Captain R. M. Spedden, of the R. M. Spedden Company, told his employees on the day of the strike that their demand would have been granted without a resort to that measure, and asked the strikers' committee, which waited upon him, to send the men back to work the next day, and under the nine-hour system.

On June 2 representatives from the shipyards of the Columbian Iron Works, the James Clark Company, Charles Reeder & Sons, E. J. Codd and Company and Thomas C. Basshor & Co., held a conference, and came to the conclusion not to comply with the demand of the strikers. It was said at this conference that had the companies been given sixty days' notice, they might have so arranged their affairs as to have given the nine-hour day, but that under the existing circumstances, it could not be granted without loss to the employers. It was announced that the men would be given a short time in which to return to work, and failing in this, their places would be supplied.

The one hundred employes of the R. M. Spedden Company returned to work on June 2nd, and the nine-hour day was alsq granted eighty employes at the Campbell-Zell works without a strike becoming necessary there. The strikers did not go to the vards where their demands had been refused. A meeting was held on the night of June 2nd, at Park avenue and Fayette street, and it was stated that thirty-five boiler-makers had quit work at the Reeder shops. A speech was made by Mr. J. Benjamin Armsworthy, president of Oriole Lodge, No. 193, Boiler-makers and Iron-platers of America, in which he said that some shipyards were willing to give an increase in wages, but that the object of the strike was the securing of a nine-hour day. One interesting statement made at the meeting was that in Baltimore the lowest wages were paid, and the men compelled to work more hours than in Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn, New York and other cities. A committee, which had waited on Mr. E. J. Codd, reported that he had acknowledged that they were right in asking for a shorter workday. The James Clark Company was reported to have agreed to the strikers' proposition, in the event that other firms. did the same.

On the following day a number of machinists and blacksmiths in the yards of the Clark Company and the Reeders', came out and another meeting of the strikers was held, at which encouraging reports were received. Nine pattern-makers quit work at

the Columbian Iron Works, and the Baltimore Association voted $200 in aid of the Boston pattern-makers, who had struck for nine hours.

On June 5th, the strikers began to reap the results of their determined stand. Mr. Codd called a meeting of the ship-builders and boiler machine makers, and informed them that his company would accede to the demand, and grant a nine-hour day, because it was so pressed with work that it had to have the men back. The new rule went into effect at the Codd yards the following day, and applied to all the workmen employed by the company. The Campbell-Zell Co. followed up its action in giving the boiler-makers and iron-platers a nine-hour day, by extending the system to the machinists and blacksmiths. The Columbian Iron Works, the James Clark Company and the Reeders', however, remained firm, and fifty machinists quit work at the Columbian Iron Works. At a meeting of the strikers on the night of June 6th, some of the men applied for their traveling cards, with the intention of going to Boston, where the nine-hour day was in force, and where from 25 to 50 cents more per day was paid in wages. Over fifty new members were initiated into the Boilermakers and Iron Ship-builders' Union, and a large number of applications for membership were received. Forty strikers left the city the following day for Boston. The strike continued into July, and by the eleventh of that month it was practically over. The Clark Company and the Reeders' consented to accede to the demand, and the Columbian Iron Works later yielded to the strikers.

STRIKE AT STEELTON.

The mammoth plant of the Maryland Steel Company is t Steelton (Sparrow's Point), in Baltimore county, a few miles from the city. Many of its employees live in Baltimore. On March 2nd, the company announced that the pay of all its employees would be increased ten per cent. April 1st, thus restoring all wages up to the level that obtained in March, 1897, when reduction was made, owing to the business depression. Increases in the working forces were made during the first half of the year, the company having many large contracts on hand. A meeting of the Sparrow's Point workmen was held, on June 14th, and the

advisability of making a demand on the company for a nine-hour day was discussed, the demand carrying with it the retention of the existing scale and an eight-hour day on Saturday.

The meeting was not largely attended, and it was decided not to make any demands on the employers at that time. Hearing of the movement the superintendent called the men together and told them that the company did very little repair work, and was not in competition with the Baltimore shipyards, but with such big shipbuilding concerns as the Cramps, the Harlan and Hollingsworth Company, and the Bath Iron Works; and if the company did not meet the competition of these concerns, it would have to send its men to seek employment elsewhere.

A few days afterward another meeting of workmen in the marine department was held, and on June 19th, the superintendent of that department was notified that all the machinists and other employees wanted a nine-hour day. The meeting at which this decision was reached was held at Highlandtown and a committee appointed to notify the superintendent. A system of weekly payments was also demanded, and the superintendent was given seven days in which to consider the demands, a strike being the alternative in case of refusal. At the meeting, Mr. James P. Armsworthy, president of Oriole Lodge, Boilermakers and Iron Ship-builders of America, made an address.

waited upon the superintendent on June 19th.

