The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 1, 1925, Page 3

| ————— souswaers SECTION OF HUTCHESON'S “LITTLE PAL” WAS BRINDELL Article 5 Answering Secretary Duffy, By J. W. JOHNSTONE. The present expulsions taking place within the carpenters’ union are by no means the first ones. In _ fact, Hutcheson’s record, since he quit box- making for a living and took over the general presidency of the U. B, of C. & J. of A., has been one of open cor- ruption and illegal expulsion of all who stood in his way. The close relationship between Hutcheson and Robert P. Brindell, who just recently served a term: in Sing Sing for grafting, is well known to the members of the Carpenters’ Union in the New York district. But the general membership are not -so well acquainted with the close co-op- eration which existed between the grafting Brindell and Brother Hutche- son, and that it was Hutcheson who was responsible for the building of the Brindell machine that played so much havoc in the building trades of New York from 1915 until he went to the penitentiary and from which they have not yet recovered. The Game Began. It was after the -betrayal of the carpenters in the New York district by Hutcheson in 1916 that the Build- ing Trades Council was reorganized and from which Brindell derived his power and began his blackmail and bribery game, which cost the organi- zation probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, leaving a trail of illegal ex- pulsions of the best and most cour- ageous members of New York. Consider, for example, the case of Eugene Lanz, a dock-builder and car- penter, who without trial was sus- pended from the union until such time as he was able to pay a fine of $500. The reason for this fine was because Lanz brot charges of extortion against Brindell and also named six specific cases of misappropriation of funds. The local committee, creatures of Brindell, refused to produce the local records showing the items of misap- propriation. Hutch Helped Brindell. Lanz exhausted every effort to get back into. the unign. Hutcheson ans- wering his appeal. stated that he had no reason to interfere in the case. Still another victim of the Brindell- Hutcheson conspiracy was August Hol- strom, formerly president of the New York Dock Builders’ Union. He, too, brot charges against Brindell similar to those of Lanz. The charges were ignored and he was promptly expelled for daring to bring charges against Brindell. Holstrom went to the war (while Hutcheson and Brindell remained be- hind to whoop up for patriotism from safe positions on the labor war board) and when he returned they refused to allow him to come back into the un- ion, which Brindell by this time ruled with a rod of iron. A Regular Chum of Brindell. He finally got a job in Jersey City and applied for membership in the Ship Carpenters’ Local No. 1216. This was out of Brindell’s jurisdiction, but his friend Hutcheson stepped in and sent a telegram notifying the local that he could not be accepted as a member. Holstrom had been a mem- ber of the union since 1892, and for daring to bring charges against Brin- dell he was forced but of the union and is still hounded by the Hutcheson machine, * Many similar cases could be quoted from the time that Hutcheson revoked the charters of 68 locals in New York, turning a victory into a defeat and setting up and co-operating with Brin- dell in his career of crime against the carpenters’ organization. Both Hands in the Cash Box, Back of all of these expulsions huge sums of money were involved. One item is particularly worth .men- tioning so as to give the reader some idea as to why these labor fakers fight so viciously to retain their posi- tions as head of unions. The assess- ment levied during the New York 1916 strike totalled nearly if not over $390,000. Yet at the carpenters’ con- vention held in Fort Worth Brindell only accounted for $70,000 of .the strike fund, And up to date no other accounting has been made. Many other points. could be taken un showing the friendly and close re- rationship between Hutcheson and Brindell and how in every move they made their own personal advancement was always considered first, For fur- ther facts dealing with the Hutcheson corrupt administration see the pam- phiet, “What's Wrong in the Carpen- series of articles suf- ficient facts have been brought out to. prove to the most skeptical mem- ber within the carpenters’ union that the organization is rotten at the top and that something drastic must be done to save the organization from complete demoralization and probable annihilation. Now the Left Wing fe Organized, The expulsions that took place dur- Grabbed Hot End of, . Poker, Now Wants an Asbestos Committee NEW YORK—In spite of the fact that hundreds of locals have opposed the expulsion policy of the Hutcheson administration and are demanding the reinstatement of those expelled, Hutcheson continues his ruinous pol- icy. The Progressive Building Trades Worker some time ago predicted that F. W. Burgess would be the next one to be expelled, and that following him would come the campaign