New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-17
Contestants Agree After
Fifteen-Hour "Peace
Conference"
MAYOR IS NEUTRAL
MEMBER OF BOAhl
Consent to Mediation Won By
Thompson's Drilling in
Locked Room.

Chicago, June 16-The application o.
the third degree" by Mayor Thompson
had much to do with settling the
streetear strike
A ffteen-hour battle of words, il
which leaders of both sides argued
practically without rest in a locked
room, brought about the final agree
ment 70 arbitrate Dramatic from be.
ginning to end was the peace confer
enee" in the Mayors Office in the City
Hall.
The meeting ended at 8 a. m. with
the name Of the Mayor as a third arbi-
ter and the calling off of the strike. 1t
was series Of hot clashes, a fight Of
quick wits and secret counsel. and at
times it looked as If arbitration were
doomed and Chicago sentenced to suf-
fer the ills Of a strike indefinitely.
Locked doors prevented the adver-
saries from leaving the Mayors Office
end abandoning or postponing the idea
Of an arbitration board. The Mayors
heavy figure and stern voice domi-
mated whenever one or the other fac
ton reached a point where it refused
20 yield in the cause of mediation.
When the leaders of one faction
arose, flushed with anger, and started
10 leave the Mayors Office they sud
denly discovered that they were virtu-
ally prisoners.
Twenty Breaks Averted
There were at least twenty strained
situations when union men and en-
plOyers declared they could come to no
agreement. The business life of
great city hung in the balance as the
special aldermanic committee pleaded
with the advcrsaries. Mayor ThOmp-
son pleaded and threatened, and the
labor leaders and company officers
vent back to their chairs.
The discussion centred on The ques-
tion of arbitration. Many well known
men were suggested for the post of
third arbitrator. The two others were
to be spokesman. respectively, of the
workers and employers.
"Well, | believe we could pick no
better man than Mayor Thompson"
lie nard A. Busby, president of the
ieago surface lines, finally said.
n. D. Mahon, international president
the Car Mems Union, and other
embers of the labor committee re-
red 20 another room. Within ten
.inutes Mr. Mahon returned.
"We're satisfied" was al! he said.
ut it reused the weary group Of men.
landclapping and cheering echoed
through the empty corridors of the
'itv Hall.
TT is arbitration practically without
ratification" said the Mayor when
l.
other arbitrators have not yet been
med.
A Strike Without Violence.
The strike was remarkable in that .
violence was traced TO a striker. no I
rests were necessary, and the public |
.cepted IL with genial Sood humor. .
The appearance Of the first surface .
az some hours after the elevated I
aims were running was the occasion /
a demonstration in the downtown |
istrict.
Windows of Office buildings along the |
route were crowded with persons, who .
cheered the visible evidence that the
y-eight-hour strike was at an end.
Others cars followed with increas-
ne frequency and the drivers of vans
md other vehicles which have been
reaping a harvest in transporting the
population began returning TO their
regular yocations.
0ficials of the traction systems tele-
graphed TO Eastern labor agencies not
TO employ any more men as strike
breakers. Six thousand men already
had been started here, it was said.
Sixteen hundred strikebreakers arrived
last night and were placed under guard
IN lodging houses and terminals of the
companies.
The formal agreement Of peace was
signed this afternoon. The companies, /
the document showed, conceded in ad- |
vance that the agreement would be for |
two years, and that the practice of 1
hiring men for single trips only during /
rush hours would be abolished
This leaves for arbitration the fol-
lowing: Scale Of wages; period of SER
vice before maximum wage is received;
time in which a days run on the ele-
waited is 10 be completed; adjustment Of