The labor advocate. [volume], October 09, 1915, Page 2, Image 2

About The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937

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THE LABOR ADVOCATE
it
Mister Manley 's Letter"
Answered in a Manly Way
Offer to Arbitrate Is Made by Union Men Statement
Issued by Officials of Machinists' Organization Is In
Response to Communication Employers Sent Out
Say They Would Accept Federal Agent's Ruling.
Officials of the machinists' union sug
gest arbitration 'in an answer they make
to a recent communication by some em
ployers to the men in their plants re
garding the demand for a -18-hotir work
ing week for machinists. Saturday the
union officials make public an answer
to Mr. Mauley's letter. In it, after re
citing other points regarding the machin
ists' side of the matters at dispute, the
union officials offer to "arbitrate the en
tire matter and abide by the result, or
we will join in a request on the United
States Department of Labor to send to
Cincinnati one of its mediators or con
ciliators to go into this matter at length
and lay bare to the public his findings,
and let the public be the judge whether
we are unreasonable or not. And we
will even go so far as to abide by his
decision, and that is taking a long chance
in the dark."
When asked whether any response to
the union officials' statement would be
made by employers, this was authoriz
ed: Mr. Manley has no further comment
to make at this time, except to say that
the position of the employers has been
made clear to their employes in pre
vious statements sent to them by the em
ployers. The men in the shops know
the facts, and will read Mr. Doyle's
statement with these facts in mind.
The statement, in full, of the union of
ficials, is :
Cincinnati, O., October 1, l!)in.
To the Employers of Machinists and
Tiiolmakers in the City of Cincinnati
and Vicinity :
Dear Sirs The statement issued by
Mr. J. M. Manley, secretary of the Cin
cinnati branch of the National Metal
Trades' Association, we believe, serves
as a notice to the machinists and tool
makers what to expect in this campaign
from the Cincinnati Metal Trades' as
sociation, which is supposed to represent
'.() per cent of the employers of machin
ists and toolmakers of , Cincinnati and
vicinity. I'ulilicity is a'grcat factor in
determining an issue, and wc 'welcome
the opportunity to give our side of the
case to the public in the same manner
that Mr. Manley did. It may be news
t the average citizen of Cincinnati to
hear that the main object in maintain
ing a headquarters, of the Cincinnati
Metal Trades' association at 7(t." Klni
street is the maintenance of a general
employment bureau for machine (."?j1
manufacturers of Cincinnati. I '"or years
that office has kept a card index system
.tin! has perfected it to the point that
tii.p e in charge know every machinist
iti'l ttmlinaker and specialist within a
ri-'ms of .'5 miles of Cincinnati. Thc
li.ui- nut Mill) kept track f each man's
I THE Y.Rfl. C,A. t
hooS
Auto S
'ininenilLMl by lenillnn exprrtH of
itiitrv tin eormilelo ami thnnniKli
I'iMni. tors nro kIcUIi-iI mitn on
t. inoerH T.ntoHt rli'ttrt'iW ci n 1 1
I! cut unci tirnltli'ii k.vhIoiiih
INSTRUCTION ON 1915 FORD
CAR and EQUIPMENT.
till." YVMIi- Tmrl, fur lliMiiillixIritt Ion
Cut Out and Mail for Cntnloj.
S'imii
'!!rcHn
IY.M.C.A.
7th & Walnut,
Cincinnati, 0.
The Union Store
IMitne, C. .1S51-I.
JOE BLOCK
MEN'S FURNISHING GOODS
: wt sixth st.
Specialties: Shirts lliiblcry, Unilerwrur
"IS
M J Sijf.
I-
III
Fillmore Music House
528 Elm St., Cincinnati, O.
The place to net tnjiii', qmI Imii.I ami
o-cllcitra illiltgmenti. C ill un.l kim
ac (uainlcd vwth us
.
ability as a mechanic, but they have also
kept track of his liabilities and seen to
it that he did not get altogether too
independent in the shops. For some
years they printed a monthly organ call
ed the Open Shop, and the columns of
that magazine were filled with articles
of how the Cincinnati machine tool man
ufacturers had their employes under
subjection. Efficiency was their slogan,
a scheme was lloated to get some effi
ciency engineers to this city to exploit
on a lot of underpaid men, arrogant
agents, with stop-watches in their hands,
goaded the Cincinnati mechanics on to
the point of extreme exertion, bonuses
were paid on a task and that task was
an impossibility because the efficiency
engineers were paid a bonus in the mat
ter in setting a task that no human being
could accomplish. In the meantime the
general employment office of the Cin
cinnati Metal Trades' association was
maintaining and exploiting through the
guise of an employment bureau a scienti
fic blacklist until Cincinnati machinists
were obliged to change their names as
often as they changed their shirts if
they were unfortunate enough to get
laid off in one factory and desired em
ployment in another, for it was a policy,
and is yet, of the Cincinnati Metal
Trades' association not to hire any local
Ipeople. Strangers were given the pre
ference in order to starve people with
home responsibilities here into a condi
tion of servile submission.
