davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Cancellation
Unsuccessful

ederal and state authorities or
labor matters have moved to brine
the company and strikers together
but without results, so far. A hear
ing has already been held, attended
by a labor conciliator from Wash.
lngton, at which the labor men pre-
sented their case. The leaders of
the labor movement here threaten
II they are successful in this strike
to unlonize completely all of Water
towns Industries. Steps will be
taken to organize retail clerks.
walters, factory workers of all
kinds, to the end that labor will hold
the whip hand here.
Feeling runs high between the
recalcltrant workers and the man
agement of the air brake COM
pany, but so far the strike has been
conducted without violence. For a
time the strikers conducted their
plcketlng campaign with such fer
vor that the company finally ap-
pealcd to the court and obtained
an injunction preventing the men
who are out from intimidating
workers desirious of continuing
their vocation. But the union men
have continued picketing.
At the hearing before represent
atlves of the Federal War Labor
Board here the attorney for the
strikers summed up the case of the
workers thus: "Our grievances are
as to wages, hours. women's work
and discrimination" Completely
analyzed, the strike has resolved it.
self into struggle for more pay,
for shorter hours and the union
ization of Watertown. So far
neither side shows any signs Of be-
ing willing to compromise. The
company has yet to present it's case
to the Federal representatives.
Out of the chaos of the strike
movement has been brought forth
the idea Of the labor party in
Watertown, on the grounds as set
forth in the preamble of the new
organization, that eve feel that since
the wellbeing of our whole nation
rests upon the welfare of our work
ers, we, the workers of Watertown.
are persuaded that the time has
come to join our brothers every
where in the formation of a politi
cal party that shall express our
needs, and, so far as lies within our
power, establish them firmly in the
forms and processes of law. We,
appeal to our brothers and
sisters in every line Of useful work.
whether an employe or small pro-
prietor in shop, store, field, Office,
transportation or communication
service, to join us in this effort to OBJ
tain larger, freer and better life
for the people
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
The Search for
The Ideal Product

The officials of the company seek
out these rumors with genuine inter
est, perhaps hoping to get a good
suggestion in that way. But they
have denied all of them categori-
cally. The local plant managers say
the company is not yet prepared to
disclose its plans for the future. Of
ficers of the company at the execu-
tive offices assert they are still in
the dark, groplng in the expert
mental stage. Ideas come from
every part of the country, and reg
ular shifting process has been de-
veloped. Many of the suggestions
are not found practicable. Some
are not adapted to the needs of the
plants. Others could not be made
comparatively and others are not re-
garded as marketable.
In the cost plus days of the war
production was the thing. Now pro-
duction, in the view of the Reming-
ton Arms executives, is justified
only in so far as the product would
be salable at a profit. The ideal
product, they say, would be one of a
sufficiently wide appeal to keep all
of the thirteen units and the full
labor capacity of the emergency
plant employed. The company off
cials declare that they have not
decided what they will do.
One important factor that is re-
tarding the transition to peace work
in large plants, such as the Reming-
ton Arms, is the colossal accounting
task incident to a winding up of &C
counts with the government. Inf
mite detail complicates the company's
job of submitting claims to the gov
ernment and likewise delays decision
by the government Much of the
machinery in the Remington Arms
plant was owned by the government
and much by the company. 1t is
difficult to segregate values and own
ership equitably; and the settlement
of payments is also made labyrinthal
by the fact that several systems of
payment-straight contracts, cost
plus contracts, premium and penalty
contracts-were in vogue. Until
these things are concluded the COM
pany feels that it is unable to give
it's undivided attention to the prob
lens that lie ahead
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Financial Bureau
StdH Correspondence