manager (Jos. Lapidus) of Morris Rosen, As prophesied, Burgess has been ex- pelled, and on March 18 Lapidus and the officers of Local 276 have to ap- pear before a special investigating committee, selected of course by the G. EB. B. relating to sending out mat- ter of a “scurrilous” nature to the local. unions. The “scurrilous” matter sent out was the election program upon which the ,progressives run Morris Rosen for, president. Hutcheson if nothing else; is brutally frank. He wants every, member of the union to under- stand that he will brook no opposi- tion to his rile. Chicago has shown him that he can- not depend upon his local lieutenants to put his expulsion policy into ef- fect. Detroit is raising hell over his method of expelling by letter and his use of the courts. Los Angeles fs pro- testing against the use of the police in expelling sixteen of their most val- ued members, and the general mem- bership is in open revolt against the expulsion policy. So Hutcheson {is now trying to screen himself behind a fake “investi- gation, committee,” whose findings have already been decided upon and which is in-open violation of the con- stitution. Hutcheson grabbed the red end of the poker when he started to expel the militanats, now he cannot let go without admitting all the charges that are being levelled against him. Union Officials Sleep While Klan and Church Work' for Coal Barons By G. SPANOS. WHITEVILLE, W. Va.—This section is the Big ‘Coal River section where there are many small mining towns. It is from this town that the armed coal miners started their campaign in 1921 and’ 1922 to go and assist their striking brothers in Mingo county. In 1921 the wages were cut and all miners inthis district declared a strike. The.¢oal companies brought in scabs to work in their mines on the American “open shop” plan ever since 1921, There are miners here who have been on strike ever since that time. There are union men who have re- turned to their jobs and are now working in the same mines with the scabs. Byvery one of them almost without exception are dissatisfied. They work. very hard and do not re- ceive enough money to live upon, We, do.not know what stand they will take on the first of April when their agréement expires in the union mines. The miners say that no organ- izers have made an appearance as yet to advise them what to do on the first of April. Those that belong to the K. K. K. claim that they are satisfied with their conditions as they are. The Ne- gro preachers have started a campaign from Charleston, W. Va., and they are organizing the Negro miners and ad- vise them to have faith in the al- mighty god instead of in unionism. ing the period mentioned in this arti- cle, were of individuals who had no ways and means of bringing their cases before the membership. The present series of expulsions have the support of an: ever-growing left-wing group which has a definite program of action and has its own official ex- pression in the Progressive Building Trades “Worker and is supported by the Trade Union Educational League, the Workers (Communist) Party, and all of their numerous publications. The forcing back into the union of the five members “expelled” in Chi- cago, the refusal of the Detroit locals and district council te recognize the expulsion of Wm. Reynolds, the sup- port given by hundreds of local un- ions and many district councils to all of the expulsion cases, shows the growing strength of the left-wing and marks the beginning of the end for the Hutcheson corrupt administra- tion, 4 THE DAlk¥Y WORKER Page Three COAL MINERS IN PANHANDLE SECTION | Left Wing Papers, OF WEST VIRGINIA NEED UNIONIZATION| What They Are and BELLAIRE, O., Mar. 30.—Sub-district 5 of District 6, U. M. W., takes the panhandle district of West Virginia. While almost all the mines ‘in Ohio Where to Get Them In response to many inquiries as to are union mines, the same cannot be said of the mines in the panhandle dis-|*#e left wing papers issued by the trict of West Virginia. Some of these mines are still union, but the majority of them are not. No real effort is being made at this time to organize the mines in this section of the district. It will be recalled by the miners that an explosion took place at Ben- wood, W. Va., which is across the river from Bellaire, Ohio, on April 28, 1924. In this explosion 117 miners lost their lives. This mine had been a unfon mine but after the 1922 strike it, Ike many other mines owned by the Wheeling Steel corporation, refused to sign the Jacksonville agreement. In spite of the fact that the Jacksonville agree- ment took from the men many of their rights, they decided that in W. Va. the time was ripe to take all the rights away from the mtfners. 