THE LUMBERMEN.

A FRUITLESS CONFERENCE BETWEEN MERCHANTS AND STRIKERS.

A Member of the Delegation Who Waited on the Lumbermen's Committee Locked Up for Threatening Language at the Close of the Conference--A Reply to the Union's Circular Refusing All Its Demands--The Men Decide to Hold Out--Some Disgraceful Rioting After the Night Meeting in Which a Policeman Is Seriously Injured.

A conference was held at the Lumbermen's Exchange yesterday between the Lumbermen's Committee and a delegation of the striking employés. The delegation numbered twenty-two men, fourteen of whom represented the unions in the southwestern district, the others being from the North Side yards. The special business of the delegation was to get the reply of the lumbermen to the circular of Friday, and, judging by the temper of the delegates at the close of the meeting, the reply was of a most disappointing character. John Schmidt, one of Bigelow Bros. employés, who was a member of the delegation, was met by some reporters on leaving the room, and, in reply to a question as to what had been the result of the conference, said:

"They want to starve us. We told them that if we didn't cull the lumber they could not sell it, and they said they'd cull it and sell it in spite of us. Well, if we cannot cull and sort it, they cannot sell it; and, I tell you, we are not going to starve. We'll sell it ourselves first, or if we cannot do that we can burn it."

Secretary Hotchkiss of the Lumbermen's Association chanced to overhear the latter part of Schmidt's remarks and followed him to the street, where he requested a policeman to arrest him. Schmidt readily submitted to the request of the officer to accompany him to the Central Station, where Hotchkiss made complaint under oath and the prisoner was booked for disorderly conduct, that being the only charge the officer could discover bearing on the case.

There was a full attendance of the Lumbermen's Committee at the conference. After the delegation, headed by R. A. Brown, Chairman, had been admitted Mr. Van Schaick called the meeting to order in a lengthy address. He dwelt first on the vast interests involved in the lumber business, and pointed out that the trade was most promising early in the year and until interfered with by this ten-for-eight movement. "This complete change of policy," continued Mr. Van Schaick, "backed with threats of damage to property and other injury to employers who should dare to question or refuse to adopt this new theory, brought its legitimate fruit in a steady paralysis of business, a stoppage of improvements, a withdrawal of capital from the channels of commerce, and a preparation for the changed condition of business. No business sooner feels the effect of a loss of confidence of investors than the lumber and building materials trades in a new country, as the vast improvements new sections demand require money and a spirit of enterprise, and can only be successful with their aid. Such enterprises can well be postponed if unfair conditions surround them, and the larger and more costly the work the better able the builders are to delay investments. This spirit of delay pervades this city and community, and has already effected a serious injury. Friday last, without previous notice, a printed circular was placed in the hands of each lumber firm in Chicago demanding eight hours' labor on the lumber docks instead of ten hours and an average increase of wages equal to 25 per cent over 1885 when the reduction of hours and increased rate of wages are considered. What inspired this secret and unusual act of employés, many of them of long terms with the same firm, I cannot understand unless it is in the nature of the demand, which men could only expect to enforce by combined action and a concerted embargo upon business. We have no reason assigned in the demand, and now await the claims upon which the demand is made, and which this meeting has been called to consider. A written reply will be made to the circular already issued by you. By your acts you place yourselves before the lumbermen of the Northwest, who are all concerned, as the men who without good reasons assigned, have closed the yards of this city and are likely to complicate other branches of trade. The public also measures well the magnitude of this departure you have made, and will hold you to a strict account and expect something besides sentiment to govern your actions.

The formal reply to the demand of the men was then read as follows:

To the Committee of the Lumbermen's Union--GENTLEMEN: The demand made in your printed communication as Committee for Lumbermen's Union No. 1 has been carefully considered by the committee chosen by the lumber dealers and planing-mill companies of Chicago, and by a unanimous vote your communication is respectfully returned for amendment, which time and a better knowledge of the existing conditions of the lumber trade of Chicago will convince you is clearly for the interest of the men you represent. With regard to your demand for an increase of 25 per cent in wages compared to last year: No reason has been assigned for the increase, but in answer to the request we hereby respectfully state why the lumber trade of Chicago cannot meet your wishes as expressed in your communication under existing business conditions.

