1,450 looms idle, and obliging other departments to cease work. The Board interposed with a view to a settlement on May 6, when an interview was had with the treasurer of the American Woolen Company, Mr. William M. Wood. Mr. Wood expressed a willingness to confer with his employees in the presence of the Board, and submitted a proposition in writing as a basis of settlement. An effort was made to interview the employees on May 7. Representative weavers were communicated with, but none were found who were willing to speak for all; they much preferred, they said, that the Board should lay any communication it might have before the general meeting, which was to take place on the following day at 2 o'clock.

On the 8th the Board went again to Lawrence and addressed the weavers at their general meeting, recommending the appointment of a committee for the purpose of conferring with the employer. The weavers took the matter under consideration. On May 9 a telephone message was received from the chairman of their conference committee appointed to confer with Mr. Wood, saying that they were ready to confer forthwith. Accordingly, a conference in the presence of the Board was had in the afternoon at the office of the mill in Lawrence between officers of the company and the weavers' committee. The employees demanded the abolition of the premium system, an increase of 20 per cent. in wages, and no discrimination for participation in the strike. Treasurer Wood submitted the following propo

sition:

The American Woolen Company regrets that it cannot see its way to accede to the request to alter its present rates and methods of payment of wages, excepting that for lost time through holidays or breakdowns due to shafting, engine, high water, allowances in

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premium will be paid in proportion to the actual time worked; and, in addition, when an employee is absent for recreation or otherwise, not exceeding one day in the month, such absence will be treated as though a holiday, and will not be allowed to interfere with the securing of the premium.

The company makes no discrimination against weavers on account of activity in the strike, excepting that no weavers now at work will be removed. So far as possible, weavers will be given their old looms in the order in which they return to work, first come, the first served.

the

The committee requested time to confer with their fellow weavers, and the conference dissolved. The strikers met on May 10, and in view of the report of their committee, and of the fact that, owing to defections, more than 500 looms were at that time in operation, voted to declare the strike off. On May 12 all the looms were running as before the strike, and the Board has not since learned of any recurrence of the difficulty.

AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY-FITCHBURG. Strikes having occurred in the Fitchburg Worsted and Beoli Mills at Fitchburg, the Board offered its services as mediator on May 12, 440 in all being reported out. The employer accepted the mediation of the Board, and a visit was paid to Fitchburg with a view to inducing the weavers to either submit their case to some form of arbitration or confer with their employer on the question of a settlement. The weavers said that they would confer with the employer, but only as a part of a general committee representing all the striking weavers in the mills of the American Woolen Company. William M. Wood, treasurer of the American Woolen Company, declined to confer with such committee, on the ground that conditions were so diverse that a general

committee would be too unwieldy to consider the conditions of a particular mill.

The matter dragged along until June 9, when several weavers returned. Injunction proceedings were instituted by the employer against some of the leading strikers, and injunctions were granted. Some were imprisoned subsequently for contempt of court. The case finally disappeared from notice.

AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY — BLACKSTONE.

On March 27, after a conference between the wageearners involved and the local representative of the American Woolen Company, weavers in the Saranac Mill, near Blackstone, by a vote of 117 to 90, expressed their sympathy with the striking weavers in Olneyville, R. I., where opposition to running two looms in weaving fancy goods for the American Woolen Company had been the occasion of several strikes in Massachusetts. To enforce this declaration they all left the mill at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and went out on strike. On the following day the minority voters met for the purpose of considering whether they should return to work, but they decided to remain out, influenced, it is said, by news of strike in the mills of the company at Fitchburg.

The strikers are said to have been the best paid weavers in the 27 mills of the American Woolen Company, and to have had no grievance, inasmuch as the two-loom system had not been inaugurated in Blackstone.

On May 6 it appeared to the Board that the attitude of one of the parties had sufficiently changed to permit conciliation. The Board called upon the treasurer of the company and obtained his consent to a conference. Having

learned that the strikers had concluded to appoint a general committee, made up of representatives delegated by the mill hands in different places, Mr. Wood was requested to say whether he would meet them in the presence of the Board. He expressed his willingness to meet the employees of the Saranac Mill whenever it might be arranged, but not as a part of a general committee, for the reason that it would be useless to discuss the particular conditions of the Saranac Mill in the presence of representatives from other mills, where other conditions obtained.

On June 21 William M. Wood, representing the employer, expressed his view of the situation in part as follows:

The American Woolen Company has maintained from the beginning that the recent strikes of its employees were promoted and instigated by outside persons. It is claimed that the strikes were without adequate cause, and represented no serious grievance. The relations of the company with its employees have always been satisfactory and cordial. No complaint as to rate of wages or hours of labor had been presented; suddenly the two-loom system was availed of as an ostensible excuse for a strike in one of the Providence mills, and discontent and discord were immediately communicated to other mills by walking delegates and orators, so that an epidemic of sympathetic strikes followed in quick succession.

New hands were hired to take the place of strikers on the first day of July, whereupon all the remaining operatives came out. The matter, as in other mills of this company, was protracted through the summer, and the strikers did not return until September 9.

AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY-PLYMOUTH.

On March 14 the weavers in the Puritan Mills of the American Woolen Company at Plymouth, 175 in number, remained out on strike to resist the introduction of the twoloom system in weaving fancy worsteds, and to express their sympathy with fellow weavers recently employed by the company at Olneyville, R. I. The employer had introduced 28 new looms, and, the workmen believing that there were large orders on hand for fine work that could not be done in any other mill of the corporation, this time for striking was deemed most opportune.

Though the strike, being a part of a general movement, did not seem to offer much encouragement for mediation, the Board went to Plymouth on April 14 and interviewed representative weavers, and offered to use its best endeavors to bring about a meeting with the employer, with a view to ascertaining how the strike might best be settled. A representative of the weavers stated that no weaver could operate two looms on fancy work and produce good results. One hundred and seventy-five looms were idle, and about 500 persons all told were out of work. Responding to inquiry, they expressed their willingness to confer with Mr. Wood on the question of a settlement in the presence of the Board, but would serve only as a part of a general committee delegated by weavers in all the mills of that company where a strike existed. William M. Wood, treasurer of the company, was interviewed upon the question of a general conference, and said that he would be willing to meet a committee of Puritan Mill weavers, and rather preferred a large committee to a small one; but he would not discuss the affairs of the Puritan Mill with a general committee representing weavers of other mills where a different con