117 Paid With Lives. Soon after the mine opened this terrible explosion took place taking the lives of the 117 miners who were foolish enough to work in the scab mine when they knew that there is less safety for them in # scap mine than in a union mine, It was reported at the time of the explosion that one of the fire boss- es was Matthew V. Herron, who worked in the mine under the name of J. J. Boyle. Thig man turned out to be a department of justice agent, who was probably working in the mine in order to spy on the workers who were interested in having the mine organized. The company denied this man was a fire boss, saying he was a timber- man, altho they did not explain why a D. of J. man was working in the mine. + After the explosion, it was brought to the attention of the unton officials in Sub-District Five that the company wanted to use union coal miners for rescue work. The union officers said that in view of the fact that such a terrible disaster took place, it would permit the union men to do rescue work. Any one who knows the least bit about the manner of organizing work- ers knows that the only way in which to organize workers is to have men work with them, and to build up an organization. Organizing Officials. The mine owners only believe in collective bargaining when they can- not destroy the union. Yet what did the officials of the union do? Instead of sending union organizers to try and get jobs in the mine and win the con- fidence of the men, and thru that most effective manner organize the men, they wrote a letter to the officers of the Wheeling Steel corporation which owned the Benwood mine and asked for a conference to discuss the mat- ter of the Benwood mine again be- coming a union mine. The company never replied to this letter. They could not have been expected to. The only time they listen to representa- tives of workers is when the work- ers who are represented are well enough organized to compell the boss- es to come to terms. The militants in the miners’ union do not approve of the correspondence school method of organizing the’ coal mines. The miners’ union was not built in that manner when the min- ers’ union was first organized. It was organized thru organizers who had the courage to face the sluggers and gunmen of the companies in order to reach the men and organize them. One needs but to go back to the days when Mother Jones was active organizing for the miners’ union. The history of the miners’ union fs filled with glorious struggles of the miners to organize themselves. While the workers in Fayette-county, Pennsyl- vania, were living in tents as were the workers in W. Va. and other places, the’ officials of the union try to organize the correspondence. To-day the bosses are planning wage cuts against the miners. In every important state where they have no state police they are cam- paining for them. They are preparing not only to starve the workers into submission, but to shoot them into accepting the 1917 scale. The miners are demanding the or- ganization of the unorganized coal fields, But the coal fields will only be organized by militant miners’ or ganizers, who will not stay in the best hotels and fraternize with the bosses, but who will go among the miners themselves, win their confi- dence, by proving to the miners that they too are willing to make sacri- fices for the union. GET A SUB AND GIVE ONE! Help.Fight the Criminal Syndicalist Laws! Defend Labor's Militant Leaders! by attending Philadelphia Labor Defense Council Bazaar Friday and Saturday, April 3rd and 4th, 1925 NEW TRAYMORE HALL, Franklin St. & Columbia Ave. Concert and Dance both Hvenings—Dancing Friday until 1A. M. Varied Musical Program. Admission 60c for both evenings, | ? Ward Auspices, eraher ain Defense Union Orchestra. | Single admiesion 60c at the door. Free, acil Arrangements Committee, BUREAUCRATS, IN FRENZY, WRITE; 0 WEEP, READER! ‘Not Responsible for the J. E, L. committees, the following are given as constituting the expres- sion of growing class consciousness of the rank and file within the Ameri- can trade unions: Metal Trades Amalgamation Bulletin, This paper deals with all live is- sues of all the unions in the metal trades. It costs only 50 cents a year, and may be ordered from its address at 19.South Lincoln street, Chicago, The Amalgamationist. This paper issued by the printing trades group of the T. U. E. L, sets forth the principles of the left wing in all printing trades unions. Price 50 cents per year. Address: 1113 Washington Blvd. The Railway Amalgamation Advocate. The paper which reveals the how Cracked Lips By HARRISON GEORGE The following is a symposium of attacks upon the Communists and members of the Trade Union Educa- tional League, whose activity in be- half of the interests of the member- ship of the unions has elicted from the union bureaucracy of not only the A. F. of L., but also of the independent unions, and the I. W. W. thrown in, these testimonials of efficiency in ex- posing and opposing the betrayals, class collaboration and autocracy of the various official families. The publications from which these excerpts are taken came to our.desk on the same day—and their siniilarity is striking; fanatic wobbly, yellow so- cialist and black reactionary as like as peas in a pod. | What the A. F. of L. Says “True to form, the Communists once more are trying to do their utmost to wield improper influence among the members of union labor at every elec- tion of