Republican farmer., 1919-07-18

set workers of the country was decided on at the meeting of the executive committee of the International Corset Workers Union this morning and Miss Fanny Cohen, national vice president of the International Garment Workers Union left for New York to obtain the authorization of that powerful union for the strike.
 She will return tonight and will be present at the meeting of the local with that power and a strike will be immedi- ately called.
 This move of the Corset Workers they assert, is the result of the action of Warner Brothers in ordering the lockout at their shops without wait ing for the presentation or any de- mands by the workers and in refus- ing to discuss the grievances of their employees before taking this drastic action.
 The Corset Workers and affiliated organizations stand ready to spend $250, coo to win this fight now that it has been forced on them" said Ira Ornburn, secretary of the State Fed eration of Labor, who is advising with the Corset Workers in this crisis
 The general strike will affect the State of Connecticut more than any other State in the Union as most of the corsets that are made in the Unit ed States are made here.
 The Corset Workers in the sta te number over 10, 900 and with the oth- CT trades dependent on the corset workers the strike will effect over 20, 1000 persons.
 The Corset Workers are the poor est paid class of workers in the coun- try" said MT. Ornburn and taking into consideration the time they are without work during any year tn cir wages do not average ovAr s7-OO a week and this notwithstand nding the enormous prices charged by the man. ufacturers for their finished product"
 The Corset Cutters met at Eagles hall at 10 o'clock this morning and formulated a set of demands which include a At hour week and a closed shop. According to the report of president John Kiernan they voted unanimously to support the Corset Workers in all their demands.
 The meeting of the Corset Workers was held at Il o'clock and Miss Nellie Chase, the president, explained the delay in calling the meeting by stat ing that she and the officers were detained at the meeting of the execu- tive committed
 The members who had volunteered for picket duty at yesterdays meet ing reported that they had perform ed their duties at the several shops. There was very little trouble. only one instance, in which one young lady said that an ofhcious police officer had approached her after she had been talking to q member of the union and told her that he would arrest her if she spoke to any
 more girls. She said. 1T answered him back, and he knew he had no authority, so he did not arrest me although he continued to threaten"
 One of the pickets reported that the employees of the-box and ship ping departments of Warner Bros. factory had walked out of the shop this morning at o'clock.
 MT. Ornburn advised the pickets to keep up their good work and to do everything legally and to avoid trou- .ble. To try and persuade those who were employed in the other shops to join the union. but that if they re- fused to join with the locked out girls not to mind 1t.
 We want to go along within the law" he said, and it is up to them if they don't wish to join. We are hopeful that they will all join."
 He told the workers that at tonights g meeting a vice-president Of the In ternational Garment Workers would be present who could talk Italian ana would explain everything to the 1tal- ian girls and there would also be speakers in Polish and Slavish to talk to the girls who understood those 1an- guages.
 Defending the attitude they have taken the officials of the Warner Bros factory today made the following statement:
 We want to deny most emphati- cally that the Warner Bros Co. has ever had, or has today, the slightest intention of establishing a lockout. Last week we were informed that certain demands would be made upon us that we knew in advance would require reasonable time in eonsidera-
  tons made it positive that during this discussion the plant production would be seriously interrupted by debate and agitation of the various points at issue and it seemed decidedly to us to the benefit of our employees. as well as ourselves, and the community at large, that our employees who were effected be requested to quietly re- tire to their homes until such tune as we could resume work in the plant, free and unencumbered rom agitation and discussion.
 We have tried to keep pace with the changed conditions of working. l1v- ing, etc. In the face of this, we were very much surprised that a puo1c discussion of our labor conditions was undertaken before the matters had been presented to us by our employees 1, or their committees, with whom we have worked in harmony for a long time. As a result of this particular feature of the case, it seems best for us in future to adopt the more ad- vanced and complete government