Year: 1866

Meeting of the Boston Ship O,c,,e,s on the


Caulher's Strike.
.5a .aaIsa BOSTON, May 29.


A large meeting of ship owners and busi-
ness men was held in the Board of Trade
Rooms in reference to the strike of workmen
William Ropes was chosen Chairman, and Ma
than Crowell and James Curtis, Secretaries.-
Mr.. Ropes on taking the chair, said the busi-
ness before the meeting was NOSE important
Had there been a common disagreement be
tween merchants and laborers some arrange
ment might have been easily made; but the
combination of workmen having assumed
formidable and colossal proportions, it becomes
an important affair, requiring great caution in
its treatment. The evidence of the univer-
salty of this combination would, he thought,
surprise the meeting, and he recommended
kindness and forbearance. in the management
OF the matter, to prevent a widening of the
breach, especially desiring that nothing of an
irritating nature should be utterrd during the
proceedings.


BY request of Alpheus Hardy, call was
read signed by numerous prominent ship own
ers and merchants of New York, for meet
ing, to take action in reference to the pro-
ceedings of workmen on ships in that city.


Mr. William FL. Webb of New York ad-
dressed the meeting, briefly giving history
of the origin and extent of the combination
of caulkers, ship joiners, and other workmen
in his city, adding that they received help
from other and distant places, and also from
similar combinations of hatters and other
trades. No correct idea of the immensity of
the combination could be formed by gentle
men who had not investigated the matter, and
although there were workmen who almost
daily applied for work, such was the watch
kept ON their movements by the members of
4, bi,,o hot
and prevented from working at all. No one
could calculate what the final result of this
extensive combination would be, but he felt
certain that unless prompt measures were
adopted to stay its progress, it would soon ex-
tend to other and perhaps all branches of bus
mess, and perhaps to agriculture ITSELF He
closed his remarks by expressing the hope
that the ship owners and merchants of Boston
would cooperate with those of New York in
the protection Of their interests, and if this
was promptly done, he felt safe in saying that
Philadelphia and other places would soon fol-
low. rsDI I6tq1 h


The following resolutions were offered:


Whereas, representations are made to the
merchants and ship owners of this port that
the ship Archer is now lying in dock at East
Boston, where she has remained for one
week. and that the gravers and caulkers who
usually do the work upon vessels under SINH
lar circumstances, decline to work upon this
ship, therefore, A"


ResoLced, that refusal to work under such
circumstances, where no dictation has been
attempted as to the number of hours which
shall constitute days work, and no dispute
as to the price which shall be paid per day
for the labor, is, in the opinion of this meeting
proceeding which cannot and ought not to
be sustained, and one which no circumstances
can justify or approve,


Resolred, that the relations between labor
and capital, bstween the employer and employ
ed are mutual, and any combination upon the
one side or the other, which through coercion
shall attempt to interfere with such arrange
ments, is unwise, and therefore to be avoided,


Resoloed, that in case there is not an imme-
date return to the ordinary and usual course
of labor upon the ship Archer, we, the mer-
chants and ship owners in this meeting as
sembled, unanimously recommend to the own
ers of the docks and railways to close the
same, and that no more vessels be taken up
thereon until further action be had at an adj
ourned meeting of this body, to be called by
the chairman. .1aae


The resolutions were adopted unanimous
ly and the meeting adjourned to reassemble
in ten days.