officers of organizations affili- ated with the American Federation of Labor. The real purpose of this effort is to create a split in the organiza- tions upon which they concentrate their activities. The United Mine Workers, the International Brother- hood of Carpenters, and the Interna- tional Association’ of Machinists have had the misfortune of being the tar- gets of ,these ‘boring from within’ specialists, the Federation News organ whe Chicago Federa- tion of Labor, issue of March 28, 1925, The next in the exhibition is from the union of clothing workers which was formed in 2914 by a split away from the American Federation of La- bor, leaving the faker Rickert of the United Clothing,,Workers to hold’ an empty office ofva@ union praciically without members,:It was led and still is led largely by» yellow socialists, whose increasing tendency to repeat the same bureaucratic crimes of Rickert against the interests of the workers who belong to it, has re- sulted in criticism of these officials by the left wing—and the criticism has been answered with blackjacks and guns and expulsions. We introduce: Workers of America “In a most emphatic manner the members of the Chicago Joint Board served notice in the group which secks to bring chaos within the organiza- tion... The enemies of the organ- ization under the banner of the Trade Union Educational League and the Workers Party were scheduled to hold a meeting to attack the policies of the Amalgamated officials. The mem- bers were obviously greatly incensed at the disruptive tactics of, these out- side groups. The Chicago organiza- tion will not stand interference and dictation by outside agencies.“—From The Advance, organ of the Amiw&N gamated Clothing Workers, issue of March 27, 1925. The next on deck are the two I. W. W. organizations, one the “regular” I. W. W. still holding forth at the Madi- son street headquarters in Chicago,| cloud Riders, the other with a Chicago office but Jargely centered around Portland, gon, and with the Industrial Worker of Seattle, edited by a stump-ranch farmer, This last.is the Rowan split from the genuine I) W. W. whose accusation is;that the genuine” was a split from their “genuine” W. This may be dizzying, but true. Both these I. W, W’s, are, ally, biterly opposed to the A. F. of L, holding it as a cardinal principle “Carthage must be destroyed” before anything can be done for the workers th of the A. F, of L, A member of its gen- eral executive board visited the In- dianapolis convention of the United Mine Workers, trying to persuade the Nova Scotia miners of District 26, be- trayed by Lewis, to split and come into the I, W. W. | The I. W. W. 18 Just now enthus- fastically wasting it# treasury trying to split and destroy’ the Structural Iron Workers’ Union, Tite habitual destruc. tive attitude towar’ the craft unions goes on all the title and everywhere, even in Californid’and Washington, where the western them! theoretic-| From the General and the why all rail unipns should amalgamate into one industrial union costs only 60 cent a year. It is pub- lished at 411 Dakota building, St. Paul, Minn, The Progressive Building Trades Worker. The building trades have the best paper, perhaps, of any of the left wing publications. It costs only 35 cents a year and can be obtained from 19 South Lincoln street, Chicago, Ill. material support of the A. F. of L. members for defense against the cap- italist government——that “incon- Sequential reflection of economic power” which the wobblies wave aside as unimportant even while it wrecks their halls and imprisons them by the scores, In spite of this, there {s ® warm fraternity between the most reaction- jary labor fakers of the A. F. of L. and the Lanauicar adarcuu-syuuicauor wou ers of the I. W. W. Welinder’s speech- es are indistinguishable from those Gompers made in 1886. Gahan, editor of the Industrial Pioneer, is invited by the reactionary labor fakers of the Barbers’ Union of the A. F. of L, to speak against the Workers (Commun- ist) Party to the local. He did so on March 26. In Seattle, the organ of the split, the Industrial Worker, takes violent sides with the labor fakers who are trying to expel the Communist from the Central Labor Council. We select for first introduction: The |. W. W. Rowan Split Faction “Is the I. W. W. a dual union? The pronouncement of the Communist Party of America, after it had re- ceived its instructions from Moscow— say that it is. But this was not de- cided on until the same Communists tried to capture the organization for a tail to their underground kite (An underground kite is no novelty to this I, W. W. editor.—H. G.) and made a failure of it. The Communist Party was organized from elements outside the ranks ‘of labor organizations. It doesn’t report to and receive its or- ders from any labor body. The acts of Judas Iscariot, of Benedict Arnold, of John Wilkes Booth, of Harry Orchard and W. E. Townsend cannot appear worse than will the acts of those who liquidate the I. W. W. for their own personal schemes and at- tempts at leadership.”