BRIDGEPORT, March 29.-The
X future of Bridgeport is being
~ decided in New York. The di-
rectors of the Remington Arms
Union Metallic Cartridge Company,
who meet in the Woolworth Build
;ng. are the men who must make the
crucial choice. Whether this stra-
teqic centre in the industrial battle
line shall turn to peace and plenty
or whether it's vitality shall be
sappad by protracted unemployment
depends on the policy that these men
adopt.
Bridgeport is looking to the ma
tion's metropolis with anxious eyes.
But that is not because the city de-
pends on one industry for its susie
nance. Quite the contrary. There
are 100 manufacturing plants here,
and when the town criers assert that
virtually everything except furni
ture and agricultural implements is
made here they are not far from the
truth.
The war brought worldwide fame
to Bridgeport, but only three impor-
tant new manufacturing plants.
When the signing of the armistice
transformed the most essential prod
uct of war into a non-essential
Bridgeport faced serious readjust-
ment. While the great conflict last
ed sixty factories here made war
commodities exclusively and rs per
cent of the remaining plants were
partly on a war basis.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Where the Munition
Workers Hare Gone

The farmers who, in quest of the
gold and the thrill that were the
war workers reward, abandoned
their COWS and chickens and small
holdings during the conflict are now
back on the farm, planting for the
next harvest-in some cases the
first in four or five years. The
movement from the munition plants
to the soil has reached large pro-
portions, and should have an influ-
ence on the supply of food. The
farmer who spent a few years dodg-
ing explosions may be expected to
be more energetic and less pro-
vincial than the traditional agrarian.
In many instances the savings of
the rustics during their career in
industrialism were large enough to
pay off their mortgages and to free
them to reap the full rewards of
their agrarian efforts.
Moreover, the school teachers who
found in the powder plants their
niche in. the great warmaking
scheme are now back IN the coun-
try districts, instructing in the
three "R's' instead of grinding out
powder destined during the war to
produce dead Germans. Perhaps
their return is helping to overcome
the nationwide shortage of school
masters and schoolma' ms which was
reported during the emergency
period. And so, too, the village cob
blers who turned to powder making
are back at their old benches. and
the thousands of other miscellane-
Gus workers from the small towns
who ran away from their humdrum
activities and limited opportunities
to the plants that produced muni
tions and fantastic wages are back
again at their accustomed posts.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
BOom Over, But
Actiuity Continues

Meantime, while the strictly wal
plants have been trying to catch ur
with the political facts, the norma
factories of Bridgeport, which hac
suspended their peace work to make
the sinews of war, have already
gone far in the transition to peace
conditions. Several of the larger in
dustries are expanding, and none of
the larger factories is closed down,
The Raybestos Company, makers of
asbestos, are now constructing a big
plant, which will double their pro-
ductive capacity. The hardware.
machine, tool, corset, graphophone,
automobile and textile factories are
especially active.
Those visitors whose knowledge of
Bridgeport was obtained in pictur-
esque magazine articles are disap-
pointed Oh discovering that this is
mot city that was The hotels
are turning away guests because of
lack of accommodations. There is
still a shortage Of apartments and
houses here, although it is true that
there is less crowding in the ROOM
ing places where the munitions
workers gathered. New building
never caught up with the shortage
here during the war, and industrial
rehabilitation has only made the
need slightly less intense. Eight hun
dred new government houses will be
available beginning April l and the
weeks following.
The gain in workers during the
war was at least 10000. The total
population of the city rose to 1872,
600 in 1918, compared with 10000
in 1914. The volume of business done
by the telephone company doubled
during the war. And, as the life of
the city has been geared at less
intense pace, the telephone traffic
has dropped 80 per cent.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Back to the Old
Jobs again

Likewise, the workers in the non
essential ndustries-interior dec
orators, engravers, jewelry workers
and the whole category of toilers
whose occupations were dissociated
from the job of winning the war.
and who therefore, out of economic
necessity, patriotism and the opera
ton of the work-or-tight principle,
filtered into the war plants, are in
many instances now back plying
once more their accustomed trades
which recaptured their lost pres
tige after the matching of FIGHT.
ing stamina on the fields of France
was over
Perhaps the greatest numbers in
the army of munition makers were
recruited from the ranks of skilled
mechanics and unskilled laborers-
distractions behind which are those
bundles of contradictions which
comprise human souls. 1t is more
difficult to trace their reabsorption
into peace time pursuits. The turn
over of unskilled labor-particu-
lariy in times like the present of
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
WutertOlln
City. in Heart of Upstate
Agricultural Region, Seething With
Industrial Unrest-The War Boom
Brought Prosperity and Labor Ills

gone to other fields. The city is
prosperous and suffering among the
poor is less than in normal times.
The Labor News" is the organ
of the labor men of Watertown and
the Socialists. It is edited by O. A.
Babcock, an eX-Methodist, hailing
from st. Lawrence county, all ideal
ist and a Socialist of the Fabian
school. Here is his creed in his own
words:
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Organized Workers
Are Restiue

