CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1954 - 1958 LABOR - Strikes (Cont'd) possible evils from this source have been averted by a resort to the wiser and more civilized processes of mutual conference and concession. (6) 1954 L Jan. 23; ed: 4/1 Rumors of an impending strike in the bituminous coal regions tributary to Cleveland reach us but lack both definiteness and confirmation. 1955 - L Jan. 24; ed: 4/1 Workmen in Swift's Steel works at Newport are coming to their senses. They inform the bosses that unless the latter furnish them with food and clothing for their families they will not go to work. This is a perfectly fair proposition and should have been made when the difficulty first broke out. 1956 L Feb. 17:7/2 In a letter to the editor, Charles Wilson, grand chief engineer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, says: Action taken by me in regard to the Pennsylvania railroad strike was with a view to maintain rules of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. It appears to be a general error that I have the authority to order a strike. I have no more authority, than any member in the organization, and members of the Brotherhood have always shown a disposition to prevent strikes. You assert that I was at the bottom of the Michigan Southern strike. I have only to say that I learned of the strike through Chicago newspapers, and proper to add, the Brotherhood had no rules at that time to prevent any division from striking when they pleased. I think your criticisms of my acts are rather severe, and I hope you will act justly by a man trying simply to perform his duty in a proper man ner. (1) (1) (13) 1957 L Feb. 20; ed: 4/3,4 - The New York TIMES reports great depression in the building trade, owing almost entirely to the high prices of labor. Many new buildings are projected, plans all ready, but carpenters, masons, bricklayers, etc., positively refuse to touch any kind of work except at the same rates that prevailed before the panic; they leave the shop, join the army of unemployed, and depend upon charity. "These are but examples of the vagaries into which the labor system of this country is run by the efforts of a few lazy demagogues who make a disreputable living as the head centers of trade unions. When remembered how rarely a strike ever accomplished its purpose, it seems the strangest of absurdities that intelligent mechanics can be chained together in this way and driven in helpless droves by their self appointed task master." L Mar. 28:8/2 - See Disasters & Accidents 1958 L Mar. 31; ed: 4/3 The war in progress at the Susquehanna depot between the machinists and the managers of the Erie railroad has assumed an aspect so serious that the governor of Pennsylvania has sent troops (12) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1959 - 1963 LABOR - Strikes (Cont'd) to the spot to restore the engines and other property of the company to their rightful possessors, even at the expense of blood. The striking machinists demand the restoration of the pass system and immediate payment of all wages due. As the Erie engineers belong to Fehrenbatch's union, it is but natural that they should think it quite proper that the whole freight and passenger movement of the country should be arrested until they are satisfied. 1959 L Apr. 2; ed: 4/1,2 Fifteen men who went on strike at the Capital City rolling mills found that they had been replaced by colored men. In order to get even with their employers, the men let the water out of the boilers, a fact that was not discovered until after midnight, after the fire had been lit. The engineers tested the guage, and found that the boilers were perfectly dry. Had the pumps been started and water injected into those red hot boilers, the mill would have been blown to splinters. "The striking workman is a logical saint." 1950 L Apr. 3; ed: 4/2,3 - The secret of the series of determined and 1961 L Apr. 3:8/1 Yesterday 200 employees of the union freight depot of this city struck for higher wages. They have been receiving $1.50 per day and demand a 25 per cent advance. It is not yet known what the result will be. 1962 L Apr. 4:7/1 - The places of the strikers at the union freight depot were filled on Apr. 3 with new men who agreed to work at the old rate of $1.25 per day. The strikers were paid off and manifested no disposition to make any disturbance. 1963 L Apr. 17:4/3,4 Meetings of the National Puddler's union are (9) (4) (9) (2) (1) (12) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1964 - 1968 LABOR - Strikes (Cont'd) 1964 L Apr. 22:7/2 - On Apr. 20, a number of sailors who were dissatisfied with their wages, (at $1.50 per day) struck for $2.00 a day. An effort was made to make the strike general all along the river. Yesterday morning the strikers, now 200 in number, marched in a body from River st. to Whiskey Island and there boarded schooners to persuade the sailors to strike. On one of the boats they were met with unexpected resistance, and in the skirmish, George Samattis, a Greek sailor, was shot in the breast. Shortly after the retreat of the mob, a squad of police commanded by Sergeants Goodrich and Fleury appeared and 13 of the strikers were arrested. In the afternoon Captain Roberts, who shot Samattis, was arrested on a charge of shooting with intent to kill. He was bound over on $3000 bail. (13) 1965 L May 7:8/1 Coal heavers getting 12 cents per ton went on strike yesterday for 15 cents per ton. Scabs were not allowed to work, so work was entirely suspended. Unless strikers can be persuaded to go back to work, the consequences may be serious. (4) 1966 L May 8:8/4; 5/1 Between five and six hundred men are idle 1967 L May 9:8/1 - About 700 of the coal strikers gathered on the 1968 L May 11:7/1 - In a letter to the editor, Patrick J. Moore says: A most unnecessary agitation has been created and kept up, all because the coal heavers and the