—From the In- dustrial Worker, March 25, 1925. Organ of the Western Branches of the IL. W. W. The next exhibit is from the real sure-enough I. W. W., (again begging pardon of the, DeLeon sect) which ex- cludes even from its internal bulletins the letters of its members which in- timate that their writer has a speak- ing acquaintance with revolutionary principles, We introduce: The I. W. W. The Real Main Office “Why is a member of the I. W. W. allowed to be a socialist, democrat. republican, catholic, protestant or even join Mrs. Rowan’s Celestial and yet we balk more or less at the Communists? It is be- Ore-} cause the Communists have an out- side maahine and by claiming to be industrial unionists want to come in- to our organization and dominate it ‘» With apol- ogies to the soolalist labor party 38 rey interest of that machine. I two persons who have been around «the Communists and they 1. W-| nave assured me that the Foster ma- is behind the Rowanites”— Office Bulletin, chine th t organ of the General Executive Board ‘atl of the I. W. W., Chicago. After these illustrations, we leave @ reader to ponder over the fact that the Workers (Communist) Party and the Trade Union Educational League are the only ones whose pro- grams for the workers are so uni- versally accepted by the members of all kinds of unions, that the incompe- tent, dishonest and reactionary of.’ cials of them all have united in an un- holy alliance. Give your shopmate this copy of the DAILY WORKER—but be bers must de-|Sure to see him the next day to pend so largely upon the moral and| get his subscription, HE TRADE UNION EDUCATIONAL LEAGUE aa JEWELL BETRAYS|°°s! Company. Has the C.4& N.W. SHOPMEN TO RAIL COMPANY Starts “B. & O. Plan” on North Western After a fake favorable “vote” in the Chicago and North Western Railway shops, Bert M. Jewell of the railway department of the A. F. of L., and Otto’S. Beyer, Jr. a former govern- ment agent and now an “efficiency” engineer, are busily inaugurating the infamous class collaboration scheme known as the “B. and O. plan.” They are welcomed with a glad hand by the union-hating company and are working together with William Walliser, vice-president and head of the personnel department of the road, which aims to profit from this be- trayal of the employes’ interests by the union officials, Glenwood Shopmen Tried and Condemned It One the Baltimore and Ohio road's Glenwood shops, where the plan was first put into practice, the Glenwood local of the International Association of Machinists was so weakened by its destructive effect on the union that the local could not afford to send a delegate to the I. A. of M. convention at Detroit. What the machinists thought about it was revealed when these Glenwood workers passed a resolution recently condemning the fake “co-operation” as benefiting only to the company and a betrayal of their interests by Wm. H. Johnston, president of the I. A. of M. This is the fact, in spite of the |camouflage hung around the plan by Johnston, Jewell and Beyer, which is supposed to provide for the “recogni- tion” of the union by the company. Actually, say the Glenwood shopmen, the “B, and O. plan” is simply the recognition by the union officials of a company union plan of speeding up work solely for the profit of the company. “It is a company union under labor union permission.” .“Mutuality of Interest”—Bunk. The hoary lie about the “mutuality of interests” between capitalists and workers is at the bottom of the plan. “Recognizing a mutual interest in the successful and economical opera- tion of shops, repair yards, etc.,” says the agreement signed by the North Western and the union fakers, “we have held conferences to place in effect a systematized co-operative pro- gram.” Insures a “Minimum Number” of Workers. Lewis to Cut Wages PITTSBURGH, Pa. March 30.— Abandonment of 16 of its 54 mines with an estimated loss of $5,000,000 to the company was announced here today by the Pittsburgh Coal company as a direct result of high production costs compared with the non-union fields of West Virginia and Kentucky, according to the company. Non-union mines are producing coa) for $1.25 a ton which is $1 less a ton than the Pittsburgh company could mine its holdings, according to the announcement. IN AMALGAMATION LIES POWER, SAYS BRITISH UNIONIST English Unions Now, Amalgamating CLEVELAND—Aggressive methodd are winning in the fight of British trade unions against the employers, asserts A. B. Swales, chairman Brtt- ish Trade Union congress (the Brit ish A. F, of L.), in a special article ta appear in the April issue of the Lace- motive Engineers’ Journal. “We are no longer standing with our backs against the wall, resisting stubbornly the attempts of the em- ployers to drive down our wages fur ther and still further,” Swales writes, “but have turned the corner and have embarked on a campaign of attack, with winning advances in nearly every industry. We intend to con- timue our offensive until the full ob- jective of our program has been se cured.” Amalgamation A Major Step. The major steps in the consolidat ed offensive has been the consolida- tion of unions