Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1901 — REFUSE TO QUIT WORK. [ARTICLE]

REFUSE TO QUIT WORK.

Kauth Chicago Steel Men Are Read Out of Uaion. There will be no strike of the steel workers of South Chicago. The reason is that there are no union men to strike, both, local lodges of the Amalgamated Asaociation having been read out of the organization by Secretary Michael F. Tighe, personal representative of President Shaffer, after their refusal to reconsider their action in refusing to obey the general strike order. Sentiment in South Chicago is divided over the situation. Business men and the families of the steel workers approve the action taken, while another element regard the steel workers as having abandoned their organization in an hour of need. Many profess to believe that at the next convention of the Amalgamated Association the lodges will be reinstated and that President Shaffer and Secretary Tighe exceeded their authority in revoking the charters. Others feel that there is positively no chance of reinstatement, because of the sentiment entertained by the Eastern workers. It has been suggested that the situation may lead to the organization of an independent Western association along the lines of the Amalgamated Association. The latter has never been strong in the West, and it is said would not be affected by the operation of such a plan. The Iron Trade Review, discussing the strike condition, says: “Events ot the week have made it clear that the steel strike is a lost fight. The uncertain elements are the number of weeks that will be required to weary the men of idleness, and how much of its organization will remain to the Amalgamated Association when the end comes. The failure ot the Federation of Labor to give more than sympathy in aid of the'strikers and the refusal of the Western members of the Amalgamated Association to violate their contracts at the order of their president have been serious blows to the hopes of the leaders. Gains have been made by the strikers at McKeesport and in the Wheeling district, but it is already plain that the strike spirit has reached high mark, and that the news from now on will be of gradual defections.”