Cortland Evening Standard, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1901.
MASTERS THE GAINERS.
Show Greatest Strength in First Test of Strike.
SHAFFER ISSUES APPEAL FOR AID.
Strikers Chagrined at Action of Western Workers and Will Investigate—Violence Feared at Some Points. Trust May Dismantle More Mills.
PITTSBURG, Aug. 13.—The struggle for mastery between the manufacturers and men in the steel industry is now fairly launched and on the first show of strength advantage is with the former. The general strike order issued by President Shaffer of the Amalgamated association has so far been obeyed by only about 14,000 men, according to the best figures obtainable here. The first two preliminary calls were answered by about 45,000 men, so that the total number now out is in the neighborhood of 60,000.
The strikers made gains here yesterday over the showing of Sunday night and their prospects for further accessions at both McKeesport and Wheeling during the week are very favorable. The action of the Amalgamated men at Chicago, Joliet and Bay View in refusing to come out, and their failure to secure any recruits in the Carnegie group, throughout the Kiskeminetas valley and the plants at Youngstown and Columbus, O., have been markedly disappointing to them.
They are keeping up the fight, however, in a spirited manner and claim that they have strength in reserve which will surprise their opponents. They assert that they have gained a foothold in the Carnegie mills in this city and at the time desired the men will come out. They are pressing their advantage at McKeesport and Wheeling, and their organizers are still at work in those two cities.
President Shaffer has decided to personally visit Wheeling and will go there tomorrow to address a mass-meeting of his followers. He plans to spend today here directing the fight and conferring with his assistants as to plans for the future.
An appeal for financial aid has been made to organized labor and the general public and it is expected that the responses to it will be liberal. The Amalgamated leaders were not disposed to talk much. They would not discuss the desertion of their western fellows, although Mr. Shaffer made what was evidently intended for a brief reference to them in a short statement.
Another declaration in the same interview was regarded as highly significant here. It was to the effect that no effort would be made to call out members of the American Federation of Labor and that any action on their part must be voluntary.
The appeal for financial assistance was prepared on Friday last, but was not sent out until yesterday. It reads:
Appeal For Aid.
"To the Members of Organized Labor: Brethren—As you are undoubtedly aware the United States Steel corporation is now waging a war against organized labor by making the Amalgamated association the subject on which to begin operations. At our last convention it was unanimously decided to ask the United States Steel corporation when settling their annual scale with the Amalgamated association, that they sign or, recognize the scale of the Amalgamated association in all their mills. When the matter was broached the matter was peremptorily refused. After the holding of several conferences the demand of our organization was modified so as to take in only the mills of three of their constituent companies, viz: The American Sheet Steel company; the American Tin Plate company and the American Steel Hoop company, where local lodges had been formed, and where the men were very desirous of being union men, and we are now out on strike for recognition.
"In the conferences which were held by the representatives of the United States Steel corporation and the Amalgamated association, the representatives of the United States Steel company's only arguments were that they did not desire the Amalgamated association to become powerful, and that they should hold the balance of power. Later conferences were held with the heads of the Steel company, who submitted a proposition that we sign only for the mills signed last year, with the exception of the sheet mills in Saltsburg and Scottdale, which were signed for the year previously. Their proposition was rejected as it meant that the Amalgamated association would merely have to remain in a quiescent state, while they were expanding and adding to their non-union possessions.
"They are waging a fight for the extermination of the Amalgamated association and for the right of workingmen to combine, a principle which they have demonstrated to the people of the United States, they desire themselves, and so persistently refuse to grant us. This blow is not alone directed at the Amalgamated association, but at organized labor in general, and should they succeed in defeating the Amalgamated association, it will affect every organized body in the United States.
"To succeed in this struggle it will be necessary to seek the aid of every organized body as well as the general public whose sympathies we know are with us in the present struggle. To this end we ask that you give us your more than financial aid; a liberal response financially will materially assist us in conducting a victorious campaign for a principle which is the inalienable right of every American freeman.
"If you desire to aid the Amalgamated association in the present struggle financially, all money should be forwarded to John Williams, secretary-treasurer, Bissell block, Pittsburg.
"Fraternally yours, T. J. SHAFFER, President, JOHN WILLIAMS, Secretary-Treasurer, BEN I. DAVIS, Journal Manager."
Manufacturers Are Silent.
