Denver labor bulletin., 1917-07-28

ment. One hlRh OmCldl OF inc n.
Governor Hunt had been in Bisbee at
the hour of the raid he would probably
have been herded into a cattle-car at
the point of a gun, along with the hun
dreds of his political friends who were
given that treatment.
The situation seems to be one in
which the copper companies, unwill-
ing to settle the strikes by any gen.
erous grant of wages and conditions,
decided to clean up" every working
class agitator to be found. They did,
for the moment Now they have so
mixed up the /. w. W. agitators with
the regular union men and lot OF
small business men who were Hunt
partisans, that Arizona is in mood
to ''clean up" the copper kings.
Strike Used as Pretext.
"I'd strike, and tie up the whole
copper industry, rather than let them
get away with this deportation game"
was the statement made by one of
the biggest men in the mining trades
when he got the news. He is not an
/. W. W. He has no use for them, and
hopes they may be eliminated from
the situation. But as the facts of the
Bisbee deportation gradually come in
to headquarters, it becomes more and
more evident that the /. W. W strike
was used merely as preteNt for a
coup by the Phelps-Dodge officials, di-
rected by Walter Douglas, heavy in
weston in copper mines. These NINE
managers run true to type-they want
to get rid of unions.
II is probable that the l. W. ". Will
fade ont Of the situation in Arizona,
since federal troops are to take charge,
but the members of the International
Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers. and the local unions former
" connected with that body and now
affiliated only with the State Fedora
ton of Labor, will remain They Will
absorb a majority of the men who
have been stampeded into the /. w. W.
organization. All of these thousands
of miners will refuse to be deported
anywhere by anybody. They will
probably convince their senators and
representatives in congress that there
is another side to the deportation is
sue. Then public opinion will take
another turn. and the companies VIII
have to sign up with these local unions
for a living wage for the period of
the war.
While speaking of the big /. w. w.
scare. it is just as well to set down
here that the governor of Idaho did
not send any telegram to Washing
ton. asking for help or saying that the
I. W. w. were creating reign OF
terror. He wired Senator Borah that
there were some strikes in the logging
camps, but there had been no violence
or terrorism of any kind. The strik-
ers' demands were being met.
Building Trades Recognition?
Just a month ago the spokesmen of
the metal trades and the building
trades departments of the A. r. of l..
held their conference with spokesmen
of the council of rational defense, in
an attempt to get a general agree
ment for either representation of the
unions on the boards handling the war
contracts. or joint board for set
Ting industrial disputes with relation
to war work The upshot of this con-
ference. and of other conferences held
during the last week of June and the
first half of July, remains a mystery.
Both sides admit that something is un-
der way, but refuse to talk, "for rea-
sons of public policy"
Some time ago there was a demand.
by the Building Trades Council at
Chillicothe, o., that the union shop be
made the rule for construction of all
the army cantonments-a matter of
$50 900 900 worth of work. This sug-
gestion has been one of the things
taken up in conferences. Probably 1t
will not be accepted by the council of
national defense. The government has
never declared a union shop anywhere.
On the other hand, many government
plants have been almost solidly organ
lied. and this is assumed to be the
prospect in the places where the build
ing trades unions are strong enough to
handle n cantonment job.
If any agreement between the gov
ernment and the unions is reached as
to cantonment work, an agreement
should be reached with scarcely great
er trouble to cover all of the num-