Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1904 — WILL BE FOUGHT OUT [ARTICLE]

WILL BE FOUGHT OUT

Chicago Packers Say the Battle Is on Now and He Will Win Who Can. &lOTS BECOMING FREQUENT Union Leader Would Do Some More Negotiating—Teamsters Stopped at the Yards and Forced, Protesting, to Turn Back. Chicago, July 28. —All the live stock handlers at the stock yards have goue back to work. There are 700 of them. This Is the first break in the strike. The men will handle live stock for the packers Involved in the strike, as well as for the independent packers. Chicago, July 27.—The packers have abandoned thoughts of peace and are preparing for a struggle to the end. Barney Cohen, president of the State Federation of Labor, announces that he will seek another conference with the packers. The supposition is that he Is inspired by high labor leaders who want a settlement of the strike. Picketing has commenced at the yards, and the first move of these forces was directed against wagons filled with meat At least twenty of the big wagons were stopped and compelled to tarn back. The teamsters protested that they had not yet been ordered out, but their arguments were of no avail. Packing House* Are Running. Despite the strike, the packing houses are running, after a fashion. Large numbers of non-union men are being received, some of them being skilled workmen. The packers assert that this force will be increased, from day to day, until the normal number is reached. The packing concerns have made contracts for electrical power and. if necessary, will be Independent of their engineers and firemen, although the steam powerplants are running with non-anion help now. Blotiug Hu Startod tu Earnest. Riots are started continually along tile boundaries of the stock yards. Almost hourly reports of men who had been beaten into Insensibility and of women chased by strikers or knocked down in the streets reached the police. The only persons punished so far for turbulence are twelve negro non-union employes of the yards, who visited saloons along Ashland avenne and Halstead street after midnight, and then fired their, revolvers in the air. They .Ware fined 125 each by Justice FitsgerakL They pleaded for leniency, but the fact that they had aroused the entire police fofce stationed at the

yards and caused agitation among the strikers militated against them. Attack on Bread Wagons. Before the drivers of four Heissler & Junge bakery wagons loaded with bread reached the stock yards a score of pickets swarmed over the seats and pleaded with the drivers to turn back. The drivers refused, and at Exchange avenue and Halsted street the mob tore them from their seats. The wagons were partly demolished and the bread scattered in all directions. After emptying the wagons the strikers told the drivers they could drive back to the firm's headquarters. This they did. although the wagons were in bad condition.

Another Sympathetic Move. An unexpected complication arose when the freight handlers employed at the stock yards station of the Chicago Junction railroad went on strike. The men gave as their reason for quitting work their unwillingness to handle meat turned out by non-union workmen in the packing plants. Should nonunion men be engaged to take the places of the strikers a strike of the union switchmen may follow. With the switchmen out It would be only a matter of a short time until the strike would spread to the other employes of the railroad. The only other alternative is non-union teamsters to do the work the railway does.

TEAMSTERS GET THEIR ORDER All Tboae Employed by the Pocking Hon*** Are Striking. The sympathetic strike at the stock yards is complete today. The belated sanction to the teamsters joining their brother workmen in the general strike was given last night by the officers of the International Teamsters’ union, and the 700 drivers employed in the packing industry inChicago quit work. This means that when a wagon containing meat to deliver to the retailers anywhere in town leaves the stock yards there will be a riot all along the line. It is also stated that officers of the International Teamsters’ union have issued orders calling out all teamsters in the employ of the big packing companies at Kansas City, St. Louis and Boston. The packersannounce that they have T.OOO new men at work. With all the union workmen out on strike the only additions to the ranks of the strikers are about 100 teamsters who quit work as Individuals, preferring to do this rather than wait for an official order to walk out, and the waitresses in the restaurants at the stock yards controlled by the packing companies. When Swift’s waitresses struck some of the stenographers in the general offices offered to do the work, and when the superintendent tried to reinforce these by asking others to help fifty women stenographers walked out of the building in anger. The onion organisations recalled

their ultimatum prohibiting their mam* ben employed In the independent plants from killing live stock purchased In the stock yards, where the animals are being handled by non-union employes. The labor leaders took this step after the Independent packers had pointed out to them thht if such an order was carried out It would be a benefit to the big packers.

RIOTING STRIKKR FATALLY HURT Negro When Attacked by t Mob Fire# a Deadly Shot. While an attack was being made on some colored men as they were leaving the stock yards John Stokes, one of the strikers, was shot and fatally wounded by one of the negroes. Stokes, together with fully 100 companions, it is said, rutshed on the negroes, and one of the latter drew a revolver and fired Into tha crowd, hitting Stokes, The police were close at hand and succeeded In scattering the rioters after considerable difficulty. The fact that many of the new men In the worksaTe negroes has infuriated the strikers against this class of the population, and a negro’s life is In danger pretty near anywhere outside the yards. A negro about to climb upon a street car at the entrance to the stock yards was dragged to the street by a moband beaten until unconscious. When the police arrived they announced that the colored man was dead, but In the course of an hour he was revived by physicians and will recover.

TROUBLE AT SIOUX CITY Cudahy’* Manager Calls for Protection —Strikers Disclaim Violence. Sioux (Sty, July 27.—Serious disturbances In the stock yards district led William Watson, manager of the Cudahy plant, to call upon Sheriff Jackson for militia to preserve order and prevent the destruction of meat products sent out from the Cudahy packing house. This demand was a surprise to the sheriff, who had not heretofore been called upon for aid. Several delivery wagons have been interfered with and overturned. Two arrests were made at the instance of John G. Brodigan, secretary of the local firemen’s union, w'ho says the disturbers are not packing house men, and the strikers do not desire to bear the onus of their misconduct. The engineers and firemen employed at the Cudahy plant, numbering about thirty men, have quit on telegraphic orders from Chicago. Non-union men were ready to take their places. Manager Watson declares the plant is running almost ns usual.

IN FEAR OF THE FUTURE Sooth Omaha Fire and Police Board Ask* Help—lnjunction Sustained. Omaha, July 27. —The tire and police commissioners of South Omaha held a meeting and decided that they were unable to cope with the strike situation, and that they would call on the sheriff for assistance. Many special policemen have been sworn in recent ly, but the commissioners decided that they were not sufficient to preserve qniet i Judge Munger, in the United States district court, denied the motion of attorneys for the South Omaha packing house strikers for a modification of the injunction restraining them from picketing, intimidation and in other ways interfering with the non-union men brought into the yards by the packers.

All Qniet >t Kansu* City. Kansas City, Mo., July 27.—The allied trades remained at work owing to the non-arrival of the sympathetic strike order from Chicago before closing time, while nearly 100 strikers, tired of waiting for benefits from the Chicago headquarters, returned to work at the Armour and Fowler plants. J. A. Cable, secretary of the International Coopers’ union, said: “I do not expect the coopers to go out, regardless of what the other allied trades may do” The strikers were quiet. Knmeron* Assaults at St. Jo. St. Joseph, Mo.. July 27.—Numerous assaults on non-union men in the vicinity of the packing houses continue. The managers of the packing plants complain that they cannot secure adequate protection for theiremployes and charge the police with being in sympathy with the strikers. To this charge the police enter a strenuous demal.