OCR Text |
Show C0F3HEND- THE POLICE , . - , . . .. Chief Sheets and the police department depart-ment were enthusiastically indorsed for their work as peace officers during the recent strike, and the Deseret News was severely condemned for Its misrepresentations misrepre-sentations by 400 members of the Street Carmen's union, who held a mass meeting meet-ing early this morning. There was no limit to the enthusiasm when F. E. Bostwick, for many years a conductor of the comnanv. arose and pre- situation on in Salt Lake City until Mr. Easley had wired him to that effect, when he immediately got In communication communi-cation with Mr. Bancroft. He read two or three telegrams upon the situation, which Indicated that he had already modified mod-ified the position of the locpl management. manage-ment. He also stated that he would advise Mr. Bancroft of the situation situa-tion as I had presented It to him and he did not see any reason why an adjustment could not be reached and that he was sure Mr. Bancroft would take the matter up with you and he cited a telegram from Bancroft in which Ban- cented the following resolution: "Resolved, That it be the unanimous expression of the members of division 3S3 that they condemn the editorial policy of the Deseret News on account of Its attitude atti-tude toward the members of Qur association." associa-tion." . Bostwick tried to speak, but his voice was almost drowned out by tha chorus of seconds to the motion. II managed to say. however, that he regarded it as the duty of all union men to refuse to subscribe sub-scribe to the organ which published such slanderous articles aa he aaid were contained con-tained in the News of last Tuesday. The mention of the paper's name evoked shouts of derision. "I brand what the New printed Tuesday Tues-day as a dirty He," shouted John Jones, a member of the executive committee. Everyone present heartily manifested his approval by unmistakeable evidences. The resolution was adopted unanimously. Enthusiasm was as great, though it was directed In a different way. when the following resolutions were Introduced and adopted : croft stated that he had answered a letter from yoi in which he had said that he had offered the committee arbitration, arbi-tration, and Mr. Kruttschnitt said that he was favorable to arbitration of all diffioullea rather than having strikes, that he was . not looking around for trouble when it could be avoided. Of course, he said he didn't want to go into the expense ex-pense of arbitration of every little difference dif-ference that might corns up and neither would he arbitrate the question of a "closed" or "open shop," and he thought that we ourselves would agree with him that it would be Imprudent for us to insist in-sist upon the arbitration of a "closed shop" proposition. We were with him until dinner and there was considerable aaid pro and con. but In no part of the conference did Mr. Kruttschnitt express a discourteous sentiment sen-timent towards organised labor and his talk -was wholly that of a fair-minded man. He is a big-minded man and I don't believe that he would ever permit his local management to impose upon the bovs thrA. Afiri h la thu whnU rhftit- "Resolved. That It be the sense of this meeting that members of division 382 express ex-press their appreciation to Chief of Police George A. Sheets and his subordinate officers for the able and efficient manner In which they have maintained order and repressed violence In the recent controversy. contro-versy. ' "Resolved, That It be the sense of this meeting that members of division 3S2 accord ac-cord a hearty vote of thanks to his Honor,' Hon-or,' the Mayor, the cltisens committee, the Hon. B. H. Roberts and the Commercial Commer-cial club for their earnest and efficient efforts ef-forts in behalf of bringing about an amicable am-icable adjustment of the recent controversy." contro-versy." , C. O. Pratt, chairman of the International Interna-tional executive board, was given a beautiful beau-tiful rold watch aa a token of the esteem Whatever he says goes, and you can rest assured that the modification of Mr. Bancroft began just as soon,, as Easley had touched the button. Bo your scheme to work 'the thing through the Civio Federation I look upon as a success, and I want to congratulate congrat-ulate you upon adopting that course, as you have saved the Association, as well as that local and its membership the expense and trouble of what likely would have been a most severe strike, if not a disastrous one. because that company has got the boodle. They have the entire en-tire floor of one of the big buildings In Chicago and the doors and windows don't furnish space enough to place the titles of all the lines under the management of Mr. Kruttschnitt upon them for the public pub-lic to read, but they are eomoletelv let- of the local union members, and in appreciation ap-preciation of the work he did for them In the late controversy. After thanking the donors. Pratt read the following letter, intended to show that the Civic Federation Federa-tion bad a part in the settlement: Detroit. Mich.; April 2, 1907. Mr. C. O. Pratt. Chairman General Executive Ex-ecutive Board, care of Kenyon Hotel. Salt Lake City, Utah. Dear Sir and Brother: Have Just returned re-turned to the office from Chicago. Now I will give you a summary of the part I have taken in this matter In compliance with your Instructions to get In touch tered over. It Is a giant corporation, and I am glad that an understanding of their position towards us has been definitely defi-nitely learned. It may help In the future fu-ture We can't expect "closed shop" agreements agree-ments when we can't get them from the local management, but we can expect fair dealing and no discrimination. Upon receiving your telegram,, that the company wanted to Insist upon the character char-acter of the arbitration. I wired you to Insist upon selecting your own men as an arbitrator, as I firmly