Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 227, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1919 — STEEL STRIKE POSITIVE; WALK OUT MONDAY. [ARTICLE]

STEEL STRIKE POSITIVE; WALK OUT MONDAY.

Pi ttsburgh, Pa.; Sept. 18.—“ The steel strike order for Sept.- 22 stands.” This was the positive statement made by Organizer J. L. Beaghen, organizer of the A. F. of L., here this morning. An official statement signed 'by Chairman John J. Fitzpatrick and three other' gentlemen, in answer toJudge Gary’siettersf“yesterday; follows: “In his letter of Sept. 16 to the presidents of the subsidary companies of the United States Steel Corporation, Judge Gary avers that he had two reasons in mind when he refused to meet with the A. F. of L. committee which called upon him recently requesting a conference for the purpose of presenting grievances of his employes. “First, he did not believe that the pommittee was authorized to speak for large numbers of the employes. “(Second, a conference with the committee would have been treated by them as a recognition of the ‘closed shop’ method of employment. “If these are the real reasons actuating Judge Gary surely they are not sufficient to plunge the industry- ’ into —a —great labor conflict. Judge Gary presents a false premise and then declares that he will stand or fall upon this false ground. “The committee that waited upon Judge Gary were the selected representatives of the employes. And they requested a conference for the purpose of establishing the principle of collective bargaining and some practical method of redressing grievances. “Judge Gary denied their authority to represent the employes and refused to meet them in conference. The only way left for the employes to convince Judge Gary that the committee does represent the great body of the employes of the United States Steel Corporation is to cease work until the corporation agrees to meet their representatives in conference. This the employes have decided to do on Monday morning, September 22. “It is unfortunate that the employes are compelled to resort to a strike in order to prove the authority of their selected representatives to present their grievances. But as there is no other way, the proof, in the form of a strike, will effectually remove all doubt in Judge Gary’s mind. “In the second place, Judge Gary sets up the question of the ‘closed shop,’ which has absolutely no basis whatsoever in the present controversy. It is simply dragged in here by Judge Gary as a bugaboo to becloud the real issue.”