The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1911-02-15

To the public:-We hear it repeated
over and over again by the union lead
ers that they are willing to arbitrate
all differences existing between the
unions and the employers association
and for this reason and to enlighten the
general public this article is written:
To the person not fully informed this
willingness TO arbitrate must sound
very fair and reasonable even though
such willingness to arbitrate always
shows weakness of the position of the
proposers. 1t is AWAY the party with
the weaker side who proposes arbitra-
ton either because he believes his
cause is lost or because he expects to
gain something by such arbitration
1t must be admitted that there are
a number of things which from their
very nature do not admit of arbitration.
For instance, IL one man calls another
a liar there could be arbitration of
the assertion for the man is either
liar or he is not. Also. If one man
makes an agreement with another to
perform a specific thing and fails TO do
so. such failure would not be matter
for arbitration.
This article hopes TO show that there
is nothing between the employers as
ISOLATION and the unions which would
admit of arbitration. 1t must be un-
derstood that during the trouble not
single union man has been discharged
because of his membership in the union
and that every union man who has quit
work has done so of his own accord or
at the dictation of his leaders 1t must
also be understood that every union
which has quit work in a body a
union has done of it's own accord
and each and every of them so
No he a
the employers association and has re-
fused to allow it's members to work for
any member of the association or upon
any job where a member of the asso-
citation had contract for any work
on the same building even though the
owner himself was the builder For
instance Mr.. A. NJ. lanes was his own
contractor a residence building just
north of the new Episcopal church on
Adams street. Mr.. lanes is not a mem
Der of the employers association but
one of the members of the association
had the contract for the plumbing and
heating contract direct from Mr.. lanes.
The fathers and the plasterers refused
to lath and plaster the building because
of this plumbing and heating contract
and told Mr.. lanes that they would not
do this work unless he cancelled his
contract for the plumbing and heating
or induced the contractor to withdraw
his membership from the employers as
ISOLATION.
All actions of the unions were a boy
colt on the members of the employers
association and we fail to see how that
could be a subject for arbitration.
The Collins McNulty faction of cleo
tricians was the first union to quit
work in a body. They were no, dis
charged but quit work of their own
accord because they refused to work
with the Reid-Murphy faction of cleo
tricians. both of them being organized
unions This would not admit of arhi-
tration for the only question: involved
was the right of the Reid Murphy I'M
ion to work This was a question for
the Federation of Labor itself to settle
And it might be stated that the Fed
Grafton of Labor has been trying tc
settle this question for three years and
is no nearer settlement now thar
when 1t commenced. 1t is fgh'
among the unions which the contractor
could not settle no matter what he
might do.
The next union to quit In a body wa.
the plumbers and steam filters. A
their meeting Dec. 5 they decided t
quit In body and they did not worl
On lne next DAY at all, not even Delns
allowed to go to their jobs and stor
their material for it's protection. Ye
on Dec. 3 a t meeting of the employ
ing plumbers and the executive com
mittee of this union there was not
single grievance no- any friction be
tween the two bodies and neither bod
knew that any such action was con
templated by the union. The employer
were unable to find out the reason VIII
they quit work and could not do a
the men were ordered to have no com
munication whatever with their form
er employers and were not permitted t
go into their former employers place
of business o many pretext and it wa
nine weeks before a single member G
their appointed strike committee wen
to any of the employers to debate tn
matter or try to get settlement. Clearl
then this was another case which coul