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THE BUTCHERS' GREAT STRIKE
PACKERS DECLARE IT TO BE PRACTICALLY ENDED.
A Police Station in Chicago Stoned by Rioters-A Boycott on Ice is Ordered - Exciting Run on a Chicago Bank.
Chicago, Aug. 2.-Monday was a busy day with the packers. With increased forces of skilled workers and their operating departments more thoroughly equipped than at any time since the beginning of the strike, the employers took a firm grip on the machinery of their affairs and as a result the stock yards took on the old hum of activity to a great extent.
Rioters stoned the Deering street police station late last night and for a quarter of an hour the police battled with the crowd of 2,000 men and women, as it charged the station with sticks and stones, shouting vengeance against the police.
Stones and bricks by the hundred were hurled at the building, and all the windows in the place were broken. Charge after charge was made by the police and the rioters were driven back only by the strenuous use of clubs.
Kansas City, Aug. 2.-Monday's developments in the butchers' strike were serious from the standpoint of the strikers, as hundreds of strikers returned to work, many of them being skilled workmen.
Chicago, Aug. 3. The meat packers whose union employes are on strike claim to be in a better position now than at any time since the struggle began. When asked for the packers' side of the situation last night Arthur Meeker, general manager for Armour & Co., said:
"The strike may be said to be near an end. At the rate we are securing new employes it will be only a short time until everything will be in normal condition with us. The old employes' places have been filled so promptly that very few of the strikers will ever be able to get back their old places and those who do will come back as individuals."
Chicago, Aug. 4. The threatened spread of the stock yards strike to outside industries came last night, when an order was issued by the Teamsters' union prohibiting drivers of ice wagons from making any deliveries to retail merchants who since the packing house teamsters went on strike have been hauling meat from the yards in their own wagons.
While admitting that the packers are doing considerable business, the strike leaders declare that the employers are losing money on every animal that is slaughtered, as the unskilled workers waste all the by-products. It is on this waste that the strikers base their hopes for final success, arguing that it is only a matter of time until the employers will become tired of losing money and eventually make overtures to the unions for a settlement.
St. Joseph, Mo., Aug. 4. More union men deserted the ranks of the strikers yesterday and returned to their old jobs at the packing plants. This number is said by the packers to be 150.
Chicago, Aug. 5.-In a statement given out last night by the packers, the report that negotiations are in progress to bring about another conference between the packers and the labor leaders, is declared to be entirely unfounded. According to this statement the progress being made at the plants is satisfactory to all the packers; more men are being employed daily; all contracts and current orders are being made at lower prices than before the strike commenced. In a table accompanying the statement it is shown that the total number of men at work at all points is more than 29,000.
Chicago, Aug. 6. The strike in the packing houses was practically lost sight of yesterday in the excitement attending a run on the Drovers' Trust and Savings bank, one of the stock yards institutions. The rush of the depositors to the bank started early in the day because of an unfounded rumor that one of the packers' representatives had withdrawn his money from the institution and reports that the bank was being used by the packing companies as an adjunct in paying off employes who have taken the places of the strikers.
All day long hundreds of depositors, most of whom had only small accounts in the bank, stood in line to withdraw their deposits. When closing time came there were at least a thousand persons waiting for their money. The officials of the bank determined to meet the emergency, called in extra tellers and the place was kept open until every depositor who presented himself at the window had been satisfied.
"We have plenty of money to meet any kind of a run," said Vice President Tilden, after the bank had been closed for the night. "We have over $300,000 in our vaults and besides the $200,000 taken from the down town banks, have received offers of assistance from the First National Bank of Chicago, the National Park bank, of New York, and the Standard Trust bank, of New York. None of these offers will be accepted, as we have on hand all the money we need."
