The following invitation was sent to fifty prominent citizens of
Chicago:
UNION LEAGUE CLUB, CHICAGO, June 11th, 1887.
_Dear Sir_:--You are requested to meet a number of gentlemen in the
parlors of the Union League club, next Monday evening, June 13th,
at 8 o'clock, P. M., sharp, to consider the present labor
troubles, in our city and elsewhere, and to discuss the propriety
of inaugurating a movement, the object and aim of which will be to
harmonize existing and imaginary differences between employers and
employes, and to restore and re-establish every and all rights of
citizenship guaranteed by the constitution of the United States,
and to maintain the supremacy of the law throughout the length and
breadth of the land. The vital questions of the day must be met,
calmly considered and settled.
You are earnestly invited to respond to this call.
By order of
COMMITTEE ON POLITICAL ACTION.
The guests assembled in the parlors of the club and were escorted to the
library, where Mr. G. F. Bissell presided during a lengthy discussion of
the labor question. At the close of the meeting resolutions were adopted
for the appointment of a committee of seven whose duty it was to procure
signatures of citizens to a paper endorsing the action of the Master
Masons and Builders in the stand they had taken against the tyranny of
the unions, and to request the press to keep the subject before the
public.
On Tuesday the committee met and prepared a heading for signatures,
which contained extracts from the code of principles of the builders, in
regard to the right of every man to work or not to work, to employ or
not to employ, and the right of every boy to learn a trade. To these
extracts were appended the following:
We, the undersigned, endorse the action of the Master Masons and
other organizations of Builders and agree to use our best endeavors
to bring about a resumption of building operations based on the
Code of Principles at the head of this paper.
Signatures were procured to these papers in large numbers and were
presented to the Master Masons' association. They had a good effect, as
some of the weaker members needed just such endorsement to make them
strong.