of the movement as a whole. The above would appear to be fairly representative of the contested cases, but doubtless the results in the large number of cases settled without a trial of strength by stoppage of work were much more favorable to the employees than in the above. An agreement signed in the settlement of the machinists' strike at Carthage will be found in Part IV (Document IV). In connection with the machinists' strike there came to the Board of Mediation and Arbitration the only appeal for its good offices that was made by an employer in the period under review. This was the case of Messrs. R. Hoe & Co., manufacturers of printing presses in New York City. It appears that on the tenth day of March, 1899, an agreement was entered into through the direct influence of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration between the firm of R. Hoe & Co. and its employees. On or about May 5th of this year a request was made by the firm of R. Hoe & Co. for the intervention of this Board for the purpose of preventing a strike of the men in their plant in connection with the general strike of machinists to be inaugurated May 20, 1901. Deputy Commissioner Lundri-, gan and Assistant Deputy Braniff called on Mr. Hoe of the firm of Hoe & Co. on May 8th. Mr. Hoe requested that inasmuch as the existing agreement was brought about through the direct assistance of the Board of Mediation and Arbitration the efforts of the Board be exerted toward protecting the said agreement or in securing such conditions as would prevent the crisis of a strike in his plant. He expressed himself as willing to concede practi cally all of the conditions imposed by the International Machinists' Association on the firms employing machinists who are members of the United Metal Trades Association; the conditions to include the nine-hour workday at the then existing ten-hour wage rate; and the firm reserving the right to designate a certain class of employees, who were under the existing agreement paid as machinists, as not coming within the class of machinists, since the firm claimed that the character of the work performed by men operating certain automatic machines was such that it should not be characterized as machinists' work or paid at machinists' rates. Deputy Commissioners Williams and Lundrigan conveyed this proposition to the representatives of the machinists employed by R. Hoe & Co. and were advised by them that the whole subject had been referred to the business agent for that district of Greater New York. The proposition was laid before him, but rejected on the ground that the machinists employed by Hoe & Co. were entitled to all of the protection of the existing agreement with the added conditions of the nine-hour workday at the ten-hour wage scale. The matter was then taken before the governing board of the International Association of Metal Workers for Greater New York, and was also rejected by them, with the result that the plant of R. Hoe & Co. became involved in the general strike of machinists on May 20th, involving in this plant alone about 750 machinists. The strike in this plant continued for exactly one month. At its close the men resumed work on practically the same conditions as could have been secured without a stoppage of work had there been a disposition by the representatives of the employees to cooperate with the representatives of this Bureau. RAILWAY SHOPMEN—BUFFALO, DEPEW AND UTICA. [Table I, Nos. 121, 124, 153, and 120, Pages 46-49.] Machinists employed in railway repair shops were not included in the general movement of May 20th for the nine-hour day, but several strikes in railway shops for the same object were inspired by that movement. Three of these, which were of considerable dimensions and intimately connected, occurred in the shops of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad at Buffalo and Utica and of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad at Depew. Most of the employees concerned in these disputes were machinists, but other trades in the shops joined the former in the effort to secure nine hours without decrease of pay. The first of the three strikes occurred in the Lackawanna shops at Buffalo on May 2, when 280 men went out, leaving but a few hands at work, though enough to prevent a complete shut-down. On the 8th with the same demand for nine hours with similar daily wage as before, 52 men struck in the same company's shops at Utica, the works here being closed by the dispute. On the first of June the entire force at the Depew shops of the New York Central road, to the number of 446, went out for the combined purpose of securing the shorter workday and assisting those on strike at the Lackawanna shops in Buffalo. All three of these strikes were total failures. The first two disputes apparently developed into simple tests of endurance and at Buffalo after the contest had been prolonged for nearly three months with a loss in working time of 19,880 days the employees all returned to work except 46 boiler makers, whose places were filled with non-union men, while in Utica, the