believe that they will grant that right, as they have no business to say whom we will have for an arbitrator. Just received a letter from President Mahon. in which he says "Concerning myself, my hand has gone backward and I am feeling badly the last two days. The weather has just turned warm and is registering 72. which may help me to improve im-prove later on." I wish he had went to Mt. Clemens instead of Hot Springs. With best wishes for yourself. I am Fraternally yours. R. S. REEVES. Editor, "Motorman and Conductor." with the Civic Federation. Friday morning morn-ing I wired Mr. Easley, New York, that strike stage had been reached in Salt Lake City and that the manager was obdurate and asked him if anything could be done by the Civic Federation. I immediately im-mediately got a reply that he was looking look-ing into the matter and would wire the following day. showing that he Imed lately late-ly took the case up with the New York people. I wired you then to hold .the situation over to giva him time hat we could see what he might be able to do. On Saturday he wVed in asking for the percentage of employees in our organization, etc., showing that he was yet working on the case. I immediately wired him "over eighty pet cent," feeling that delays were dangerous and did not await your advice as to the membership. Further communication commun-ication with him showed that during all this time he was actively engaed In awakening the Eastern people to the situation, sit-uation, and on the 23rd I received a telegram tele-gram from Mr. Easley Instructing me to go personally and see Mr. Kruttschnitt. general manager of the Harriman inter- ests at Chicago. This occasioned me to wire you again to await developments of that conference, and resulted In our communications com-munications while I was in Chicago. I went immediately to Mr. Krutts-chnitt Krutts-chnitt s office In company with Brothers Colgan and Bland and ' saw his assistant secretarv. who seemed to understand that I was expected there. Mr. Kruttschnitt was engaged on a board of directors meeting and arranged for a conference to take place at 9 o'clock Thursday morning. morn-ing. We believing It might promote the value of the conference by having you get in touch with Mr. Kruttschnitt, I wired you to send him the message. I think It had its effect. At least. It did no harm. Thursday morning, in company with Colgan Col-gan and McMorrow taking the place of Brother Bland on tke committee, we went to Mr. Kruttschnitt's office at 9 o'clock sharp and were Immediately given an audience. I placed the proposition before be-fore him like this, telling him that the occasion of my visit was to learn the true poller of the. company In dealing with the Salt Lake City situation; that some six weeks ago an agreement, which had been approved by me In consequence of the illness of President Mahon and returned to our local, had been submitted sub-mitted to his manager, who courteously took the agreement and encouraged the committee that it would receive consideration. consid-eration. In the meantime, the manage-, ment changed and when the committee of our local went to the new manager for a reply, they were coolly turned down and given to understand that no consideration consid-eration would be given the propositions they had submitted: that the men re- tired disappointed, to report to a meeting, meet-ing, and that before the meeting came around they were overtaken by humiliation humilia-tion to add to their disappointment In the shape of a wage rate being posted by the management 6f 221. 25 and 271 cents an hour; that the wage rate was not acceptable, but that the company had persistently Ignored all appeals to further consider the propositions In the agreement; that our national chairman went to the assistance of the. local, hoping hop-ing that he might In some way bring the organisation and management together upon some common ground effecting an acceptable agreement; that our representative represen-tative .in an official way was Ignored by the local management of the traction company, was not permitted to appear in conference with the committee, and was obliged to take the reports of the committee aa the only means of learning the situation; that you had submitted these facts to the general office and that the executive board bad voted to support sup-port the division In a strike to bring about conciliation, or conditions desired, but that you had desired to use every effort to avoid a strike and that In line with that, this conference with him waa arranged, and then I asked him if It waa to be the policy of , his company not to recognize the organization, not to treat with the international representatives representa-tives and not to arbitrate differences that could not be adjusted. He said that he understood that recognition of our organization meant a strictly "closed shop," which would compel the company to force the men to Join the organisation. organisa-tion. I told hlnV that I was willing to commit myself to the extent of saying that he was mistaken and had been misled mis-led In his Information, that the "closed shop" proposition was not an issue with us In the event that all other matters could be settled and that that isn't what we meant by recognition. This seemed to give him a new Idea of Jt and he said that if that was the case It relieved much concern over the situation, as he had dealt with the labor organizations all of his life, had dealt with the steam-road organizations and was yet dealing with them, and had never had any trouble with them, and he hoped that the relation with our organisation would be equally as agreeable; that they never had been asked to sign a "closed shop" agreement by the steam-road men, and that that wasn't contained In the policy of the company. He had telegrams showing that he had been in touch with 'Mr. Bancroft Ban-croft for some few days, and told me that he was not aware that there was a |