Arizona republican., 1921-03-10
FIRST BIG INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM IS PRESENTED
 TO PRESIDENT HARDING
Empoyes Charge Packers Forced Livestock Prices Below PreWar Levels And Having Filled Warehouses With Meat Bought At Low Prices Seek To Cripple Industry
 In Order To Boost Prices To Public

work day at a starvation wage and servi1ity to the point where no work men dare call his soul his own"
 The telegram to President Harding, totalling 500 words, reviewed the whole situation leading up to the wage re- ducttOn announced by the packers yes terday and asks him to bring to the conference table this small group of employers who are bent upon plung- ing one of the great food industries of the nation into chaos"
 During the war. the telegram con tinued, workers of the packing plants joined the union in large numbers
 They were confronted with mount ing living costs.' it said, land at the same time information of the 'enor- nous profits of the packers was pub lished broadcast"
 telegram said. @the employers showed fight and said they were willing that a strike should take place. On the other hand, the employees representatives induced them to remain on the job as patriotic duty. President Wilson sue
 ceeded in bringing the packers into conference and the result was an agreement that, during the period of the war, they would submit all points of difference with their employees to arbitration. Judge Alschuler was se- lected as the administrator to arbi- trdIG tulS QlI1eTeHce. Large Packer Conspiracy The telegram further recites that the agreement was continued after Hhe armistice at the request of the packers and that nowRt the very beginning | of the reconstFHctiox period the pack CTS repudialS Their agreement They
 have further apHounced that beginning
 next Monday they will reduce wages 12M to 15 per cent and reinstate the | 10-tr f7ax all r,fa Alschuler having granted the employees l an eight hour day in his first award.
 We charge" the telegram said. that ] the packers, having forced livestock l prices down to a lower than pre- war level and having filled their store tbought at the lowest of prices on the hoof, now propose to cripple industry l deliberately for the purpose of un- 1 loading this meat at enhanced prices upon the public, thereby achieving the double purpose of enormous profits by adding to the cost of living to the gem I eral public, and of striking. at the same time, body blow at organized 1 labor for the purpoce of destroying it. 1 "An orderly and established method l of proceeding in industrial affairs" by conference and arbitration is advocated in the telegram which says this method "contemplates strikes and lockouts and other hcstilities of industrial warfare as a last resort. when no peaceful set clement is possible.
 Want Agreement To Stand
 The president is then petitioned 10
 bring the packers into conference. Meanwhile, the telegram suggests, the
 president is urged to request the five big packers "to hold in abeyance the wage and hour changes until your secretary of labor can investigate the charges contained herein.'
 'The packers should not be permit
 ted" the telegram concludes. ito braz-
 enly violate the agreement, thereby ig- !, noring the government and their em- l, ployes. destroying at the same time the agency of arbitration set up by the government which could pass and l should pass upon any changes the
 packers or the employees may desire
 to put into effect
 Denial that the packers had large stores of meat on hand was made in a i statement tonight by Richard Hebb oi
 Chicago, speaking for the packers. He , said that all storage stocks on hand , February 23 were but S3.e00, 900 pounds : more than the same date last year and 61, 900, 900 pounds less than in 1919.
 O. C. Willis, manager of the Omaha branch Of Armour and company, com menting on the appeal of the confer , ence of packing house employees te : President Harding to try to proven F proposed wage reductions said tonight