Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-11-27
nrra nizer for Electical workers Says Courts Side
 With Phone Company.
TRADES COUNCIL TO
 TAKE ACTION TODAY
Isyrrs Calls Meeting of "strike Committee'' to Make Plans for
 iers Causes Many Mutinies ( to Break Out on Several

local newspapers, H. H. Broach, of Springfield, Ill.,, organizer of unions Tor the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, addressed large
 crowd at the tabernacle last night, in
 the interest of the striking telephone operators. Among the members of the
 audience were a number of the local
 business men and several clergymen,
 but, in the main, the assembly was
 composed of members of labor unions
 and their families.
 \ We have done all in our power to
 get the officials of the telephone com
 pany to. give us a hearing, but they
 will not talk of a conference, and the
 only way we can get this matter be- fore the public is in meetings of this
 nature. We feel sure that if the busi-
 ness of this city would noly listen to us and would hear our side of the
 question, sentiment concerning this
 question would be a great deal differ
 ent for their minds have been poisoned
 against us.
 aThe telephone company has a
 righA to do just what they please, and tey do just that and get by with it becluse the courts side in with them" the speaker stated. "I don't know whether I'll be sent to jail or not for making that statement, but don't believe l will, and I sincerely hope not for l didn't come here to stir up my feeling nor to create any distur- hance, but merely to help these poor girls beteer their condition and get wages on which they can decently
 live"
 Unions Against Violence, But Mir. Broach stated that the union
 people were against any violence of any sort but that it was the history of nature, that when people have tried every available means to secure their rights in quiet manner and have failed, the reaction oftentimes causes them to commit acts of violence that cannot be stopped until the cause for such acts have been removed. He de- plored that fact that it had been inti- mated that D. L. Goble, who organized the local telephone operators union, and himself were spys in the employ of the German government but stated that such impressions had been en- outraged by the telephone company in an effort to belittle the cause of the striking girls and for the purpose of winning public sentiment. LOW wages, unbearable conditions ana long hours are the causes of all the evils on earth" he said, land how community can expect to be free of srlme when the laboring conditions in f are utterly unbearable, is more than
 can understand. If I were unable 70 support my family, I would steal peiore would let them suffer and l believe every one of you men would 70 the same thing: We want peace, put we want honorable peace and we are not going to have peace at all except on those terms. Property nghts are considered by most of our Mdges of our courts as being supreme. Most of our judges are prominent law yefs, lawyers whose practice has been Mlth influential people and corpora uon which pay big salaries, and it is SeFy seldom that you see lawyer wnose practice has been composed al most entirely of poor clients, on the eench. These men, who have been ualned and educated up to the su- Preme respect of property rights, can pe nothing but prejudiced against us could not try fair and impartial H9l of any question between capital sna labor for I would be predjudiced
 lor our people, and likewise, a great many of our court officials are preju. Ised, but sadly for us, on the other
 The telephone company prints
 satement of wages the girls are now i1ecelvln. We cannot and do not try te ceny that these wages are being paid ou! we do know that they were not
 pa!a prior to September 16. when tho aviation for a union started. All tha1 we ask is condition that our oppon sats enjoy the right to organize. This
 ae nearest solution to the labol question that is known. don't sax
 .uat 1t is the only solution but i sOmss nearer being solution thar
 snytnlng as yet known.
 me word patriotism" has beer
 Wontinued on spaee six.,
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