Organized labor is restive, but it's
leaders admit that if the large war
plants which are all but idle now, as
they are finishing up their last or
ners, start manufacturing CONNER
cal products unemployment will
cease TO trouble the city. The mem
bers of the local branch Of the In
ternational Association Of Machin-
lets, which is the most powerful
labor organization here, are plan
n'ng to offer their own solution if
tnc manufacturers lag after May
10. They are now busily recruiting
new members and purpose to de-
mand progressive shortening of
hours Of employment to spread the
opportunity for work to all who seek
jobs.
samuel Lavit, business agent of
tne union and leader of the strike
'asS summer, told The Tribune that
sne union will demand a forty-four
hour week by May Is, and q contin-
uons shortening Of the hours Of
'apor until unemployment ceases. He
said that the union felt that the city
administration had erred grievously
. falling actively to support the
VI0Jeft recently before tho a4a%.
sIsiaturc to make harbor i'm
ployensnts at Bridgeport, which
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Wilmington
Thousands of Munition Workers. After
the Cessation of Work for the Gov
ernment, Have Now Returned to
the PlacesW w hence They Came

is large. Even in war time, when
labor was so previously scarce that
a worker would be discharged only
for single offence in the du Pont
plants, according to the men-the
offence of carrying lighted matches
In powder factories for the second
time-the labor turnover was be-
tween II and 20 per cent a month.
Most of the miscellaneous work
ers were transferred to other large
industrial plants in other districts,
whose activity did not wither away
when the guns ceased firing. The
du Pont company turned it's elabo-
rately organized labor department,
which had stretched out a dragnet
for workers in various parts of the
country during the war, into a job
seeking agency after the armistice
was signed. Moreover, the company
invited representative of large en-
ployers of labor to visit its plants
and interview its workers who were
about to be discharged.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
From Guns to
PIoughshares

Another halting factor at Bridge
port is the fact that, although agree
ment has been reached regarding
the settlements of most pending con-
tracts, no payments have been made
as yet. Within the limits Of the
city 100000 square feet of floor
space lie idle. All but 100000 square
feet Of this are in the Remington
Arms and Liberty Ordnance Com
pany plants. At it's peak the Rem
ington Arms employed $4,000 men
and women. Now there are $500
on the payroll, finishing work in
process. The skeleton of the larger
organization remains almost intact,
however, and is ready to build up a
large personnel.
The Union Metallic Cartridge
Company, which is owned by the
Remington Arms, merely expanded
it's plant during the war. 1t did not
create II alter 1914. Therefore, it is
now reverting to its pre-war occu-
patton Of producing sporting ammu-
milton and making ammunition to
meet the peace needs of this and
other governments. The U. M. c..
forces have just completed the last
war order Of shells for the govern
ment and arc now engaged in load
ing them.
The Liberty Ordnance Company,
which was built during the war,
now lies idle and, according to Off
GERS Of the ordnance department, the
owners Of the property will place it
on sale next month. At present, the
government is using it as storage
place. Until just before the signing
of the arnisticc, the American Can
Company operated the works for the
government at 81 a year.
The third large war plant was
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
After the ScaipS
OF "Capitnlisic" Press

In another connection Babcock
wrote: when we come to our own
reconstruction, unless there is a
marked change and the people are
given something from the big papers,
then, when our people are disillu-
stoned finally and we awaken sud-
denly, and we have, as Roosevelt
threatened in 1912, our own replica
of the French Revolution, the mob
will seek not so much the heads of
the rulers as the heads of big busi-
ness and of the owners and editors
of the big capitalistic newspapers"
Babcock is one of the leaders of the
labor movement here and has the
support of the union organization.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
The Ultimate
Effects OF Boom

