Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1920-07-20

'oosoo0roSO VI IIiC UlliiOll uOlidl
Ytotal they sought.
| Judge r. NJ Barton, chairman. admit
| ted that it is not far off, when shown
| the report
| Whether an award on the basis
| reported will be acceptable to the
! men, no union officer was prepared
| to say. Nearly 1000 brotherhood
| charmen and executives assembled
| Monday to discuss union affairs and
| adjourned till tomorrow.
| 4 feeling of pessimism was evident,
when union leaders met and privately
said they did not hesitate to declare !.
general strike is possibility Monday.
lit was virtually certain that the union ,
chiefs themselves would not call a strike ,
! but would submit the question of accept
ing of rejecting the boards award to
referendum.
Copy Is Stolen
| The labor board began investigating
| the looting of its offices Sunday night
| when someone broke in and stole among
other things. copy of the award. Two
| copies had been prepared. one for the
| boards files and the other one for the /
| printer. d
| 1t was the former which was stolen !
| The printed decision covers 20 pages, !
making about 5000 words
Big Four Is Watched
| The most closely watched conferenc.
of rail leaders was that of the big
five group, comprising the Brother ,
hood Of Railway Engineers, Firemsn,
Conductors, Trainmen and Switchmen !
Representatives of the six federated
shop crafts, including the blacksmiths,
bollermakers, carpenters and electriciansI |
also We're in session, while leaders OF
the maintenance employees clerks. /
freight handlers, and laborers-met in
several conferences.
There is nothing to be said yet
Enginmen.
we are here to receive the awards
Of the railway wage board tomorrow.
None of us know what the award will be.
We are talking things over today
Immediately after announcement Of
the award Tuesday the grand council Of
the Brotherhoods will be called. 1t will
be the first session in more than a year.
Sixteen groups of rail workers will be-
represented. They will act upon the.
award, section by section.
Secret Meeting.
At the general meeting of union heads,
Monday, at which Peter Kilduff, chair
man of the engineers union on the Rock.
Island system was elected chairman,
credentials of all union representatives
were carefully examined before they
We're allowed to enter Secrecy shroudei!
the meeting. The only union leader here
who was outspoken concerning the stu,
alton was, ). +. Hebering, president oh
| the Switchmen's union of North Amer
ica. He declared the unions were not
bound to accept the awards. Asserting,
that he should not like to see a GEM
eral strike called he said that with the
switchmen asking go per cent increase
a compromise would hardly be accepts
able"
"if the award is not sufficient to
assure us decent living, we will
take concerted action," he said.
New Organization Out.
While the recognized brotherhood
ehiefS were IN session another group,
representing the rail unions organic
ed during the rail strikes in April. met
under the leadership of John Grunau,
president of the Chicago Yardmen's as
| soclatlon, to formulate plans of their
own. They have asked that their senior
ltE rights be restored but the board re-
fused to hear their representatives and
1t was understood that the awards would
not touch on their status.
We are not ready to say at this time
Just what we will do said John Grunau,
But don't believe the men will be sat-
'sfied with the award. according to ad-
vance reports ! have heard Of the
terms. As soon as the awards become
public we will cell mass meeting Of.
the men IN the Chicago switching dis
trict, The action taken will be tele-
graphed to all locals and they can either,
endorse or reject the action"
While an air of doubt hung over the
railroad situation here. it was announeed
from Philadelphia that the Pennsylvania.
road planned a 10 per cent reduction in
its working force this week. The roads
announcement said that in the eastern
region between f1000 and 10000 work.
ers would be laid off.
j. G. Rodgers. vice president OF the
Northwestern region at Chicago said that
the reduction applied only to tho east
trn region. but that u reduction in this
territory was under Consideration.
From the office of the southwestern
region In St Louis it was learned no
reduction in working force was con-
templated. =,
The reports from Chicago that ths
railway organizations PROBABLY would
reject the proposed award affected Wall
street. causing active transportation
shares to decline an average Of one
point.