The men who are directing the fight in the field for the steel corporation and its constituent companies would give no indication of their plans for the future and would only discuss the situation generally. Their reports showed that the Carnegie group, Chicago, South Bay View, Joliet, Youngstown, Colombia, the Kiskiminetas Valley group. Wellsville and Monessen were going along full handed. Bellaire was badly crippled. They admitted the loss of the National rolling mill at McKeesport and that the Boston mill and Monongahela steel works at McKeesport and the Republic and Elba here were tied up.
They charged that many of their men were being frightened from their places at Wheeling and insisted that adequate protection for the men there would insure continued operations.
Officials of the National Tube company and Mayor Black clashed yesterday over the question of protection for non-strikers and property. A large crowd of strikers assembled around the works yesterday, and their pickets intercepted tube workers on their way to the mills. There was some excitement and the mill officers claimed that their men were being threatened and in danger of violence, called on Mayor Black to clear the streets and protect them. The mayor said that he would only interfere to stop actual rioting. Another crowd gathered at noon when the tube men were leaving the plant, and while the workers were jeered no violence was offered.
Reports from Wheeling and Bellaire indicate that there may be trouble there. At the latter place an attempt is to be made to keep the plant in operation and the mill officials say that if they or the men who did not go out are interfered with they will ask for a state militia to protect them.
At Wheeling reports that men were to be imported have brought out crowds bent on preventing their admission and it is predicted there will be serious clashes there before the strike is settled. Most of the strike centers, and Pittsburg in particular, are very orderly, however.
May Dismantle Other Plants.
The strikers at Canal Dover, O., have had men watching the mills on the strength of a report that non-union workers were to be brought there. Superintendent Harris of the tin mill has notified the men that unless the plant is reopened within a reasonable time he has orders to commence dismantling it. Manager Warner of the sheet mill has made the same announcement to the men who went out of his service.
The executive committee of the Amalgamated association will probably make an exhaustive, investigation of the action taken by the lodges at South Chicago, Bay View and Joliet in refusing to make the strike. President Shaffer has been urged to go West and personally investigate the matter, but it is unlikely that he will be able to spare the time for the present. A radical element in the local lodges bitterly denounces the western members and insists that there was something irregular about the matter. Others intimate that influences that would now bear investigation were used on the men. It is claimed that a canvass made a week ago showed a majority in favor of striking and that no reasonable explanation of the change of front has been made.
President Shaffer refrains from making any direct criticism of the act of the western men, but it is known that he deeply regrets the loss of their support. He says that he will await official reports before acting and that he can do nothing until he returns from Wheeling.
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| Samuel Gompers. |
Gompers' Statement.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13.—President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor said last night that his organization would use every practical means in its power to assist the Amalgamated association in its strike. Personally he hoped that an amicable adjustment of the trouble might be arranged and expressed his willingness to co-operate in any effort to bring about a settlement of the conflict.
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| Carrie Nation. |
DESIGNS ON THE SALOONS.
Carrie Nation Tells What She Will Do When She Earns More Money.
ROCHESTER, Aug. 13.—Heavily laden with three grips, which judging by appearances, might be filled with axes and other hardware, Carrie Nation arrived in this city at 10:30 o'clock last night.
The proprietors and denizens of Central-ave., Rochester's midway, flocked out of their haunts by scores and followed the carriage to the Temperance hotel on Main-st.
Mrs. Nation said to a reporter: "Yes, it is true my husband has sued me for divorce, but I could hardly believe that of David Nation. He alleges that I deserted him. He is set up by his children who are anxious to get my little property which is owned jointly by my husband and myself. The money I am about to make lecturing will admit of my defending the action in the courts.
"It is not true that I was started in temperance on account of my first husband's drinking proclivities.
"No, I cannot blame the W. C. T. U. for deserting me. They thought I was going too fast, that I was a fanatic.
"I believe the saloon smashing process is a good thing and I will continue when I get money ahead to pay flues and thus keep out of jail."
"How many saloons did you wreck?" asked the reporter.
"All told, I smashed twelve. I do not like to brag, but I can say without contradiction that today there is not one saloon in Topeka, Kan., where there were about 100 before I started."
Mrs. Nation left for Lakeside, near Syracuse, where she will speak today. It is said that the saloon keepers in Syracuse have torn down their theater bills in their windows to make room for Carrie Nation's advertisements.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Funds Needed For China Missions.
