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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (April 29, 1907)
PART THREE Pages 25 to 34 VOL. XLVI.- PORTLAND, OREGON, MONDAY, APRIL 2.9, 1907. NO. 14,474. SEES PEACE L Less Strife Than For Many Years. REPORTS FROM RIG CITIES Industrial Centers Say Outlook Never Was Brighter. WAGE CONTRACTS SIGNED Carmen in Salt Lake on Strike and San Francisco Threatened In All Other Cities Troubles Are of a Minor Nature Only. CONDITIONS IX EASTERN LABOR CENTERS. NEW YORK Brighter than for many years; no trouble In sight. PITT8BURO Expect quiet May day; machinists only men on strike. CHICAGO Never so harmonious. SAN FRANCISCO Carmen threaten strike; not satisfied with Increase In pay. 6T. LOUIS Bright outlook. NEW ENGLAND Contentions few; unrest In cotton mills most serious. NEW YORK,' April 26. The opening )t the out-of-door construction season .Inds New York, both city and state, without apprehension of serious labor trjubles. In the building trades, espe dally prosperous and reassuring condi tions are prevalent. There is a large and well-met demand for both skilled and unskilled labor, due to the extensive private construction projects now under way and the tunnels and other under' takings of a public or semi-public nat lire. This contentment is generally re flected in the manufacturing and In dustrial centers, and beyond & few lo calized and sporadic strikes, the. labor situation is regard 1 as brighter than tor many years. HARMONY IN WINDY CITY Scarcely a ( lend on Industrial Horizon 'Wages Uolng Vp. CHICAGO. April 28. The relations between employers and employes were never so harmonious in Chicago as now. In the past on May 1, there has always been some sort of struggle on between the labor unions and the em ployers of Chicago, but this year there is scarcely a cloud on the industrial horizon, livery union in the building industry with the exception of the structural Ironworkers, has renewed contracts with employers, and the iron workers expert to reach a settlement without a strike. Machinists have demanded an in crease of 2ft cents a day in wages, but the indications are that there will be no trouble In putting In-the new sched ule Into ettect. as most of tho large Arms In the city have signified a will ingness to grant the increase, and It any strikes are called on May 1 they will bo confined to individual firms Agreements covering all the wood workers, mills and factories have been entered Into so that there will be no trouble on May 1. A number of the teamsters are working under agree ments and little trouble Is expected in that direction. . The railroads, whtch recently granted wago Increases to the men in the train service, are now doing the same in their mechanical departments. FEW NEW ENGLAND STRIKES Conditions in Boston Are Quieter Than for Many Years. BOSTON. Mass., April 28. Accord ing to officers of the workingmens' or ganizations, the industrial situation in New Kngtund. May 1, will bo marked by fewer contentions between capital and labor than for l .any years. In the building trades several small strikes are threatened In a number' of cities, but In Boston there promises to be lit tle suspension of work in any branch of industrial employment. The build ing trades unions, the members of which are unskilled, have requested new wage rates. It is understood pros pects for settlement without a strike are favorable. The painters of eastern Massachusetts are endeavoring to es tablish a uniform wago of $3 a day in Boston, but there will be no strike as the wage question will not be adjusted until later. , The most serious condi tion existing in Boston is due to the strike a month ago of teamsters. In new Kngland at large there are sev eral causes for unrest In cotton mills, end it la said an attempt will bo nude to advance wages in Fall River some time next month. BAY CITY FACES BIG STRIKE Streetcar Men Want Eight. Hours In Addition to Increase in Pay. SAN FRANCISCO. April 28. The ap proach of May 1 finds San Francisco fac ing serious labor troubles. Eleven unions, including every branch of the metal MAY boh WORLD trades, have called meetings to 'be held between now and next Tuesday night to consider the refusal of the employers to grant an 8-hour day with nine hours' pay. A vote will be taken to decide whether the men shall accept the offer of a continuance of the 9-hour day with 6 per cent increase of wages or go on strike. About 10,000 men are involved. The street-car men have issued a call for a mass meeting at midnight Tuesday for the purpose of taking a vote on the refusal of the United Railways to grant the motormen and conductors an 8-hour day and a wage