would certainly have a
right to follow the lead of the Douglas
Co. if they succeeded in fastening their
reduction in wages upon our Union and
in causing us, by any plan which they
might devise, into making new contract
which they allege would advance the
cause of Unionism.
We believe that we, and not an en-
ployer or committee of citizens not con-
nected with Organized Labor, are the
proper custodians of the Union $ vel
fare and we will not surrender this func-
ton to any person or persons not clothed
with the proper authority to speak for
Organized Labor in our craft.
Respectfully submitted,
JOHN NJ. TOBIN,
General President.