Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-06
THREAT Of MAINTENANCE
MEN To STOP WORK GETS
ATTENTION Of PRESIDENT
Negotiations to End Rail Strike Taken Up in
Washington as Union Men at Work Protest
Against Alleged Unsafe Conditions on Roads;
Conference Between Harding and Strikers.

Washington, Aug. 5.-(By The As
sociated Press.)-Negotiations to end
the strike of railroad shop craftsmen
were resumed Saturday by President
Harding and B. NJ. Jewell, president of
the railroad employees department of
the American Federation of Labor. w.
II. Johnston president of the machln-
lists and J. p. Noonan. head of the
electrical workers brotherhood, who
left the White House after an hour of
conference with the chief executive, ex-
pecting to be recalled on Monday.
1t was not disclosed whether the pre-
sident had communicated again with
railroad heads, whose refusal this week
to grant his proposal to give returning
strikers back seniority status, termin-
ated the first settlement attempt, but
the strike leaders. in cheerful mood,
said after the conference that the pro-
posals. as originally outlined by the
president, constituted their 'irreducible
minimum in seeking honorable settle
ment"
Likewise. II. E. Wills, J. Paul
Stephens and Arthur J. Lowell, repre-
senting respectively the engineers,
trainmen and enginemen and firemen.
three of the four brotherhood organi-
cations, saw the president at the in
stance of national chiefs of these ord
ers and of the switchmens union and
presented the possibility that grave
prospects of further rail unsettlements
were in sight unless the shop situation
was Strengthened out. 1t was under
stood that while they did not set up a
possibility of sympathetic strikes by
their membership, they declared that
the conditions Of railroad equipment,
locomotives particularly. on many
roads, was growing to be such that
traip crews might refuse service. No
public statement of their report was
made. other than that contained in the
message from the brotherhoods Off
Gals under. which they acted in going
to the White House, and nothing was
given out officially. They made it
plain. however, that they made no re-
quest of the president with confer
ence with the brotherhaad chiefs
Southern Meet Postponed
) The meeting between general chair
men of the shop workers on the South
ern railway and operating officials. set
for Saturday, was postponed until
Monday because. according to union
leaders. all the representatives of the
men had not arrived in Washington
The Southern has acted differently
from the other roads of the country
and has offered separate settlement
on the basis of President Harding's
PROPOSALS without reservation Mr.
Jewell Saturday night said that the
question Of whether the Southern shop
men would go back was entirely up to
the men," and that the general policy
committee Of the shop crafts federation
bad instructed general chairmen to
meet officials of single railroads when
ever such n meeting was desired.
Officials of the shop unions, though
informed concerhing the representa-
tions made by the brotherhood repre-
sentatives at the White House. de-
clared they had no connection with the
move. The claims that locomotives
and rolling stock were deteriorating
badly because of the shop strike was
repeated by the union chiefs and held
up by them as the influence which
would determine the strike. All par
ticipants held the belief that Presi-
. dent Harding would ask no further
concessions from the men other than
that involved in his original proposal
of accepting the railroad labor boards