scale of $3 a day. If a strike should be voted, the entire street car traffic of the city would be paralyzed. The strike of steam laundry-workers. which went into effect in this city and Oakland one month ago, is still on, with no Immediate prospects of settlement. ST. IiOtTIS OUTLOOK BRIGHT Practically All Wage Scales Signed for 200 Miles Around City. ST. LOUIS, April 2S, Employers and labor leaders of St. Louis and the South west report labor conditions better for May 1 this year than for many years past. Practically all wage scales In St. Louis and the surrounding territory for 300 miles are signed. In St. Louis alone. this includes 120,000 union men. The unions allied with the Building Trades Council here are all signed for the year, with the exception of a few men employed in small shops. There are about 40,000 men In these unions. Other branches of trade show a similarly good condition. The brewery workers, who were on a strike a few months ago, are now signed, as are also the other im portant trades. Employers and labor leaders say there will be nothing this year in local circles to hinder a great building activity and that on May 1 there will be cause for Jollification for laborers and employers alike. QUIET IN CITY OF PITTSBURG Machinists Are Only Workmen Out on Strike) May Be Contest. PITTSBURG, April 28. May day here is expected to pass off with fewer labor disputes than in previous years. Hereto fore considerable difficulty has been ex perienced between the workmen and the building trades, but this year scales have been signed and the men are apparently satisfied. With the exception of the machinists' demand it is believed that all wage scales will be amicably adjusted. The machin ists are striking for an increase of wages and shorter hours. At two foundries the men are now out and the trouble may become general unless the union scale is agreed to by May 1. SENDING UP SHOWER ASHES Volcano on Stromboli Island Active. Peasants Are Terror-Strlcken. CATANIA, Sicily, April 28. The royal observatory on Mount Etna registers an extraordinary eruption of the volcano on the Island of Stromboli. The volcano is again in active eruption. The . peasants are terror-stricken. The extent of the eruption is not known, as the cable lines are interrupted. The volcano is emitting large quantities of ashes and cinders, which are damaging vineyards in Sicily and Calabria. M'CULLI HAS EYE OH TAMMANY Plans to Bring Braves Into His Camp NEW POLICE BILL HIS CLUB Entire Force Must Fight Murphy or Lose Their Jobs, SCHEME WELL WORKED OUT Should Hughes, However, Decide to Take a Hand Himself, He May Upset Nice Calculations of the Mayor and His Followers. NEW YORK, April 28. (Special.) Will the new policy bill, passed by the vote of Republican legislators, result in the retirement of Charles F.' Murphy as leader of Tammany Hall? Mayor McClellan thinks so; his friends are of the same opinion. Com missioner Bingham declares Its force will not be dragged into politics, but already rumors are afloat that the General will lose his job as soon as the legislature has adjourned. The amended police law gives most remarkable power to the commissioner. No policeman can attain a higher rank than captain by his own efforts. The commissioner details captains to act as chief Inspector and . Inspectors. While enjoying the high raniv they receive in creased pay, but at any moment the commissioners sees fit they can be de graded to precinct rank. Likewise any detective can be put on the pavement in uniform whenever the commissioner sees fit. Heretofore they had the rank of sergeants, and .could, not be ne moved except after a formal trial. After . Sullivan's Scalp. McClellan intends to. devote, the final two years of his term to a desperate effort to control Tammany Hall. His campaign Is in the hands of expert politicians, and they intend to use practical politics from start to finish. The Mayor made a mistake last year by tying up with '.'Tim" Sullivan, only to be thrown down at the last moment. Now. he intends to make the Sullivan clan suffer for its treachery. Maurice Featherson, Dock Commis sioneF under mayor Van Wyck, Senator Patrick McCarren of Brooklyn, Fire Commissioner Francis J. Lantry and AN ' SC'KNE OX THE WKBB FARM, Commissioner of gas, electricity and water supply John O'Brien,, are the quartet relied upon to land the scalp of Murphy. And absolute control of the police department is the . card up on which they rely to do the trick. The backbone of the Tammany Hall strength in New Tork City is made up of the gamblers, saloonkeepers and smaller fry of criminals. They need protection and they have got it from Tammany. Now if they deBire to be taken