I '"or years this programme has been go
ing on in this city; but at last another
day has dawned and unexpectedly we
have come into our own. The Cincinnati
employers, knowing full well that they
were in a community that was pro-German
and not taking any too kindly to
the murderous business that all machin
ists are engaged in at present that of
making directly or indirectly war muni
tions to murder their brothers in some
other part of the world do not seem to
have the business tact of meeting the
condition of a shorter work week for
tjicir mechanics, a matter of four hours'
reduction per week at a maximum cost
of $l.::.-i per man per week and the ab
solute assurance that it will not increase
the weekly pay roll, because it is a re
duction in hours and not an increase in
cost. Now, how do our Cincinnati Me
tal Trades' association employers meet
this demand? They have a meeting
and decide the machinists don't know
what they want, so they DKCIDK for
them, and agree that a 10 per cent bon
us would be (he thing. So they immed
iately put in force an increased cost of
$1.7.1 per week per man, where $l.:i.1
would have done the same work and a
i-imtentcd body of men been the result.
Now what has been the result of the
bonus? IT HAS HIJliN LIKE A KKD
R.(i TO A KACIK'G HULL; it has ex
cited the curiosity of every machinist in
Cincinnati who believed that what the
organizers of the machinists said was
true thai war orders had been placed
at abnormal prices and we were not
getting our share of the prosperity and
have not had it for some time back. In
Mr. Manley s letter we are told to be
"good lni)s" and suck our stick of candy,
i which is his bonus, until wc get over
this war business; but strange to say, the
I iucinnati machinist will refute to wait.
We know what your association has
done in the past and what they will do
again if they ever get the chance.
We ask no quarter from you or your
association in this campaign. We fully
understand before measuring steel with
ou the tactics pursued by your assoc
iation in the past, and intend to ship
from t inciituati the men as fast as they
strike and are willing to go, and have
funds at our disposal for that purpose.
Your colleagues have laid great stress
on the fact that we are not paying any
strike benefits, and we glory in the fact
that we no longer have to pay strike
benefits. We are able, for that reason, to
call strikes indiscriminately. Men no
longer tarry at the home point long
enough to qualify for strike benefits;
there is a general .shifting of men to
other and better jobs. Your jobs in Cin
cinnati are the worst obtainable for the
skill required. The general average rale
for the machinists throughout the Unit
ed States is :ir cents per hour, your aver
age in Cincinnati will not exceed H
cents and jmi have some of the best
mechanics in the United States employed
at the small wage. Is it any wonder you
have an uprising of your mechanics? The
average business man can weigh this
for himself and reason out for himself
as to whether or not we have any justi
fication for rebelling at present condi
tions in the machinist trade.
VK DON'T WANT ANY IIONUS.
iCII'T. TUII1UTK OK 1JK1 !!. All we
want is what is right and just. We want
a shorter work week, and we want it so
badly that we are going to strike for it
if necessary, no matter what Mr. Man
lex will say to the contrary, and we want
time and a half for overtime. Wc arc
not asking recognition of the union, but
wc arc asking employes to recognize their
own men, and this they have refused
to do. And now, in conclusion, we feel
wc arc right and justified in our con
tention, so much so that we will chal
lenge Mr. Manley and his associates to '
arbitrate the entire matter and abide by I
the result, or we will join him in a re
quest on the United States Department '
of Labor to send to Cincinnati one of ,
its mediators of conciliators to go into
this matter at length and lay bare to the
public his findings and let the public ,
be the judge whether we arc unreason
able or not, and wc will even go so i
far as to. abide by his decision, and that I
is taking a long chance in the dark.
Mr. Manley has invited this publicity,
not we, but we will meet him on that
basis any time.
Respectfully yours,
1'. J. CONLIN,
' Vice Pres. I. A. of M.
K. L. COM LEY, .
General Organizer.
JOHN DOYLE,
Ilusiness Agent.
VOTE AGAINST PROHIBITION!
Eaf"
sifa
fl
Union
MADE
Beer
fe-
RKiu
JMs Ate
igJ!0i$ AND
gp porter
It CTEIE3-
iWh, Of America ri&xr
COPYRIGHT &TRADE MARK REGISTERED 1903
DEMAND
THIS IS OUR LABEL.
