_In a special dispatch to_ THE NEW YORK TIMES, _dated Bridgeport,
Conn., July 14, appeared the following news of labor trouble in the
American munitions factory:_
One hundred workmen, twenty guards, and the Bridgeport police reserves
took a hand in a riot tonight at the new plant of the Remington Arms
Company, where it is planned to make small arms for the Allies. The
riot brings to fever heat the labor excitement of the last week, which
yesterday caused the walkout of the structural ironworkers at the
plant and today a walkout of the millwrights and the ironworkers on
the new plant of the sister company, the Remington Union Metallic
Cartridge Company.
The three thousand workmen have been stirred into a great unrest in
the last week by some unseen influence. Major Walter W. Penfield,
U.S.A., retired, head of the arms plant, says pro-Germans are back of
the strike. This the labor leaders deny.
_On July 15 the spread of the strike was reported in a special
dispatch from Bridgeport to_ THE NEW YORK TIMES:
The strike at the giant new plant of the Remington Arms Company under
construction to make arms for the Allies, as well as, it is supposed,
for the United States Government, spread today from the proportions of
a picayune family labor quarrel to an imminent industrial war which
would paralyze Bridgeport, curtailing the shipment of arms and
ammunition from this centre, and which threatens to spread to other
cities in the United States, especially to those where munitions of
war are being manufactured.
_On July 20_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _published the demands of the workmen
at the Remington Arms plant, as outlined by J.J. Keppler,
vice-president of the Machinists' Union:_
Mr. Keppler was asked to tell concisely just what the unions wanted.
"There are at present," he replied, "just three demands. If the strike
goes further the demands will increase. The demands are:
"1. Recognition of the millwrights as members of the metal trade
unions and not of the carpenters', and fixing of the responsibility
for the order some one gave for the millwrights to join the
carpenters' union, an attempt on the part of the Remington or the
Stewart people to dictate the international management of the unions.
"2. A guarantee of a permanent eight-hour day in all plants in
Bridgeport making war munitions. This carries with it a demand for a
guarantee of a minimum wage and double pay for overtime.
"3. That all men who go on strike will be taken back to work."
In addition, of course, Mr. Johnston demands that Major Penfield
retract his charge of German influence being back of the strike.
_A check, if not a defeat, administered to the fomenters of the strike
was reported to_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _in a Bridgeport dispatch dated
July 20, as follows:_
John A. Johnston, International vice-president of the Iron Workers'
Union, and J.J. Keppler, vice-president of the Machinists', were on
hand to inaugurate the big strike. All of Bridgeport's available
policemen were on duty at the plant.
As the whistle blew the crowd surged about the gates, where barbed
wire and guards held them back. Five minutes passed, ten, twenty, and
12.30 saw Keppler and Johnston pacing up and down before the plant
awaiting their men. At 1 o'clock not a machinist had issued from the
portals. The hoarse whistle blew, calling back the two thousand
workers to their task, and Keppler and Johnston and the rest were left
in wonder.
A cog had slipped in this way:
Before the noon whistle blew, Major Walter G. Penfield, works manager
of the plant, placed guards at all the exits to ask the machinists to
wait a few minutes. They did. The foreman told them that, on behalf of
the Remington Company, Major Penfield desired to assure them a
permanent eight-hour day, beginning August 1, and to guarantee a
dollar a day increase in pay.