The committee

The latter did not give a specific answer at the time, but it became known that the company would inaugurate a system of weekly payments, that having been practically determined prior to the formulation of the workmen's demand. The superintendent said, in a newspaper interview, that if a strike should be ordered, most of the 800 employees of the yard would remain at work, as there were "only about 300 hotheads among them who would consent to go so far as striking." A few days later, the company returned an answer to the committee that its request for a nine-hour day could not be granted, although a weekly pay day would be put into effect in the following month in every department of the yard.

A hundred workmen attended a meeting at Highlandtown, on June 25th, and the answer of the company was laid before them. The matter was discussed, but no strike was ordered. When the

question was put to a vote 23 of those present favored a strike. The putting of the negative was received in silence, and the president of the meeting left. President Armsworthy of Oriole Lodge, urged the men to strike, but without effect. The following day, however, a number of men, estimated at 150 by the company, quit work. The strikers claimed that eighteen gangs of riveters, including 54 men and 36 boys, 14 coppersmiths, 4 fitters-up, 14 boiler-makers and a number of laborers went out. They also alleged that 150 men asked for their time, and they received with their tickets, the information that the company had no further use for them. Some of the strikers, the company claimed, returned to work the next day, and it was announced that all the strikers would be given a little time in which to return to work, but that in a few days their places would be filled. The Federation of Labor discussed the strike, and the company's officials asserted on June 28th, that nearly all of the men had returned to work. Several delegates from the Federation visited Sparrow's Point, and they reported that the number of strikers had been larger than the company admitted, but that they were very much in need of organization; that unless a strong organization was formed among them, the strike would not be a success, which, eventually, proved to be the case, the men gradually going back to work under the old conditions, with the exception of those who sought employment elsewhere.

BREW-WORKERS AND BOTTLERS' STRIKE.

In April, the National Brewworkers' Union instituted an investigation into the condition of its members in Baltimore. National Secretary Charles G. Bechtold, of St. Louis, came to Baltimore at that time, and after looking over the field, instructed the union here to demand a shorter workday. From time to time, Mr. Bechtold returned to Baltimore, and finally informed the members of the union that they might be ordered out on a strike at any day. The demand of the brew-workers was for a uniform workday of nine hours.

Engineers at the various breweries, it was claimed, were required to work from 16 to 18 hours a day in busy seasons; drivers worked about the same number of hours, while the brew-workers were at labor twelve or fourteen hours a day. The bottlers also

joined in the demand for shorter hours, and, in addition, asked an increase in their pay of one dollar a week. Two or three conferences were held between the brewers and the employers during July, and it was thought the differences could be adjusted without resort to a strike.

On August 3rd, nearly all the employees in the Baltimore breweries quit work, a strike having been ordered from the national headquarters of the union. Eight hundred men in all, it is estimated, joined in the strike, which was directed particularly against the Maryland Brewing Company. This concern was organized over a year ago, sixteen out of the twenty Baltimore breweries consolidating, namely, those of George Gunther, George Bauernschmidt Brewing Company; Wehr-Hobelmann and Gottlieb Company; Von der Horst Brewing Company; National Brewing Company; Darley Park Brewery; Bay View Brewery; Mount Brewery; George Brehm; Germania Brewing Company Oriental Brewing Company: John F. Wiessner and Brother, John B. Berger; S. Hellsdorfer's Sons; Baltimore Brewing Company and Eigenbrot Brewing Company. The capitalization of the company was $14,000,000, and the Maryland made 600,000 barrels of beer of the 675,000 annually put out in Baltimore city and Baltimore county.

The outside breweries were the Lion, the Standard, the Beck and the Spring Garden. The employees of these were ordered out on August 4th. The strike occasioned considerable commotion among saloon keepers, who expected a "beer famine" and hastily made arrangements for shipments from other cities. The brewers announced that they had plenty of beer on hand, but that some saloons would have to send to the breweries for it.

Six hundred strikers held a meeting at Manhattan Hall, on East Baltimore street, on the afternoon of August 3rd. Morning deliveries had been made from the breweries as usual, but upon returning to the stables, the drivers stopped work, and were joined by the other employees. The brewery managers said that not over one hundred and sixty brew-workers had struck, together with half of the two hundred drivers, and the majority of the men out were bottlers and employes in the bottling departments. Gunther's Brewery and the Baltimore Brewing Company reported all employees out, while the Von der Horst, Brehm and Bay View establishments claimed that their men were ready for