Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-18
LAST AND ONLY
HOPE IS STRIKE---
STEEL WORKERS
Failing to Obtain Conference With
Corporation Their Last Resort, Is
Walkout Monday, They Declare
WILL STAY OUT UNTIL
MEETING IS ASKED FOR
BY associated Press.


Pittsburgh, Pa, Sept. 1S.-Before
resuming their discussion to-day on
matters in connection with the steel
workers strike, called for next Mon
day, the national committee for or
ganizing iron and steel workers is
sued a statement that having failed
to obtain a conference with the
United States Steel Corporation the
last and only hope is to strike until
such time as the corporation will
meet the representatives of the
men.
Answer Gary
The statement follows:
I'm his letter of September 16 to
the presidents of the subsidiary
companies of the United States Steel
Corporation. Judge Gary AYERS that
he had two reasons in mind when
he refused to meet with the Amer
lean Federation of Labor committee,
which called upon him recently re-
questing n conference for the pur-
pose of presenting grievances of his
employees.
First, he did not believe that the
committee was authorized to speak
for large numbers of the employees.
Second, conference with the
committee would have been treated
by them as recognition of the
CLOSED shop method of employ
ment.
IF these are the real reasons
actuating Judge Gary, surely they
are not sufficient to plunge the in
dustry into a great labor conflict.
Judge Gary presents a false promise
and then declares that he will stand
or fall upon this false ground.
Selected Delegates
THE committee that waited upon
Judge Gary were the selected repre-
sentatives of the employees. And
they requested a conference for the
purpose of establishing the principle
of collective bargaining and some
practical method of redressing griev-
anCeS.
Judge Gary denied their author
ity to represent the employees and
refused to meet them in confer
ence. The only way left for the
employees to convince, Judge Gary
that the committee does represent
the great body of the employees of
the United States Steel Corporation
is to cease work until the corpora
ton agrees to meet their represen-
tatives in conference. This the en-
ployes have decided to do on Mon
day morning, September %.
1t is unfortunate that the en-
ployes are compelled to resort to a
strike in order to prove the authority
of their selected representatives to
present their grievances. But as
there is no other way, the proof. in
the form of a strike. will effectually
remove all doubt in Judge Gary's
mind.
Closed Shop Bugaboo
In the second place, Judge Gary
sets up the question of the closed
shop which has absolutely no basis
whatsoever in the present contro-
versy 1t is simply dragged in here
by Judge Gary as a bugaboo to be-
cloud the real issue.
There is one and only one uues-
ton at issue and that is the question
OF conference. The employees have
exhausted every avenue of approach
to the corporation for the purpose of
securing conference and every
avenue has been closed to them.
Their last and only hope is to strike,
and now the employees declare that
they will cease work on next Mon
day morning until such time as the
corporation will meet their repre-
sentatives in conference for the pur-
pose of establishing humane and
reasonable methods of dealing with
the very vital problems which affect
their lives, their homes and their
future"