You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Monday April 10, 1905
Chicago, Illinois - Teamster Strike Grows Bitter as Conference Fails "Utterly"
From yesterday's Chicago Daily Tribune:
BOTH SIDES HURL GAGE OF BATTLE.
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Conference of Strike Leaders and Employers
at Wellington Hotel Only
Widens the Breach.
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TALK IS OF CONTRACTS.
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Teamsters Deny Breaking Them and
Refuse to Listen to Any Argument
to the Contrary.
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The gage of battle was thrown down last night in the teamsters' strike. In a conference between the strike leaders and the leading employers of Chicago efforts to reach an understanding of the difficulty failed utterly. Both sides retired from a remarkable meeting in the Wellington hotel more determined than ever to try an ultimate test of strength in the labor difficulty, in which Montgomery Ward & Co. are primarily involved, but which threatens the entire city.....
John V. Farwell Jr. headed the committee of employers which met with the union leaders...Fred W. Job, secretary of the Chicago Employers' association, who was instrumental in calling the conference, Victor W. Sincere and J. H. O'Connell were also in attendance.
The union side was represented by President Charles Dold of the Chicago Federation of Labor and eleven leaders of the teamsters' unions, including International President C. P. Shea, James B. Barry of the express drivers, John Smyth of the coal teamsters, Joseph Young of the baggage drivers, Jerry McCarthy and Hugh McGee of the truck drivers, T. J. Ryan of the department store drivers, P. W. Rietz, Albert Young of the coal teamsters; M. F. Kelly of the market drivers, and "Steve" Sumner of the milk wagon drivers.
Violation of Contract.
The employers took the position that contracts had been violated by teamsters refusing to deliver goods to Montgomery Ward & Co. The question, "What is a contract with a teamsters' union worth?" was the pivotal topic of discussion.
"We have violated no contracts." declared President Shea for the teamsters.
"We interpret it differently," the employers explained.
The employers made no proposition to arbitrate the dispute. In return the union leaders absolutely refused to consider any other matter in the conference.
Embitters the Situation.
When the meeting adjourned the general opinion prevailed that the strike situation had been imbittered...
Gives Labor's View of Case.
President T. A. Rickert of the United Garment Workers of America gave out a statment representing the position of union labor in regard to the sympathetic strike of the teamsters. He Said:
The teamsters have no grievances in this trouble to be sure, but organized labor has seen fit to create a fund out of which benefits will be paid to the striking teamsters. This is not the garment workers' fight essentially. It is a struggle of organized labor in Chicago. Never before in the history of the city have all crafts stood so firmly as a unit. The question concerning them all is whether or not 12,000 or 18,000 union garment workers in Chicago will return to the old sweatshop conditions in effect five years ago....
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SOURCE
Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Apr 9, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
(Also source for image.)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
See also:
Chicago Teamsters Strike of 1905
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Road I Must Travel - Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman
Well, I climbed the seven summits and I swam the seven seas
But the road I must travel, it's end I cannot see
Well, I fought in the jungles and I fought in the streets
But the road I must travel, it's end I cannot see.
-Tom Morello
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