work. In the other breweries the number out ranged, generally, over one-half the total number of employees. At the Manhattan Hall meeting a committee was appointed to confer with the man

agers.

The members of this committee were James H. Sullivan, on behalf of the engineers and drivers; Emil Koenig, on behalf of the brew-workers, and Frederick Boshman, for the bottlers. They were met at the Brewers' Exchange, Park avenue and Fayette street, by John Bauernschmidt, president of the Maryland Brewing Company; George Gunther, Frederick H. Gottlieb, Alexander Strauss, John B. Berger, R. H. Borman and H. Loudeman, managers. There were also present the attorney of the Marylani Brewing Company and President Hirsch, of the Federation of Labor. After discussing the situation, an agreement was reached, as follows:

That engineers should be on duty twelve hours; that the workday for brew-workers should be nine hours from October to March and ten hours the remainder of the year, or the summer season. The difficulty with the bottlers was left to be adjusted with the Bottlers' Exchange. Drivers were to work as before during the busy period of the year.

The wage scale agreed upon gave the brew-workers at kettles. $15.00 a week; in the fermenting rooms and storage and packing cellars, $15.00; in the wash-houses, $13.00; apprentices, $9.00; regular drivers, $15.00; extra drivers, $12.00; engineers not less than $18.00; oilers and helpers, $2.00 a day. The scale was the same that had been in force, but a concession was made by the brewers agreeing to give double pay for work on Sunday. The agreement was immediately taken to Manhattan Hall, where the strikers had remained, and was ratified by a vote of the union, the strike declared off and the men ordered to return to work on the following morning.

It was decided in the conference that all the strikers would be received back in the breweries, with but a single exception. The managers stated that the foreman of one stable had sent his men away at noon and had followed them, without feeding the forty horses in the stable. This act was denounced by the strikers, who readily acquiesced in the wish of the managers to discharge the foreman.

The agreement reached was an amicable one, and both employ

ers and employees professed themselves satisfied with it, the strikers claiming a distinct gain in the shorter workday. Had the strike continued, fifteen hundred men, it is said, would have. been out of work, this number including the employees in the bottling departments of out-of-town breweries. For the lost day the strikers were paid by the National Brew-workers' Union. The four outside breweries signed the agreement made by the Maryland Consolidation with the strikers.

All the strikers returned to work on the morning of August 4th, with the exception of a few bottlers, who claimed to have been kept out of the Bauernschmidt Brewery. The brewery people, however, asserted that all their employees were at work except four bottlers, who had refused to go back, on the ground that their demands had not been considered. The agreement reached at the conference between the strikers and the managers left the bottlers' grievances open for future settlement, the employers claiming that the demand for a shorter workday and a dollar more a week was unreasonable. A meeting of the bottlers was held on the night of August 4th, and it was decided to take no action until the Bottlers' Exchange met, when a contract was presented by the union, to which the Exchange did not assent.

The magnitude of the beer trade in Baltimore made the strike a notable one. The consumption of beer in the city and State is estimated at five hundred thousand barrels annually, and the Maryland breweries make large shipments to Southern Pennsylvania and nearby Southern States. The beer consumed in Baltimore and manufactured outside the State, is estimated at one hundred thousand barrels, three-fourths of the importation being in bottles.

The bottlers' grievances were finally dropped. Their organization was a small one, and composed principally of boys and young men. The employers asserted that the demand of the bottlers for more pay could not be granted; that there was very little profit in the bottling trade and that this little would be entirely wiped out under an increased scale.

ENAMELERS.

Employees, numbering upwards of one hundred, in the enameling department of Matthai, Ingram & Company's factory, Light and Wells streets, went out on strike about

the middle of June. The chief reason, as given by the strikers, for their course, was grievances against the superintendent of that department. Incidentally, the men demanded more pay. A committee of the strikers went to the firm and asked for an increase in wages, and to have the superintendent instructed to "pursue a policy of non-interference" in their department. The latter said that he did not know what specific complaints the men could make. They were paid for twelve hours' work, and his "interference" had been in stopping some of the men, he said, from quitting work in less time. Forty girls employed in the department made a demand that they be given information every night as to their earnings. They did not strike, but as the enamelers had gone out, they had no work to do for a day or so. Men from other departments of the factory were placed in the enameling

rooms.