The Outlook calls attention to the fact that the receipts of the American board of foreign missions, which in 1900 were nearly $100,000 greater than in 1899, have so fallen off this year that a decrease of $42,000 is reported in donations for the ten months ending July 1. While this is reduced by an increase of $14,000 in legacies, the net decrease causes anxiety, especially as expenditures have been kept down to the pinching point with resulting distress in some mission fields. To finish the year without debt the board will need by Sept. 1 not far from $265,000.
Such facts as the voluntary opening of Hunan, in the very heart of China, to missionary effort, The Outlook contends, show that there is no cause for withholding either contributions or confidence from devoted men and women with opportunities of greatly enlarged beneficence before them.
The north China mission of the board, 13 of whose members, with three children, were murdered last year, has lately put itself on record upon the vexed question of indemnities in a paper which should commend itself to all fair blinded people. It is said "that the mission deems it unwise for Chinese adherents to formulate their own claims, but that these claims should in every case be revised by a committee of Chinese and missionaries; that no money should be accepted from Boxers with the thought of relieving them from prosecution for their criminal acts; that no claims should be presented for lives of adherents killed, but only for adequate pension money for support of widows and orphans."
There would appear to be nothing in such a procedure as this to warrant criticism or condemnation or to justify withholding the financial support which has hitherto been given the missionaries in China.
BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS.
ONLY ONE BID SUBMITTED FOR RAILROAD-ST. REPAIRS.
No Action Taken in the Matter—The Acceptance of Cleveland-st., and also of Prospect-st.—Permission to Move a Building.
The board of public works held an adjourned meeting at the city clerk's office last night for the purpose of opening bids for the repairs to the Railroad-st. pavement. Only one bid, however, was received and the board did not act in the matter, but adjourned the meeting till next Monday night.
The amount of the bid, which was made by C. T. Hookway of Syracuse, is not given out because of a desire on the part of the board to protect Mr. Hookway in case that the city advertises for more bids to make the repairs. The board was astonished, however, to find that the street repairs were to cost as much as the contractor's figures showed. That the city will be confronted with a much larger bill than was expected, is evident, and even when the repairs are complete, the board said, will not be in the condition desired.
The board went into executive session and talked the matter over a t length, but all that they reported was that they had determined not to act in the matter at once.
Before the matter of the repairs to the pavement was discussed, Attorney H. A. Dickerson came before the board and presented a petition, signed by about twenty-five of the property owners along Cleveland-st., asking that the street be accepted by the board. The street, he said, was much traveled and well built up. The heirs of the Cronin estate, he said, were the only property holders along the street who objected to having the street accepted. Condemnation proceedings he thought would be necessary in order to get the street accepted. The signers of the petition, he said, would all be willing to pay a part of the expense that this would make. Mr. Dickerson left a map of the street, which with the petition was placed on file.
Attorney James M. Milne appeared before the board and asked that Prospect-st. from Davis-st. to Broadway be accepted. It will be remembered that there is now a suit pending in the courts in regard to the ownership of the land in the western part of the street. The attorney asked that the board act on only what had been settled by the courts, and that was that it should be kept open as a street. Judge Forbes, he said, had censured the city officials when the case was on trial before him last June for not accepting the street and thus giving protection to the water company.
A motion to accept the street was unanimously passed.
Permission was given to Ryan & Hall to move the building on Railroad-st., in which they are now doing business, to Port Watson-st., after a bond of $10,000 for the city's protection had been accepted.
Visiting His Father's Old Home.
Rev. E. S. Ninde of Ann Arbor, Mich., son of the late Bishop Ninde, was in Cortland over Sunday and assisted at the service that morning at the First M. E. church, of which his father was the pastor In 1831. Bishop Ninde was born in the house that stood on the west corner of Church and Port Watson-sts., and which has since been moved up to Prospect-st. Mr. Ninde had a photograph of the old house taken and spent the day and part of Monday very pleasantly with some of the friends who well remembered his father.
TRUXTON, N. Y.