PERSONAL LIBERTY
IN CHOOSING WHAT YOU
WILL DRINK
Ask for this Label when
purchasing Beer, Ale
or Porter,
As a guarantee that it is
Union Made
STRIKE OF MACHINISTS
SIO'ITIjKI) AT CliKVI'XAXI) Al'TO
MATIC .MACIIIXK CO.MI'AXV.
t. L. (jarforil (intnils the Demands
of thi' Strikers With the Incep
tion of the Closed Shop.
Cleveland, Ohio The strike of
munition workers at the plant of the
Cleveland Automatic Machine Com
pany came to an abrupt end here late
today when A. L. Garford, formerly a
leading figure in the Progressive move
ment and now President of the com
pany, led a crowd of tint) strikers in
cheering on his announcement that a
wage increase and an eight-hour day
demand had been conceded, and that
they had won the fight.
fiarford climbed on a platform out
side the plant and faced the big crowd.
The workers a short time before, at
a special meeting, had voted in favor
of accepting the offer of the company
granting all their demands except one
pertaining to the open shop system.
"Let's Cli Again, Hoys!"
"I'm glad that the differences be
tween you boys and the company have
been adjusted," said Garford. The
crowd cheered.
"1 loo-ray I" "Let's cheer again
boys," yelled the capitalist as he swung
ins nai in me air. n leei line cnecrtiif.'
myself."
The men were stirred by this prob
ably unprecedented situation of WW
llli'll bi'ilHi' led ill :i rliciT of virl orv In-
J the man representing the defeated c"iii
i pany. When the tumuli had subsided
Garford gave a little talk.
"I'm for industrial peace," he said
"We've got all the war we cm t;V'
I care of on the other side of the water
"I'm glad this trouble is ended I
I want to say in behall of the companv
land myself thai this strike will nut
leave anv sore spots. We are not built
, that way. You boys did what -
thought best in asking for a share ''
profits accruing from unusual lm-itu---I
conditions. That was proper, for 1
concede the right of every man in i
his own thinking and acting."
j Kiglils . Wiiy to Automobile.
Garford fairly had to fight his way
j through the crowd to his automobile to
escape the ovation which followed
The demonstration followed short
talks by John Luthn'nger, National Or
ganizer of the Machinists' Union, and
W. S. Jack, Ilusiness Agent, announc
ing officially the ending of the strike.
The strikers will go back to work under
the following conditions :
Reinstatement of dismissed em
ployees. An open shop, hut no discrimination
against Union men.
An eight-hour day under these
equivalent conditions: Permitting em
ployees to quit after eight hours with
out jeopardizing their places, or t, eon
tintte work for a ninth hour at wages of
time ami one-half, or to continue also
to work for a tenth hour at wages ut
lime and three-quarters.
Tinii' and three-quarters for working
Saturday afternoon.
A wage increase of is per cent when
ever slack conditions restrict all em
ployees to an eight-hour day.
APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTIES
On liequesl of Wets or Drys Is
Itloekeil lly Turner.
Columbus, Ohio. In a ruling to Pros
ecuting Attorney Perry Smith, of Mus
kingum County, Attorney General Ed
ward C. Turner today held that under
the Kramer honest elections law passed
last winter, "there is no duty resting
upon the Sheriff to appoint deputies at
the request of the Anti-Saloon League
and the Home Utile Association, as such,
but that if the duly constituted commit
tee or committees file the signed state
ment provided for in Section AKiO-lS of
the General Code, it is the duty of the
Sheriff to appoint deputies in the pre
cincts designated in such signed statements."
THE
HERANCOURT
Brewing Co.
STRICTLY
UNION
LAGER
STRICTLY
UNION
.
COAL
HUY IT FROM YOUR FUI1SNDS
THE QUEEN CITY COAL CO.
PlilVATK KNCIIANUI2 AVIJST USSJO
VOTE FOB.
LOUIS J. HELFRICH
CANDIDATE FOR
COUNCIL TWENTY-SIXTH WARD
ON THE REPUBLICAN TICKET
Election, November 2, 1915 A Friend of Organized Labor
f" ySy
aW7!WW55TOS3!W!WBWJ;
-ag
tfottfflfep
-?Su.
4
'Primary SleoHotr: 0oir.I6tk
ikgafar Sleet ion : J2ov 2
rt'4nMTnr-
- svr?pm- .-
VOTE FOR
Frank M. Tracy
W
CANDIDATE FOR
Judge Circuit Court
KENTON COUNTY, KY.
An opinion such as this I'l'imi .Indgo Tracy could iu'vcr Issuu
from liny other Hum one whose thought mid intent wits given
to honesty nml sincerity, and his community should I'ccl proiul
of his presence not for his opinion In this particular case, hut
fni' t In; revelation of his honesty of purpose
Coopers' International Journal.