strike was never declared off, part of the old hands finally returning to work, new men taking the places of the others, the controversy having continued about eleven weeks with a loss of approximately 3,328 days in working time. The Depew strike was of short duration and was terminated in a somewhat peculiar manner. The annual convention of the International Association of Machinists occurred in Toronto, Canada, while the strike was on. At that convention a complaint was presented to the grievance committee by delegates from New York and Connecticut unions, that the Depew strike was illegal, apparently on the ground that it had not been sanctioned by the international officers. The committee's recommendation that the Depew machinists be requested to return to work was approved by the convention and an order issued accordingly abruptly terminated the strike at Depew. RAILWAY SHOPMEN-HORNELLSVILLE. A strike of boiler makers and helpers in the Erie Railroad shops located at Hornellsville is conspicuous in the nine months' returns as the longest dispute reported, having lasted for ten months. The strike at Hornellsville was part of a movement by all the boiler makers employed by the company to secure better wages, abolish piecework and secure better rates for overtime work, and there were strikes in two other shops in Pennsylvania at the same time. Before the cessation of work a committee of employees waited upon the management in New York City, but were informed that no concessions as to wages could be made. A few days later, on January 24th, the strike in all three shops was inaugurated. Early in July an agreement upon the conditions of employment was reached by representatives of the two parties, but at the time for resuming work the striking employees discovered that certain of their number were not to be taken back, the result being a continuance of the dispute. The work in the shops was not entirely suspended at Hornellsville, transient employees taking the places of the strikers and being fed and lodged at the shops. Not until the end of November was a settlement reached, which was a compromise, piecework and overtime conditions remaining as before, while wages were advanced one cent an hour. Measured in working time the loss incurred in this dispute at Hornellsville is reckoned at about 7,600 days for the 56 strikers and at over 8,000 days for 60 others who were thrown out of work. The secretary of the local boiler makers' union estimated the money loss to the workpeople at $36,000, of which $6,000 consisted of benefits and assistance, the loss in wages being put at $30,000. RAILROAD SHOPMEN'S STRIKE-ROCHESTER. [Table I, No. 91, Page 48.] On April 3d the entire force of shopmen employed by the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. went on strike for 10 per cent increase in wages and recognition of a committee representing the organization and employees. On April 4th Deputy Commissioner Lundrigan visited Rochester and had a conference with the representatives of the striking employees together with the business agent of the United Trades and Labor Council of Rochester. On investigation he learned that the local representatives of the railway company had no power to consider or settle the strike, the whole subject having been referred to Master Car Builder J. McBeth at Buffalo. April 5th Mr. Lundrigan proceeded to Buffalo and took the matter up with Mr. McBeth and Superintendent of Motive Power Waite, who had been summoned to Buffalo by Mr. McBeth. He was advised by both of the above gentlemen that they had decided to close and permanently abandon the shops at East Rochester and would not require the service of the men on strike. This action, if carried out, would, of course, have defeated the strike. A few days after this decision had been announced the shops in question were totally destroyed by fire and have not been rebuilt, the work formerly done there having been transferred elsewhere. With the exception of a working force of about twenty men the above plant is abandoned. GROUP III. WOOD MANUFACTURES. SAWMILL EMPLOYEES-TUPPER LAKE. [Table I, No. 181, Page 52.] On July 8th the mill hands employed by the Sherman, the Santa Clara and the Norwood lumber companies and the Underwood pulp mill at Tupper Lake struck for a reduction of working time from 11 to 10 hours per day. About 400 men went out. Four days after the strike began the Santa Clara mill was started with a small force, but was shut down after running a few hours as the result of the appearance at the mill in a body of the strikers from the other establishments. Nothing but the matter of hours of labor was involved in the controversy. The men, who were unorganized, declared that it was physically impossible to maintain their health and strength permanently under the strain involved in 11 hours work with the improved, high-speed machinery used with steam power which had been substituted for the slower machines previously run by water power. The employers, on the other hand, claimed that the mills must be run eleven hours per day in order to clean |