CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1933 - 1937 LABOR - Labor Unions (Cont'd) 1933 - L Mar. 2; ed: 4/3,4 - A telegram was received from a leading rail road manager of the city saying that John Fehrenbatch of Cleveland, who is trying to organize a mechanics strike, is at the moment a conspirator against the peace and prosperity of the state, and is against the happiness and welfare of the deluded mechanics who follow in his train. They, the workingmen, whose earnings support these cheap demagogues, are the ready inevitable victims of their nefarious teachings. If the long and elaborate working-up of a plot to stop the railroads of the country and thereby paralyze business and wreck fortunes is not conspiracy, then by what name shall it be called. (18) 1934 - L Mar. 2:8/3 The special convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers adjourned Feb. 29 after a session of utmost importance to the Brotherhood and to the business of the whole country. The first important action taken by the convention was the election of T. M. Arthur of Albany to the position of grand chief engineer in place of Charles Wilson. This is taken as an indication that a "War Policy" is to be adopted. While Wilson is a conservative man and has always opposed strikes, Arthur is recognized as a prominent advocate of aggressive measures. Owing to the obstinate silence maintained by the delegates, no positive knowledge of the final result of the convention could be obtained. While the action taken during the sessions of the convention is almost conclusive evidence that a general strike is to be used as the means of bringing the reducing companies to terms, we have, on the other hand, emphatic and positive declarations to the contrary of several of the most prominent delegates. 1935 L Mar. 3:6/2,3 A circular has been issued by G. John Siney of Cleveland, president of the Miners National Association, calling for a general meeting of the miners of Trumbull, Mahoning, and Stark counties of Ohio; Mercer, Lawrence, and the northern parts of Beaver and Butler counties of Pennsylvania. The meeting will be held in Cleveland today. It has been called to discuss the 40 per cent reduction in wages. A record of previous strikes and reductions has been printed. It is hoped that a strike will not be necessary. Siney is to be present at the meeting and it is expected that a large delegation will be in attendance. 1936 L Mar. 3:8/1 (8) (15) Those of the delegates to the special convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers who remained in the city over Sunday (Mar. 1) maintained the obstinate silence which has characterized them ever since their arrival. Yesterday the last of the delegates left. (2) 1937 L Mar. 13; ed: 4/2 - A circular letter was sent by Charles Wilson, the late grand chief engineer to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, in regards to the action of the brotherhood in deposing him from office. Wilson claims that the organization is going back on the fundamental CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1938 - 1941 LABOR - Labor Unions (Cont'd) principal upon which it was formed and is drifting into the spirits of trade-unionism. It is certainly not over stating the facts. The brotherhood has of late been losing popular esteem and it will be fortunate if it regains the popularity it formerly enjoyed under the administration of Wilson. (4) 1938 L Mar. 16:8/2 - A meeting called for the purpose of establishing a workingman's paper was held at Temperance hall on Mar. 14. The various trade unions were represented. A previously appointed committee recommended that a stock company be formed with a capital stock of $50,000 in shares of $10 each, and that no person shall be allowed to vote more than 50 shares. It was decided to make the paper a 32 column sheet, and the price was fixed at $6.00 a year. Twenty-five incorporators were elected. 1939 L Mar. 31:7/4 - While the Deveraux division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers was holding its semi-monthly meeting at Wagner's hall on Pearl st., a party of ladies from the south side, led by Mrs. N. Wright, wife of the master mechanic of the Mahoning division of the Atlantic and Great Western railroad surprised the engineers with sacred songs and prayer. A presentation of the cause was made by the Mesdames Wright and Ingham. Responses were made by Chief Engineer Linehan and Engineers Goss and Simmons. Thirty-five men joined in the devotional exercises. The pledge was circulated and 29 names were secured. L Apr. 14; ed: 4/4 See Temperance (6) (9) 1940 L June 6; ed: 4/2 A telegraphic report from New York this morning should be of interest to the COOPER'S NEW MONTHLY. Peter Smith, a nonunion cooper, was sent by his employer to drive hoops on some barrels on a vessel at the dock in Brooklyn on June 4. He was discovered by Union men, who insulted him. When Smith attempted to go home, they waylaid him, chased him into a street car, and made a ferocious attack upon the unresisting man with an iron belaying pin. To avoid being beaten to death by four men, Smith shot his assailant, inflicting a mortal wound. The result was that one man is dying or is dead, one is in prison awaiting trial for murder, two families are in want and grief stricken, and a possible gallows is looming up in the background. "If employers... were to adopt a rule embodying one fifth of the tyranny and disrespect for individual freedom contained in this one law of the trade unions, there would be a revolt that would breed a revolution." 1941 L June 15:8/4 Rev. H. C. Haydn preached an interesting and in structive sermon last evening at Old Stone church to the Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors. After welcoming the brotherhood and referring in friendly terms to its constitution, he took his text from James 3: 17: "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful." He said (5) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 that the church has protested solemnly against the operating of railroad trains on Sunday, but with hardly any success; that railroad men owe it to themselves as men to do all in their power to have it discontinued. In conclusion he urged the railroad men to attend religious services, bring in their companions, and use every influence possible for the discontinuance of travel on the Sabbath. 