Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-01-11
UNCOND|T|0N
 SURRENDER OF
 BOAT OWNERS
President Wilson Appealed to For Settlement of Dock Workers Strike.
BUSINESS STILL PARALYzED
Strikers Unanimously Reject Proposal For Forty Eight Hour Armistice Pending Conference of Owners and Officials.

1 Officials.
 New York, Jan. 1G.-No hope of an early settlement of the strike which ] has paralzyed the port of New York TOT two days was apparent tonight Leaders of the sixteen thousand work CTS on tugs, lighters and ferries de- clared emphatically that they are pre- Pa1ed for finish fight. Their em- pioyers, members of the New York .'oai Owners Association, were eaual- lv emphatic in their assertion that they never would yield to the demand for an eight hour day.
 The visit of the city today of Secre- tary of War Baker led to the hope that his influence might result in an adjustment but the hope was short lived. When the Secretary left tonight for Ottawa, where he will speak to- morrow night, he had given no inti- nation that the>war department would take a hand in the controversy. On the contrary, he said the strike had not resulted in serious embarrass- ment to the department. Returning troops were being debarked without delay, he stated and there had been no interruption to the flow of supplies to the army overseas. Enough navy tugs are available for this work MT. Baker said.
 The most serious development of the day was the decision of the strike committee to revoke all exemptions previously made. This action called out men employed on fire boats and those running to Islands on which are located municipal, charitable and re- form institutions. The action was taken after an emergency ferry boat service had been established with Staten Island by employees of the police department.
 After Mayor Hylan had been inform ed that the strikers had withdrawn their exemptions he sent a letter to District Attorney Swann asking him to bring the situation to the atten- tion of the Grand Jury. The Mayor declared that if employees on fire boats and those operated by the de- partments of charities and correction. go on strike they will violate their pub lie duty and be guilty of misdea- menor. The same charge could be preferred, he said, against the strike leaders
 There was no actual shortage today of either food or coal because of the strike. but it was realized that the situation presents menacing possibili- ties.
 After meeting of the boat owners at the Maritime exchange it was an- nounced they were prepared to offer their men an average increase of ap- proximately twenty per cent.
 The strike committee of the Marine Workers Affiliation unanimous voted today to reject the proposal of A. H Smith, eastern regional director o1 AS hour resumption of harbor strike.
 Railroad officials today were devot
 ing their efforts to re-routing food foi the city from points in New Jersey tt
 points in New York state from wher' , it can be brought here by train. Uniformed policemen turned cecf hands at dawn and enabled Staten | . land shipbuilding to progress nniater ruptedly by getting the workers to thu yards on time. The policemen oper ated on municipal ferry boat between Manhattan and Staten Island and il
 the early hours this was the onl r craft to ply along this route at 5 time when ordinarily thousands 0 commuters are crossing the harbor. g The railroad officials, whose ferries T lighters and barges ordinarily brin k thousands of tons of provisions int Manhatten every day, undertook on a extensive scale the re-routing of thes l shipments.
 | Consignments from nearby New Jel
 sey points were ordered brought int
 the city through the North River chan
 nels, while foodstuffs from more dis
 tant sections were billed to the metro
 polls by way of Buffalo. Heavy sEtr
 ments from the Long Island vege
 table stroage centers, most of whic
 used the East River ferries, wef
 brought across the bridges or throus
 the Pennsylvania-Long Island tunne
 Seven Lackawanna railroad ferr
 boats. whose crews stood by the leaC
 CTS of their own union and defied tn
 strike order of the Marine Workers
 Affiliation, were operating toda.
 Staten Island was given passenge
 service when uniformed policemen be (Continued on page five)