The Topeka state journal., 1919-04-12
TO PUT ON APRONS
Topeka Contractors VIII Do
Their Own Work Now.
Begin Tuesday To Complete
Unfinished Contracts in City.
CONCILIATOR is IN TOWN
Government Official Here To
Bring Both Sides Together.
Employers Insist They VIII Not
Pay More Wages.
CONCILIATOR IS IN TOWN
STRIKE SITUATION.

Building still tied up in Topeka.
Freeman j. Rohde, commissioner of con-
ciliation of the United States department of
labor here to settle terms.
Tuesday morning of next week the big
Ten" of the Topeka contractors (master
builders) will don their overaIIs and aprons
and will go to work on unfinished build
inEs.
Contractors still insist that labor and
materials are high that big improve
ments will not be made in Topeka this year
unless the prices are held mt the lowest
level possible.
Union employees refuse to return to work
unless their pay Is raised.
Union men are doing work over the city
as individuals and charging the rate
they ask in the new demands.
Tuesday morning at the regular
whistle hour" ten of the contractors
in Topeka who have been in this city
for many years doing jobs of from
$1,000 to nearly a million in size, will
don their overalls and their aprons
and with the tools of the trade will
complete the unfinished work on sew
eral of the larger contracts here.
The first job will be to complete the
| roof on the Topeka Transfer company
building. This roof stands today as it
did a few weeks ago when the unions
| increase in wages. From the Topeka
Transfer job the ten contractors will
| finish the Fordson plant on lower
Kansas avenue. From there they Will
complete work on the Rose Trunk fac
tory extension, First and Jackson
streets.
The work is necessary that the firms
| occupying the buildings may expand
the contractors assert. In the case OF
| the Fordson plant, big Topeka in
| dustry bringing. many employees and
thousands of dollars in business to the
city, Topeka suffers a real loss unless
the building is rushed to completion
i this spring.
1t is the first time in the history OF
the building trades in Topeka or Kan
| sas that contractors have Joined to-
gether in an effort to complete unfin-
ished contracts by taking hammer and
saw in hand and following out theii
! trade as individuals. -tsess 49, 2
1 Governments Conciliator Here.
Freeman J. Rohde, commissioner o.
Cancellation of the United Seates de
partment of labor, arrived in Topeka
at noon today in an attempt to brint
! together the contractors and unions
/ He went into consultation Immediately
with the leaders of both sides.
/ The contractors, it is understood
are holding their ground against the
I 20 per cent demand in wages. The,
assert that both labor and material:
are SO high at this time that at leas
a half dozen big jobs in Topeka haV'
been abandoned because of the cost o.
/ construction. The contractors are will
ing, however, to maintain the presen
price of labor.
The union side of the question /.
\ not known. Union leaders refuse tC
even listen to the requests of reporter:
for information. AS far as newspapers
men are concerned never has ther,
been an admittance on the part of th'
unions that there is a strike. 1t IL
known, however, that the unions in
sist upon their demands for more pay
Meanwhile they are soliciting and ac
cepting jobs over the city at the prize
of labor asked from the contractors.
At a late hour this afternoon tn
government conciliator was still il
conference with the strikers and em
! ployers