lumber carriers should dare to ask the right to live, demanding for their labor a means sufficient for their bare subsistence. This is not only refused us but they blacken our moral character before the public. You are told that, were it not for the police and the loaded artillery, fearful things might have happened. We say now that, as United States citizens of the State of Ohio and the city of Cleveland, we maintain we have much more respect for our public law than the men who are thus seeking to degrade it into a tool of grinding oppression. We envy no man's wealth, or do we question any man's right to all he can get by honest means, but we do firmly protest against our very lives deing squandered merely to swell the wealth of others. (18) (8) (11) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 1969 - L May 11:7/2,3 The coal heavers and lumbermen now on strike held a meeting at Roeder's hall on May 8. Peter King was chairman. Addresses were made by Schilling, Walsh, and Keegan of Cleveland, Cahill of Portage, and others. The speakers counseled moderation and advised the strikers to be orderly and to keep within the law. A largely attended meeting was also held at Monumental park on May 9. The speakers there were Cahill of Portage, Walsh, Schilling, and Gleason. It was announced that several companies had decided to pay last years wages. 1970 L May 12:7/2,3 Two hundred day laborers quit work in the coal yards yesterday. At Card and Babcock three gangs of scabs at work unloading a boat were ordered by the strikers to stop, which they did immediately. A large shipping firm threatens to bring men from Detroit to unload their boats. (35) The sewer diggers also went on strike. Armed with picks and shovels, they went to their contractor and demanded an increase in wages, from $1.40 to $2.00 per day. The contractor refused. These strikers, about 80 in number, marched bodily to Superior st., where 60 men were engaged in grading under the direction of William McReynolds. McReynolds knocked one of the strikers down. The strikers in turn beat McReynolds with their shovels. McReynolds' gang came to his rescue, or he would have been killed. He pays his men $1.50 per day and they are well satisfied. After their defeat, the strikers marched to the sewer on Alabama st., knocked the foreman down, and threw him into the sewer. The strikers increased in numbers as they marched along, until they reached the lumber yard of Purdy, McNeil and Company on Merwin st., which was destined to be the scene of riot and bloodshed. The foreman, Martin Hertz, was asked to come down from the pile of lumber on which he was standing. He refused, but was compelled to do so. Upon reaching the ground he was beaten with the strikers shovels but escaped severe injury. H. D. Purdy, son of one of the proprietors, was struck on the side of the head with the flat side of a shovel, causing little injury. A member of the firm fired a revolver which enabled him to make his escape from the mob. A call was published for a meeting of dock hands to be held last evening in Moran's hall, which was answered by only two or three, as most of the dock hands are content with their wages. They are receiving 30 cents per hour for loading and unloading boats. 1971 L May 12:8/2 - The strike has interfered but little with the freighting of vessels, and it is anticipated that by today all the men that are needed can be hired. (26) (1) 1972 - L May 13:7/1 The coal strikers were quiet yesterday. Laborers in most of the lumber yards were also at work. Quite a number resumed work in the morning with McDowell and Company. As far as loading propellers is concerned, the price paid is a compromise. (5) CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1874 Abstracts 1973 - 1979 LABOR Strikes (Cont'd) 1973 L May 14; ed: 4/2 - "We are inclined to think that the sewer diggers who have struck in our city have good cause. It is impossible for a man to support a family on $1.25 per day what with bread, meat and clothing to buy. The sewers now being dug in Cleveland are under contract made in the last year or so ago. Wages were then from $2.00 to $2.25 per day." No disturbance whatever was occasioned by the 1975 L May 27; ed: 4/1 Youngstown mine strikers are determined to destroy the property of proprietors of mines who will not accede to their demands. The governor has been appealed to for aid. "An appeal would not have been made unless help were imperatively demanded, and the Governor should be prompt in giving it his attention." 1976 L May 27; ed: 4/3 - New York stage drivers are on strike. They more. "It will be hard if a proposition so candid and business like as this is ignored by the employers.' (5) (2) (2) (5) 1977 L June 5; ed: 4/3 - The COOPER'S NEW MONTHLY, a magazine published in this city as the organ of the cooper's union, discharges some of its bile upon the LEADER, which has ventured upon various occasions to point out the folly of strikes and their uniform failure to effect any result other than a period of want and distress for the families of the strikers. "The ignoramus who writes the driveling twaddle which passes for wisdom in the COOPER'S MONTHLY can see in this frightful tragedy the legitimate fruit of the system which he is preaching." 1978 - L June 8; ed: 4/1 The question at issue in the cooper's strike in New York is not one of wages, but whether the coopers or employers Ishall have control. "Such of the barrel making firms as have any trade left have partly filled up their shop with non-Union Coopers, and are preparing to manufacture barrels, exclusively by machinery which turn out 1,500 casks per day. The result of the quarrel is not difficult to predict. The victims will be the strikers themselves and their hungry families." 1979 L June 15; ed: 4/3,4 - The morning dispatches state that the long strike in the coal mines at Nelsonville is about at an end. How lasting (8) (5) |