LUeClS ~ Doom
The retail stores which felt the
reflex Of the war boom much less
than is generally believed are not
suffering now. The general mana
gers of several of the largest de-
partment stores in the city say that
the volume of business at present
shows an increase over the same
period year ago. Similar reports
were made by the keepers of special
ty shops. The consensus of opinion
was that, though the aggregate re-
tail business of the city may have
fallen off since November II, the de-
cline has not been heavy. Bridge
! port, the merchants say, did not de-
rive as great benefits from the war
boom as was commonly imagined,
as the dollars that were paid to
many of the outsiders who were at
tracted by high wages committed.
The men would send money out of
town to their families, who would
spend it in places other than Bridge
port. Because Of this tendency one
large local bank here for more than
year was getting 100000 to
100000 week in new money from
the Treasury to meet payrolls.
Bridgeport folk are not certain
that the war boom has left any per
manent benefits. An authorized
spokesman for the manufacturers
of the city argued in this way: "Thc
squatting of the great war plants
here brought large groups of work
ers, and after the armistice they
were dumped into the city. Of
course, many of them were foaters,
who soon drifted away. Temporary
workers do not help a city. They
are simply on the make and without
any civic consciousness. Then, too.
the munitions plants, by attracting
labor with high wages, made it ex-
tremely difficult for the other facto-
ries of the city to get help. The
growth was of the mushroom vari-
ETY. and was not particularly healthy
"On the other side of the balance
sheet it may have swelled the re-
ceipts Of some of the retailers. 1t
gave employment to labor. The
boom assisted people who took in
boarders to meet high rents.'
Some of the manufacturers felt
that the munition plants were dis
turbing the labor situation unduly,
and, therefore, felt somewhat bitter
ly against them. One large en-
ployer Of labor here said that he
would not take back any of his
workers who had left his employ to
enter the munitions plants, as he re-
garded them as "disloyal to the com
pany." 1t should be said, however,
that the judgment Of the majority of
the manufacturers here regarding
the big war plants was tempered by
patriotism and the realization that
high power production at any cost
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
The Source of
The Trouble

Labor trouble has been brewing in
Watertown, city normally free
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Financial Bured~

w NIATERTOWN, March 29.-
w Think of a peaceful little
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Financial Bureau
Staff Correspondence

w WILMINGTON, MARCH %
wv The ebb and flow of the
human tide of war work
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30

BRIDGEPORT, March 29.-The
X future of Bridgeport is being
~ decided in New York The di-
New-York tribune., 1919-03-30


cotton activities, its labor staff
studied the general employment sit
uatlon and invited representatives
of the large shipbuilding corpora
tions, the steel companies, the rail
roads and the other great employ
ers OF labor to come to the various
plants and interview the du Pont
workers. A literal labor market
was thus created.
The du Pont company strove af-
ter selective rehabilitation of its
workers. When moulders or elec-
trlcal workers, let US say, were in
special demand, the effort was made
to let them leave at mutually con-
venlent time. The new EMPLOYER
was IN all cases asked to paw tho
railroad fare of the worker to his
new destination.
"As our workers were about to
be let out" the executive of the du
Font labor department further cx-
planned, "our employment men
would discuss with them their op-
portunity for other jobs and would
advise them about conditions. In all
cases we advised against loafing
and IN favor of getting into peace
work while the demand for labor
continued. AS they went into new
Jobs, believe the basic wage stand
ards were kept up. ] do not think
that there is any real unemploy
ment among our workers now"
Out of the $500 men and women.
unorganized, but unified by common
aims, who strained themselves to
the utmost during the war that
powder might flow in an unbroken
stream across the Atlantic Ocean.
only few thousand are now left
on the payrolls.
New-York tribune., 1919-01-25
Love and Lust