Truxton, Aug. 12.—Work was begun this morning upon the new macadam road which is to be built through this village. This is the first piece of road to be built in this county under the Higbie-Armstrong good roads law. The petition for the improvement of this highway was presented before the board of supervisors by Supervisor John O'Donnell, May 11, 1899. It was signed by twenty-eight persons, a majority of the owners of the lineal feet fronting on said highway. The highway described in said petition is as follows, to wit:
Beginning at the southwest bounds of the village lot of Amos L. Kennedy, thence northeasterly along the old turnpike road to the Truxton House a distance of forty-four rods, thence easterly along said road toward the village of Cuyler a distance of 102 rods to the east bounds of the village lot of Albert F. Kenney in said town.
After much opposition the petition was adopted by the board Dec. 12, 1900, by a vote of 15 to 6. A few weeks ago the contract for building the road was awarded by State Engineer and Surveyor Edward Bond to the town board of this town for $3,420. Friday the first consignment of stone which is purchased at Perryville arrived at the Lehigh Valley railroad station. About ninety carloads of stone will be used. The work of plowing and leveling the street was begun this morning. The contract for plowing the street has been awarded to Fred Potter. When finished the road will be a credit to this village and will be a great improvement over the present road which every spring and fall is almost impassible.
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| Cortland Park and Pavilion. |
THIMBLE BEE AT THE PARK
Given Yesterday by Mrs. James Walsh and Mrs. Charlotte Nash-Head.
Mrs. James Walsh and Mrs. Charlotte Nash-Head gave a very delightful thimble bee yesterday afternoon from 3 to 6 o'clock at the park to a party of upwards of fifty lady friends. The afternoon was all that could be desired and the place was ideal for such a gathering. During the afternoon the two hostesses sung several duets in the dancing hall of the pavilion where all assembled. Fine refreshments were served.
The guests were Mrs. Fred I. Graham, Mrs. T. P. Bristol, Mrs. J. G. Osgood, Mrs. P. L. MacDowell, Mrs. D. L. Starr of New York, Mrs. G. W. McGraw, Mrs. Geo. P. Yager, Mrs. G. H. Kennedy, Mrs. W. R. Cole, Mrs. R. E. Corlew of Cochituate, Mass., Mrs. E. B. Lovell of New York, Mrs. W. G. McKinney, Mrs. Geo. P. Hollenbeck, Mrs. D. H. Bingham, Mrs. E. M. Mansur, Mrs. A. Foster Oakley of East Williston, L. I., Mrs. G. H. Ames, Mrs. H. P. Johnson, Mrs. Edward Stilson, Mrs. F. M. Van Hoesen of Washington, Mrs. Ella Butler, Mrs. S. W. Sugerman, Mrs. Edgar L. Hopper of New York, Mrs. John E. Gladding, Mrs. C. W. Aiken of Fast Orange. N. J., and the Misses Carrie D. Halbert, Maude Fitzgerald, Martha McGraw, Sarah Phillips of Brooklyn, Ada B. and Marion L. Weatherwax, Grace Mead, Mary Atkinson, Cornelia A. White, Frances A. Miller, Aria Hubbard, Jennie and Ethel Dayton, Miss Titchburn of Mt. Vernon, Mabel C. Whitcomb, Julia Van Orden of Scotch Plains, N. J., Adell O. Clark, Julia Sugerman of New York, Anna W. Blackmer and Ella Freeman.
BREVITIES.
—There will be a meeting of Iskoot council this evening at 8 o'clock.
—The All-Cortland ball team will cross bats with the Tully team at Athletic field next Saturday afternoon.
—The last evening trip to Cincinnatus on observation cars for this season will be run tonight, leaving the Lehigh Valley station at 7:10 o'clock.
—New display advertisements today are—Mitch's market, Meats, etc., page 5; City Steam laundry, Laundry work, page 5; C. F. Thompson, Coffee, page 5; W. J. Perkins, Toilet paper, pager 6.
—Rev. Mr. Gurney of Warsaw will preach at the Baptist church at McLean next Sunday morning, and Rev. H. Hobart, D. D., president of Crozier Theological seminary, Chester, Pa., in the evening. Dr. Hobart preached last Sunday with marked acceptance on the part of all his congregation.
—There is always a little doubt in the use of a widow's initials, as to whether she wishes to continue to use those of her deceased husband or to use her own personal initials. A Cortland man has a novel criterion for judging as to what her intention is. He says in his opinion if she hopes and intends to marry again she will use her own initials. If she has no such intentions she will continue to use her husband's.
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