The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-21


 they said it with their fingers cross eds,' asserted MT. Bo1ande. Questions were asked by the members of the league and MT. Belande answered them.
 T1zlsIs s11AlSI4Hxzs REPLY. 10 Res6lutiOns Adoptsd pby Hatters'
 Conventaon.
 of a. resolution presentedEsat the hat ters eonventtons has no regard for Struth.
 It is pathetic as well as amusing. It Is scream of the national officers. W1fp 1szinot bear the ssEecept reveta- tfozsSs 61stheirS methods, who know that thetr leadership has proved a fat1ure,N and who fear that their power is on tsa,N decline. They are very mad. sS The faiINre of leadership has been shown bys the fact that the label. which haA tcost huneireds of thousands of dollars was " orth more81 in 1sOo, than todayN Before 1909, sevepty- five per cent. of all the hat shops in the country Were union shops. Now only twenty five per cent. of al the hat shops are union shops. At the settierhexEt of the strike of 1909 MT. Lawlor lost eighteen factories most of which will never return to his leadersEaip. Mr.kLasT1or dislikes to be told theae truths. His leadership in the strike kof 1909 was disastrous. Three weeks after the strike was in- aunurated. MT. Mofrttt, the president of the nationaI union. stated before 8 committee in Father Kennedy's 3 resi- dence that he was willing to buy peace at any price, that he was sick at the sight of starving wOrknen in Orange N J. MT. doffitt made 8 concession that surprised the commit tee But on Mr. Moffitt's return to New York he was influenced so that the strike was prolonged Tor five months. Mr. Iawlorscan tell which of the national ofIcers'1sw ung the president from his position~of peace and speedy settlement of the strike. The men were driven to an i'm poverisheds con- dition but MT. Lawlor did not sacri- flee his fat salary He does not like me for referring to- his blundering. Hence the resolution.
 Reference to the Loewe boycott that brought damages of nearly $SOO- GOO to the woEkmen of Danbury, does not please MT. Iaw1or. The national officers took to themselves the honor of the boycott, and agreed in writing to pay all the damages. The publi- cation of the facts that less union hats are made every year. that sew eral hat factories are empty, that the. union does not Eve up to it's agree nentss is quite distasteful to the out side officials. The publicity given to the Simon & Keane trouble was not nleasInr!9 MT. Iaw4or in his state ; 1nent, says that the men who signed the bill of prices for s.an soft hats did not see the word '.alLa
 Mr. LaW1or diAikes the publication Of the fact that at the end of every strike during the past twenty-five years the matters have been in a worse con ndftion and In some cases did not recover the position lost by the strike for five of. six years. Every strike has been a failure MT Law Tor is sensitive concerning my al- 1usions to the national treasury. He has admitted that at least s$70o, ,O0o was collected in thesten years preced- ing 1s09
 The workmen believed that they had four or five hundred thousand dollars for strike benefits But they were living in a fools paradise The national officers were obliged to bor- row $35s00O from George Ferry about the same amount from the To- cal union of Danburys They have paid MT. Ferry but owe the Danbury 1o. caas.e Eseprge Ferryyss as mt an9facture1 of New sYork T 4nd N eW Jersey. set. tied the strike of 1903 The nationa. a officers, after three days arbftradon rejected the Father Kennedy prOpO- sition for settlement, and promised to return to Danbury and explain tt the men the reason for its rejection On a Friday night they absolutely re fused the proposal of settlement. Or the Monday following they settled tn, matter because MT. Ferry, manu yfacturer, insisted. How was tn S700,0O0 spent2 How much did tn, label cost in the ten years prior t. 1S092 What was the expense in cured by the wabash striker Was eight or nine Thousand dollars? Wa it worth the money expended? Win spent it
 The resolution presented at tn hatters' convention assumes that amin close contact with the Nationa Manufacturers association This as & sumption is false as statesnnent made by MT Law1or in his recent let ter. My sympathdes are with tn workingmen, not with sa1arfed off cials, who draw fat 5sa1aries, whfls leading the mem into conditions tha deprive them of a. livelihood. I stan with the matters in order to defen them against the b1underfng of ma tionaI officers. believe In labor un ions.
 Organized labor was rightfully in stituted to defend workmen from tn tyranny of capitalists
 :. Labor is justified in organizing fo it's production and prosperity. Ther would be- no labor unions today an not capital sought to crush the work man, and reduce him to slavery BI I contend that the workmen shoul not be crushed by labor officers an driven like. dumb cattle to sdisaste The tyranny of labor officials worse than the tyranny of capital.
 The matters of Danbury need champion. For these ten years hay kept aloof from labor troubles, bl now feel 1t my duty. to protect tn men from the blunder1ngs of tE1ei leaders Danbury has never recover ed from the strike of 1909. Scores hatters are leaving Danbury for otf CT employment. Manufacture threaten to close their factories an leave Danburys unless the officers the matters union desist from inte1 farence