into powerful weapons of labor on a national scale, Swales shows. “Our general council is now engaged upon the task imposed upon it by the 1924 congress of framing a scheme whereby the consolidation and unifying of the unions can be carried a further stage. “The number of separate unions catering for the particular trade or group of trades and crafts can be re- duced by the amalgamation of exist- ing organizations, along with a paral lel movement which seeks to over- come the difficulty faced by unions who are not able to amalgamate for a variety of reasons, but can be brot “Employes can without doubt bring to the attention of the management many points which will improve local conditions a’ to methods of planning and handling work in shops and round- houses on Sundays and holidays. These factors. together with the e- conomical use of time and forces, use of tools of the railway company imthe most advantageous manner, perfor- mance of work by the minimum number of employes consistent with the various classes of work available, etc,, will aid in the successful opera- tion of the shops and repair tracks. “To present these suggestions, to insure their full and intelligent con- sideration and to secure the co-opera- tion necessary to their successful a- doption—conferences will local points where foremen and other local officers will meet a like number of shop committee men” It is expected that the shops at Clinton, Iowa, will be the scene of the first experiment on the North Western lines. An Efficiency Speed-Up System. The meetings are to be held with the ranking officer of the railway company or his representative as chairman of the joint committee Subjects suggested for consider. ation are co-operation between depart- ments; proper distribution, storage and care of material; increasing ef- ficiency of tools and machines; dispo- sition of scrap; most efficient method of handling engines through the shops; reclamation of usable material; conditions of shops and shop material; arrangement of car repair tracks and tools. Nothing for the Men—But Betrayal. None of the agreements provide for a definite arrangment in regard to distribution of the savings resulting from this plan but the union chiet- tains “expect” that the employes will be given consideration in this regard, The union officials are the only ones which “expect” such an im- possibility, and their treachery is most brazenly apparent when they sign an agreement which provides immense benefit for the company but none at all for the employes, all it as- sures them is a speed up system and a lay-off of any «“superfluous” work- ers whose work the rest can do “if they work hard enough.” Vermont Weavers on Strike Against Fines BATTLEBORO, Vt, March 26— Nearly @ hundred weavers employed by the Fort Dummer Mills went out on strike when a schedule of fines was posted in the weaving rooms, begin at) together in federations, representing the whole body of unions concerned with a particular branch of industry.” Decrease in Number and Increase of Unity. Since 1920 the number of separate unions has decreased more than 15 per cent. Unskilled workers, former- ly organized only locally or in dis- tricts here and there are now en- rolled in three huge unions, Swales teports. The National Union of Gen- eral Workers, the Workers’ Union, and the Transport and General Work- ers’ Union have a combined member- | ship of 1,000,000 and are considering amalgamation into a single organiza- tion. In the building trades the consoll- dation has been carried so far that no strike can be declared without the consent of the executive of the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives, on which all the crafts are represented. “Both nation- ally and locally the workers of the industry speak and fight as one,” Swales declares. The same is true in the foundry trades. “In amalgamation,” he concludes, “lies the greatest possibility for the British workers.” But while British union officials are actually amalgamating their unions, the American union bureaucracy is fighting it and preventing it, even those in the Brotherhood of Locomo- tive Engineers, whose organ publish- es the accomplishments of the Eng’ lish unions. Shoe Workers Confer on Amalgamation of Two New York Unions NEW YORK.—The general council of the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union at the semi-annual meeting held in January, 1925, extended to all inde- pendent unions of all shoe and leather workers an invitation to join with them in forming a national industrial union which would embrace .all work: ers in the shoe and leather industries, Among the unions to whom such invitations were sent was the Amer- ican Shoe Workers’ Protective Union, Inc,, of, Greater New York. As a result of this invitation officials of the Shoe Workers’ Protective Union arranged a conference at which the possibility of combining both orgazations was discussed, Several conferences have been held and tentative propositions have been submitted and are under advisement, Other conferences have been arranged which will be held it the near future,