1. That with the current expenses of handling lumber in Chicago the trade has been unsatisfactory and during four years past many firms selling lumber, and some of long standing, have withdrawn their capital from the business, and for this reason alone; and the yards have been closed during twelve months past from this cause.

2. That the volume of the lumber business of Chicago has steadily declined since 1881 equal to the employment of 550 men annually, or an aggregate reduction of 2,700 men in five years.

3. That during the period the annual production of lumber at ports that supply this market has in the aggregate steadily increased, and yards are . . . producing points at a large reduction in expense compared to Chicago, and the result has been large shipments to consumers direct from sawmills by railway.

4. That the decline in receipts of lumber in Chicago from this cause is likely to increase during the present year, and already shows a falling off.

5. That labor yard rent, and the general expenses of handling lumber are much greater in Chicago than at competing markets on Lake Michigan--notably Racine and Milwaukee--while rail freight from those points to the territory supplied by Chicago freight yards is the same.

6. That the local consumption of lumber is less than 800,000,000 annually of the 1,700,000,000 feet received at this port, and the remainder--900,000,000 feet--can be shipped from the mills of Wisconsin and Michigan, where no yard rent is paid, and no high and costly piling is required, and labor is 30 per cent cheaper than the scale demanded by your committee.

7. The wages paid by Chicago lumber-dealers and planing-mill owners are larger for the same grade of men than is paid by any other Chicago industry. The majority of the men are wholly unskilled, and even a knowledge of the English language is not required, but a $1.25 per day has been paid men newly arrived with a chance of early promotion and higher wages. Contrasted with this, $1.10 to $1.15 is paid similar men at sawmill yards, and $1.25 for the grade of men that command $1.75 per day in Chicago.

8. Consequent upon the advance in the cost of saw logs and the advance in cost of production, together with the steady advance of pine timber, the Chicago yard dealers are asked to pay 10 per cent more for cargo lumber than in 1885. While, on the other hand, the agricultural interest, the largest patron of yards, is receiving 15 per cent less for grain and hogs than formerly, which is to that extent a benefit to laborers, and are not free buyers on timber in the West; and the uncertainty that prevails as to buildings at this time adds to the general stagnation in the lumber trade.

In the face of all these reasons a demand is now made by the class of men who are as intimately connected with this branch of commerce as the lumber merchants themselves for an increase in wages that competing and rival markets do not pay. The lumber laborers of Chicago cannot afford to allow experiments, and the change proposed in your demand endangers the future of the lumber business of this port, which gives direct employment to more than 10,000 men, besides indirectly to 10,000 more, and is the chief support of more than 8,000 families, and $4,000,000 is annually disbursed for labor. Looking backward twenty years, the lumber dealers of Chicago find no cause for complaint, and so vast a business, which involves the support of so many kindred industries, cannot long be conducted contrary to business methods.

The members of this committee have been chosen by their associates with the belief that they are unbiased and upright men--that they did not ignore the rights of the laborers, nor seek to gain a settlement not based on the actual condition of the lumber trade both here and at competing points.

They all claim of you as representatives of the men you are associated with the same spirit of fairness and careful study of the situation, and the public, who are also interested, and expect you as the party that has opened the controversy and abandoned your employment to do all that is fair and reasonable to place labor again within the reach of your fellow-workmen and restore to Chicago its share of the lumber trade of the West.

A. J. Van Schaick

In the debate which followed Mr. Van Schaick virtually defied the men to do their best or worst. It was not Chicago lumbermen alone, he said, but the lumbermen of the whole Northwest who were united to oppose these unreasonable demands. The lumbermen had more men ready to go to work than all the men the delegation claimed to represent--they could recruit the yards with a complete new force. The yards might probably now be kept shut down for sixty days at a loss of $18,000.