1942 L June 29:7/3 - The Cleveland Typographical union met June 27, and elected 14 officers for the ensuing year, including: President N. F. Dubois; vice president, William H. Hunter; corresponding secretary, S. H. Johnson, jr. 1943 L Sept. 1:8/1 Unit No. 1 of the Society of Cleveland Machinists and Blacksmiths union held a pleasant picnic at Leid's gardens on Willson ave. yesterday afternoon and evening. A large crowd was present. · 1944 L Oct. 28:7/2-5, 8/2-4 The convention of the National Miners' association opened yesterday in the hall of the Industrial Council of Cuyahoga county, in Dreem's block. About fifty delegates, representing the mining districts of nearly every state in the Union, were present. The convention was called to order by the president of the association, John Siney of Pennsylvania. (8) (2) (1) (120) 1945 L Oct. 30; ed: 4/2 · The miner's association at a special convention adopted measures for the enlargement of the organization. There was considerable opposition to strikes. "No class of workingmen has suffered more in this country from careless and ill considered revolts against their employers than the coal miners. In arraying its influence against that policy, the Miners Association has shown itself worthy of the vast influence which it holds over a class of men who need the aid of wise and intelligent counsel and control." Strikes 1946 L Jan. 3:8/4 - In a letter to the editor, "Guilelmus" of Kent, 0., says: The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers was organized for the purpose of elevating the standing of engineers and their characters as men. Now, if it is a legitimate act for the officers of railroad companies to reduce the pay of the engineers on their road, as a body, without consulting them, why may not the engineers leave the service of such a company in a body and not consult the officials without being stigmatized as strikers? As to the stereotyped stories about the strikers being loafers and slinging bricks one day, and the suggestion of their being respectable and returning with tears in their eyes to be forgiven the (5) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1947 - 1950 LABOR Strikes (Cont'd) next, and that superintendent so and so will have all the trains 1947 L Jan. 5:7/4 In a letter to the editor, Charles Wilson says: Fehrenbatch wilfully misrepresents the conditions of the strike. The late strike is a very unfortunate affair. Neither side would be benefited by violence or any interference with either trains or men. The strike between capital and labor will never be settled by civil war. 1948 - L Jan. 7; ed: 4/1 - Not only do the Pennsylvania miners refuse 1949 L Jan. 9; ed: 4/4,5 Cleveland has had some tastes of the paralyzing effects of strikes upon every branch of business. The effects were multiplied in Pennsylvania in the coal regions. Information reaches us that another great strike is impending with the prospects of being the most general yet witnessed. The laborers of the Reading Coal and Iron co., whose president is Franklin B. Gowen, desire that their wage prices be based on the report of a coal circular published weekly by the Reading Railroad. Gowen's company is the first to be affected by the present disturbances. "It may not take long to tell whether the five other large companies will enter into the conflict. Thus in whatever light the subject is viewed, it offers no particular ground for encouragement." 1950 L Jan. 16; ed: 4/2 - The new coal strike directs public attention to the power of the monopoly exercised by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal co. It should be borne in mind that this company is the leading one of six great corporations, that it is but the Reading railroad in another form, and that its great power to control the coal market is found in the abuse of its chartered privileges as a common carrier. Thus when a small mine attempts to work at a time like this, the Reading co. raises the rates of transportation. Thus Frank B. Gowen can arrange (15) (4) (7) (17) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1951 - 1953 LABOR - Strikes (Cont'd) for a strike which will throw 50,000 laborers out of work, while at the same time he profits by the very derangement by raising the price of coal under the plea of a "coal famine." (4) 1951 L Jan. 17; ed: 4/3,4 - The eloquent appeal against slavery in the labor unions which speaks from the silent glass factories of Pittsburgh is echoed with added meaning by the iron mills in the vicinity of Cincinnati. In Newport is a steel manufactory employing 700 men. Came the panic, and the six boss rollers who drew higher wages were reduced to the scale of the laborer. Six hundred and forty nine workmen are kept from work at which they could earn $5 a day, and by whom? Simply by six men, the self constituted junta which controls their union. The six bosses, rather than accept a dollar reduction in their wages, not only refuse to work, but refuse to let the men into the mill. Had the slavery which cost this nation four years of war to exterminate anything more degrading and repulsive than this? With this case in view, we now ask our honest readers to say whether the newspapers, which from first to last has warned them against risking their necks to the yoke of trade unionism, has not been a truer friend to them than the Fassetts and Fehrenbatches who have lived upon them as advocates of a system which has made the present anarchy at Swift's Steel works possible? 1952 L Jan. 20; ed: 4/2 ed:4/2 The strike of the engineers of the New Jersy Central railroad has brought the business of the line to a standstill. They have stopped work, shut up their engines, blocked the tracks, and set danger signals, because they cannot get any wages. Many of them have from two to five months wages coming, and the treasury of the road is empty. The author of this infamous wrong is said to be Jay Gould, who bought the control of the road, kept it until the Long Branch travel season was at an end, and then turned it over to a Mr. Lenot to run as best he might throughout the dull months of the winter. Gould took all the money when he left, and the engineers, firemen, and brakemen have had to whistle for their pay, or rather, have refused to whistle longer until they are paid. A case like this justifies almost any measure short of violence, and the Jersey Central engineers, though firm and decided, have shown no riotous disposition. (6) 1953 L Jan. 23; ed: 4/1 The strike of the anthracite miners in (15) |