The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-17
HALF LOAF
 BETTER THAN
 NO BREAD? TroIleymen Likely to Accept Terms Offered by
 Company

New Haven, May 16.-From what could be learned there was warm session between the delegates of the trolley unions of Connecticut and Southern Massachusetts in conference with General Manager Punderford of the Connecticut company, at the Yel- low building in this city, says the New Haven Union. The warmth, however, was created solely by the insistence with which each of the sides mafn- tained their end of the wage and time-of-work controversy, that has been 1&oing on between the trolley company and their employees for the past two months or so- At times, is understood. the tension between the conferees was extremely embar- raasing and it looked momentarily as if tho associations between the conn pany and the mon might surnmartiy be broken off, with a strike lmmedi- ately in sight. Although things eased of toward the end of the session and the prospects, of q compromise un- dergfnnding appeeved slightly bright or when the days cCuference closed, tho situation was still delicate.
 A plain and simple dead lock rec suited from the conference and unless ths. men aecede to the answer made time ago this deadlock will sti1 be in force. From unofficial statements heard here, H is most likely that the delegates win do % and the anSwer of tho trolley company will be accept cd Nhe delegates left the conference abruptly announcing that they would give their reply to the companyss an-' gwer on Wednesday next There were thfrtoen delegAtes at the conference, while MT. Punderford and his secre- tary. repfesented the road No official atatomentG Were iegued by elmer side snd Y r.s s1sns as sssitS ass oot are s eis $. fhe difficulty cf coming to . satis-' factory agreemen ovSr the wage and time matter.
 Acoording to what was said by sev- erA1 local tfolleymen, the deadlock at tho ccn3erence was due to the cbsti- peny adhered to the original stand. which they took ct the beginning of tAo prooomt dispute with the mon. The company turned down flatly the d61nAn6 of the men for a 30 cents an 3qnS 41f Mese rate. They oEsr in 1fnm n to zs cents an hour. The deleghtes objected strongly to this. but Gana&or Punoefford was not dfs- tofbed h the least by the delegatey yl{Qrous k1okH
 Inc stfcngest deadlock however
  attendant time and half pay for over-tlnfe. The company inslsted on 1efugint to rpcognise this nine hour day. They were willing to concede that ce1lfD an hour should be paid after nine hours of work, but they Worp unwilling to do anything which would officially put nine hour day In force on the road. Not for a. mo- mont would the company consider time and . half time pay for over- tins and their offef oft cef1tD extra l per houf. for over time work, was made knoWn to be practically final 70 lar aD the Connecticut company ig concerned- The company, at the con- ference claimed they were doing their bet with the men in the offers made in responDe to their demands and the company of course also held out . vision of better things in the inde- Unite future, for the edification of the delegAtes present.
 It ss the general belief that, al- though the delegates are far from satisfied with the results of the con- 1eronces held with the company yet they will consider the slight advan- taees that are now offered them by the road and will make q favorable reply to the Connecticut officials They will again depend chiefly upon l what the company says in regard to l the future and rely on the quasi premIses of better things in time to come.