FOOTSTEPS BY Dorothy PercivaL l2mo. DID,
Sl6. John Lano Company.
The same old-time story, man the
pursuer and woman the pursued, but
instead of the usual conventional back
ground of much used plots written
around the theatre and mistresses,
"Footsteps" takes us to the Canary
Islands, with the most unconventional
background of unconventional people
OF sordid little town in that heavy
palpltatlng atmosphere of the islands,
where morality is not upheld as a high
standard of the virtues and whore
gambling and drinking walk together
hand in hand, mocking the inhabitants
to come and play with them.
Daphne Nugent and her father, who
settled on the island to retrieve their
fortunes and much smirched reputa
ton, after rather vainglorious career
IN London and elsewhere, form the
principal characters in this story Of
nigh drama and comedy The father. a
man from a fine old English family
having become decadent, and about
whose virtues the less said the better;
always ,selfishly optimistic and buoyed
| up by the auto suggestion Of better be-
havlor, especially after an unusually
hard night playing cards and drinking.
practically forces his daughter into the
hands OF an unscrupulous Spaniard
who has the adjoining farm and Who
cloaks his real intentions to Daphne
under a covering of scrvility and hom
age, being, nevertheless, unable alto
gcther to hide his fangs. Of course,
the law of compensation prevails, and
the situation is saved by young Eng
lish engineer, who marries Daphne and
takes her to his home in England
AS sex or near-sex novels 90. it is
a creditable book, for the fact cannot
be overlooked that it is we'll written,
in a most picturesque style. All the
good and bad qualities of nature arc
unfoldcd and shown in all their garish-
ness IN q brilliant manner, and there is
enough of the womanly sweetness, al
belt mixed with cynicism, of Daphne
and of the manly qualities of Ronnie
dlsplayed to remove the otherwise
m ol1ths
New-York tribune., 1919-01-25
Fighting the /. W. W.
Tools of German Conspirators
in the Wheat Country

THE DESERT OF WHEAT by Zane Grey Il
lustraed. Emo. pD. 377. Harper & Bros.
Far away and long ago" may seem
the scene and time in which this great
romance is cast. Indeed, the Desert
of Wheat was almost as far from
Broadway in one direction as that
other desert of No Mans Land was in
the other. AS for events which hap
pened just after our entry into the
war, why surely they are ancient his
tory, which we would better forget
than remember in this time Of piping
peace. Yet were these things after all
within the borders of our own land;
and they were things which it both
will and should take not two years
but two generations if not two centu-
res to erase from the mind and heart
OF the nation that has suffered them.
DR.. Grey has written no finer work
of fiction than this heart-gripping ro
nance of the wheat country in time of
war Five thousand miles from that
dread Western Front, the bend Of the
Columbia Basin was yet almost as
much involved in the war as Ypres or
Verdun. For the wheat was needed
to feed our allies, and for the destruc-
ton of that wheat the shrewdest devil
tries of enemy aliens and native trait
New-York tribune., 1919-01-25
A Book of the Sea

BY Lady sybl Scott i2mo&pp. XIV iSa ~ asSsa oS
ford University Press.
Of making anthologies there is no
end, but there is still possibility now
and then of novelty, and that possbil-
ity Lady Sybil Scott has here discerned
and finely realized. We could not say
that no other collection of verse and
prose about the sea had ever been
formed, but we may pretty confidently
say that no other now eXtant is COM
parable with this in compass of selec-
ton, in taste and discretion, or in all
the qualities which arc indispensable
in satisfactory anthology. In range
of time it extends from Moses to Kip
ling; in language and race through
Hebrew, Gaelic, Greek, Latin, Italian,
French and English 1t contains the
familiar masterpieces and also many
unfamiliar but glorious pieces Being
of human origin it is, of course, not
wholly impeccable-not even Lady Sy-
bill Scott could be quite justified in
abridging "The Chambered Nautilus''-
but it's faults of both omission and
commission are surprisingly few, while
its merits arc many. Just 10 have
Turner's "Slave Ship" Browning's
"Herve Riel," Coleridge's "Ancient
Mariner" Cunningham "a Wet Sheet