The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-22
DERBY MAYORS l. EFFORT TO END
 STRIKE FAILS Dense Throng of Strikers and Others in Gould Armory
 as Peace Terms Are Discussed. RLUMENTHAL REFUSES
 TO TREAT WITH MEN They In Turn Refuse to Re- turn Before Their Griev-
 ances Are Discussed.
Ry Our Staff correspondent.o

| shelton, Jan. 22.-AbsoIute refusal oi | Sidney Blurnenthal to meet with the 1 committees of the striking textile l workers to treat on their schedule o1 | grievances, and the reiferatfon Of the | strikers of their position that they i will not consider a cessation Of the strike until he consents to meet their l grievance conmittee-these were the i important developments at a most l largely attended meeting of the tex | tile workers, and citizens geenrally, I at the Gould AHrnory, Derby, last eve- 1 ming, when Mayor George Sulhvan of Derby addressed the strikers with a l message from the head of the Blu mentha1 company.
 Today the strike remains as far from settlement, apparently as any
 day since its inception, more than
 nine weeks ago, for last nights meet ing, to which the citizens had looked forward with the expectation of at least some definite action towards set clement brought practically nothing. save the information that Sideny BIu- mentha1 would accept some of his for
 nrer emp1oyes in the mills and would
 later take up their grievances, as ern-
 pIoyes, but not as a, collective body.
 And that, said Mayor Sullivan, was
 what MT. Blum enthal had said was his last word to the people who had
 left his employ
 CONCESSIONS the message that Mir. Blument1a1 sent to the strikers through Mayor Sullivan. One was the granting of the 55 hour week. The other was not an obstinate assug 'aIrce, but an inti- mafion that a weekly pay day might be arranged. But these, the strikers say, are really little more than the state law now exacts The weekly pay day, they declare, is compulsory, and the 55 hour week. for women. u11- der the new law. makes it almost
 compulsory, in a plant employing so
 many women, upon the whole plant. There is also the promise of the perlaldzafion by immediate discharge
 of any elnpIo yes discovered in. graf practices This is in connection with the strikers demand for the aboli- ton of head weaNers The BIunenthal nosition is un- changed from the attitude as defined by MT Bluanemthaa in his interview with The Farmer a Iortndgtht ago. He will take back his former employees, as the condition of the mills warrant,
 not ss1pp1anting any of his present employees who are satisfactory, with fo4raer employees as he classes the
 people who have left his employ and
 will then hear of their grievances.
 And the attitude of the strikers is
 equally unchanged, for they declare
 that it would be folly for them to re-
 turn to the u1dllS D6IOT0 Lu01Ts 10N- ances had been adjusted
 The meeting, in Gould Armory.
 brought a dense audience The hall was packed to sufocation when a few
 rainutes after 8 o'clock Mayor S11lli-
 van called the meting to order. Brief
 ly, but with @characteris sigors he outlined his purpose in. calling the
 meeting. He said that he hoped to
 see the end of the strike and wanted
 a. satisfactory teruniantion for all con-
 ceTned To that end he had taken up. the matter with MT. Blumenthal. who
 had authorized hirn to make certain ,staIternents Then he told of the posi- lion taken by Mr. Blum e1lthaI in his
 several conversations with the speak
 CT the last of which occurred yester-
 day.
 Mayor Sullivan was listened to with
 respectful attention. When he mad
 finished, Miss Matilda. Rabinowitz, the
 T w. W. organizer and strike leader,
 spoke on behalf of the strikers In a
 moment, it was seen that the meeting
 had proved futile
 Miss Rabinowitz excoriated the card service system, the speeding up pro- lress that brought on the strike, and declared that this the strikers must have abolished before they could con-: sent to return to work.
 She said she had hoped when the ice had been broken by the calling of this conference.-the first time that a person who had authority to speak for the B1umentha1 concern had ap-5 peared before them-that an end of the strike was in sight. She assum-s ed from his statement that Mayor Sullivan spoke with authority But it was apparent that the company had not even considered the schedule of demands of the strikers. The most important demand of all, that the strikers be reinstated without discrin1-s inatiop, had been entirely ignored, and the demand for the abilition of the card service system, she said was ig- nored as thoroughly.
 Going into the history of the strike she spoke of the institution of the