The strikers formed Enamel Workers Union, No. 1, with J. C. Pearce, president; William Sturgeon, vice-president and John Brady, secretary. A committee headed by Mr. Brady was appointed to deal with the employers, and this committee called on manager George Knapp, of the factory, and asked equal pay for all the men and a change in the superintendent of the enameling department. The reply was that equal pay could not be given, for the reason that some of the men were more skillful than others and therefore able to earn more money. In regard to the complaint against the superintendent, it was explained that he was only holding the position temporarily. The strike ended the first of July, the men returning to work.

DETRICK & HARVEY EMPLOYEES.

The employees of the Detrick & Harvey Machine Company, Preston street, near Greenmount avenue, on June 25th, gave notice to the firm that a strike would be ordered unless the work-day was made nine hours instead of ten. The firm immediately refused to make the concession, and a strike followed. General Manager Jacob S. Detrick told a committee which waited upon him that no time was needed by the employers in order to consider the subject, and that under no condition would the firm reduce the hours.

One thing which placed the firm in a position to withstand the

demand was that all contracts made by it embraced an express provision covering delay on account of strikes, and for that reason the standing of the company could not be injured by temporary idleness of its plant. New men were at once engaged to take the place of the strikers, and a few of the strikers were prevailed upon to return to work. On June 27th, however, the plant was almost at a standstill. One hundred and seventy employees went out at the institution of the strike, and nearly all of them remained out. The strikers held meetings and announced that they would stand firm for a nine-hour day.

On behalf of the company, General Manager Detrick said that it was an impossibility for the demand to be granted; that the company was not competing with Baltimore manufacturers, its work being principally the manufacture of tools, and in this, competition was solely with the North. Enough work was then on hand to keep the men busy for six months, and the company had been operating its plant twenty-two hours a day prior to the strike. The day gang and the night gang each made sixty hours. a week, and the demand of the men meant that they wanted pay for 60 hours, while working but 54, said Mr. Detrick. He announced that it was proposed to allow the men a reasonable time in which to think the matter over, and that if they did not return to work, others would be brought to Baltimore to take their places. Some of the strikers had been with the company for twenty years, and these, it was said, should be given the preference; but if they remained out until their places were filled, no future provision would be made for them. The company's contracts had been all made on the ten-hour basis.

On the part of the strikers it was decided to make no demonstration, but to allow matters to proceed quietly, and resolutions were adopted pledging the strikers in case even one man returned to work at the shops, not to go back themselves under any consideration while the deserter remained in the employ of the company.

Business in the company's shops was suspended on the 27th of June, and the firm started to fill in the time by making repairs to the buildings and machinery, the latter having shown the effects of the strain of running twenty-two hours a day. The firm, from day to day, reiterated its determination not to treat with the men as to a nine-hour system. In the early days of July, the firm

adopted the policy of putting a few men to work daily, and announcing that the places of the strikers would be gradually filled and after this had been done, none of the men who were out would be re-employed. The strikers asserted that enough competent machinists could not be secured by the company to take their places.

The shops were re-opened on July 6th. When the one hundred and fifty strikers went out, twenty-five men and boys refused to join them. On July 13th, the strike was declared at an end, after having lasted three weeks, the strikers, being unorganized, failing to gain their point. A committee was sent to the firm with a request that the strikers be re-employed, and this the company readily consented to do, explaining that they had no ill-will against their employees, and that the nine-hour demand could not be considered because of the close competition.

AT THE McSHANE BRASS FOUNDRY.

On June 26th there was a strike in the molding department of McShane & Company's brass foundry, sixteen men quitting work. Their grievance was that a change had been made in the system of pay. They had been getting one and a half cents for each mold turned out, and the firm notified them that their pay in the future would be ten per cent. of the value of the work.

It was claimed by the firm that this change meant increased pay, but the men were convinced that their pay would be decreased, owing to the deductions made from their earnings for defects in castings. These defects were alleged to be due to the quality of metal used, rather than to workmanship. The firm was asked to return to the old method of payments, but this request was refused. The strikers numbered but a small proportion of the employees, and most of them returned to work on the following day and the strike soon ended. The strike turned out to have been due to a misunderstanding of the position of the firm, according to the superintendent, who said that the firm had decided to pay a ten per cent. increase on all perfect molds, thus raising the price per hundred from $1.50 to $1.65, and that the increase was justified by its insuring a greater number of perfect molds.

SHOE CUTTERS.

Shoe Cutters' Union, No. 23, which has about 40 members, on November 15th, after a notice of two months, ordered a strike