Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1910-09-08
GREAT STRIKE ENDED.
Seventy Thousand Cloakmakers win
Return to Work.

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New York, Sept. 2.-The cloakmak.
ers strike, one of the greatest indus
trial disturbances in the history of
American labor, was settled tonight.
Seventy thousand garmentworkers, who
have been idle for nine months, will
return to work.
The industrial loss to employers and
employees has run high into the mil
lions. In loss of wages alone the total
has been estimated at more than $10,
600 1000, while the loss to manufac
turner's, jobbers and retailers the coun-
try over has been computed at ten
times that amount.
In spite of the stupendous readjust-
ment involved, the strike has been in
the main notable for peaceableness.
There were numerous cases of petty dis
orders and a petition of the manufac-
turers brought forth from Justice Goff,
of the State Supreme Court, an injunc-
tion, in which he ruled that any strike
called to demand the closed shop was
III restraint of trade.
Julius Henry Cohen, counsel for the
manufacturers association, describes
the agreement signed by him and rep
resentatives Of the strikers in this sen
tence:
''No principle has been surrendered
by the manufacturers, yet the union
may truly claim they have won a great
victory for their people. The manufac-
turers believe in the union and in the
principle that all who desire its benefits
should share its burdens"
One essential of this victory and one
important not only to the strikers, but
to the Nation at large, is the abolition
of all contract work at home. Here
after garments made in New York will
be manufactured under sanitary condi-
tions. There will be no more sweat
shops.
The rock on which all previous eff
orts at mutual Cancellation have split
has now been avoided by the adoption
of the preferential union shop" idea,
for which Richard D. Brandeis, of Bos-
ton, formerly counsel for CLAWS, in the
Pinchot-B -Ballinger hearing, is given full
credit
In the articles Of agreement the idea
is thus described
"Each member of the Manufacturers
Association is to maintain union shops,
union shops being understood to refer
to a shop where union standards as to
working conditions, hours of labor and
rates of wages prevail, and where, in
hiring help, union men are preferred, it
being understood that since there are
differences of degree of skill employers
shall have the freedom of selection as
between one union man and another,
and shall not be confined to any list
nor bound to follow any prescribed or
der.n
The articles provide for these more
important points:
"First-Electric power free; second,
no work at home; third, discipline of
any manufacturer found guilty of dis
among his employees;
fourth, six days. work a week, and
cash weekly pay day; fifth, all sub
contracting within shops abolished;
sixth, nine hours work day, five days
a week and five hours the sixth day; |
seventh, the subject of piece-work to
be agreed upon by committee of en-
ployes and their employer; eighth,
double pay for overtime
Mr.. Cohen concludes his statement
with the following declaration, remark,
able for one in his position:
"Trade unions are not only neces-
sary, but must be guided and strength
ened. I have not been fighting your
unions; I have been fighting for what
| believed were the rights guaranteed
by the laws of the country to my
clients"