New-York tribune., 1918-09-13
Wilson Calls on Bridgeport
Strikers to Resume Work
Announcement of Appeal From President Tones Down
Obstructive Attitude of Machinsts Who Insist That
Only Listing as Traitors Will Compel Surrender

BRIDGEPORT, Conn, Sept. 12. "A
notification from Washington received
here late this afternoon, announcing
that the President is issuing procla
nation calling on the machinists of
this city to resume their jobs at once
and Garry on" has driven a percepti
Bile wedge into tho forefront of the
strikers offensive. Coupled with the
implications of registration day, it has
considerably toned down the strikers
obstructive attitude.
To- day several OF the men who at the
beginning of the trouble left Bridge
port in search of other work came back
into town, tool boxes in hand, and ap-
piled at the factories for their old Jobs.
These men were Immediately set to
work, the manufacturers declaring to-
night that up to date the total of the
returning ones had reached thousand.
At the same time, however, other
groups were leaving the city by nearly
every train.
Having successfully defied both the
! National War Labor Board and the
/ international heads of their own union,
the great bulk of the 5000 men still
out declared to-day that, short of some
action which will cause them to be
officially listed as traitors, they will
stop at nothing in their efforts to Sc
! cure the recognition that they seek as
specially skilled workmen entitled to
Strikers to Hold Mass Meeting
Tomorrow afternoon, after the text
been received here. the strikers will
| hold a convention at the State Street
Casino. Representative men still hope
that calmer counsels will prevail over
night but to-day the general disposi
tion of the men is to move for reso-
luton saying that they will go back
only as they went out-which is to say,
in a body. with each man assured of
the place he quit when the big walk
out order came.
In so far as many Of the vacated jobs
have been filled during the strike pc
rod, mostly with women, whom the
heads of the munition plants here do
J
turn out, any such technical compliance
with the Presidents request is likely
to leave the situation about where it
| is now
Another proposal popular among the
strikers day is to take the position
that they have been automatically dis
charged and consequently, in going
back, they are applying for new Jobs
In which case they say that they would
O. for l.
! 80-cent minimum for toolmakers and
70 cents for machinists for which they
are striking
Strikers Outlawed by Union
Since compliance with this demand
would be in direct violation of the
terms of the award made for the Ma
tiona War Labor Board by Otto NJ.
Eidlitz~in which it was stipulated that
the entire matter of classification for
toolmakers and machinsts, the real
bone of the Bridgeport contention,
should be left open for six months
the factory heads here are a unit in
saying that they would not entertain
any such proposition.
Meanwhile the strikers have already
become outlaws from their own inter
national union. The forty eight hours
of grace within which President Will
lam II. 'ohHScoH VI tndt organization
in his patriotic appeal said that they
must return to work or else forfeit
their connection with the Grand Lodge
of the International Association of
Machinists expired at 10 O'Clock to-
night. Seemingly, though, the men
were unperturbed by this fact.
1--WE have the right to appeal this
autocratic action of his to a refercn-
dunn of all the machinist union men
throughout the country said Samuel
havlt, business agent in charge of the
strikers. I'VE expect to have Johnston
kicked out of his JOB for the action he
mas taken, and we expect, before we
are through, to split the international
wide open. The thing that we are con-
tending for n fundamental 1t is es-