care of they must make terms with the Mayor and his lieutenants. "It will mean a change of at least a dozen districts," confidently declared one of the Mayor's aides today. "The bulk of the silk stocking vote in Tam- mnay la against the Murphy crowd. Now we are reaching out for the other fellows. Price the Tenderloin Must Pay. "If a saloonkeeper wants to stay open after hours or on Sunday he can do so and it won't cost him a cent, but we will make him line his following up. against Murphy, and will see that he does not give us the double cross. We will do the same with the gamb lers and should have no difficulty in convincing them that their interests demand a hard and fast alliance with us. "The trouble about previous wars on Tammany is that they have not been directed by practical men. This cru sade is in charge of men who have made politics their life-long study. They know just what to do to bring about results, and will distribute re wards and punishments where they will do the most good. "Murphy has no offices to give out and will be unable to protect any of his friends. You will And that before the Summer is over bis boasted strength in the organization will have rapidly melted away." According to the political wiseacres the next move of the Commissioner will be a general reorganization of the squads of favored men now on duty t the various Police Magistrate Courts In Greater New Tork. Will Keep Tab on Men. General Bingham has already started the ball moving by sending Lfeutenant Thomas F. Casey from command of the squad at the Jefferson Market Court to do desk duty at the East Fifty-first-street station. He exchanges places with Lieutenant William J. Ennls. It might be explained right here that un der the, recent reorganization the grade of roundsman was abolished. All for mer roundsmen are now known as sergeants, while sergeants become lieutenants, although with no change in duties or in pay. Astute ' students of ' the Mulberry street dope sheet profess to see the hand ' of Mayor McClellan in the ex changing of Casey and Ennis. Casey has long been a favorite of "Big Tim Sullivan. " For years he was a roundsman at the East Fifth-street station in the heart of the Sullivan baliwack, at the time when the precinct was. the busiest part of the old red light district. Then he was made a sergeant and Rut in charge of the Essex Market Court squad, a position In which he could he of tremendous value to his patron. After a short sojourfc In an easy berth in the House of Detention, (Concluded on Page -0. OREGON CHERRY ORCHARD " NEAR TKOUTDALK, WHERE 1100 TREKS INTERESTS" HIT NEW ASSESSOR Rich Must Pay Tax on Real Valuations. ' HOVEL REFORM IN SEATTLE "Parrish Plan" Meets With Vigorous Opposition. HE WILL GIVE NO QUARTER Vast Timber Lands of King County to Be Cruised by Experts and As sessed Equitably Big Corpora tions Are Showing Fight. SEATTLE, April 28 (Special.) An As sessor has come to King County, and after the first shock of a real appraise ment the "interests" are coming out of a trance to insist that they do not like it. Something like the real valuation of property so far as County Assessor T. A. Parish can ascertain it Is being written into the tax rolls and the cry has gone up that if the Assessor continues King County will have to pay an unjust share of the state's taxes. When he began the big property-owners cautioned him against radicalism and cited precedents, but that did not count. Now they have fallen back upon the burden that will be imposed upon King if a real assessment is made upon the taxable values of the county. County Assessor Parish has heard them out and retorted that he doesn't care. When that has been allowed to soak In, he has softened the blow by the explana tion that the State Tax Commission has Informed him that If he will make a real assessment; one that will stand the test, the Tax Commission will use it as a cri terion to equalize values throughout the state and all other counties will be com pelled to measure up to the King County standard. The inequalities in assessments elsewhere will bear down hard on some property-owners, but the counties as a whole will have to contribute their due as computed from the standard that the State Tax Commission has instructed Mr. Parish to set. Business Man and Politician. Parish doesn't claim to be anything but a business man and a politician a ma chine politician at that. He won his nomination in the old-fashioned school of out-trading the other candidates and he had been at that game both in Wash Photographed by -an ARE SOW US Fill BLOOM. ington, Michigan and Illinois for years, but usually as a political manager. He took the notion that one of the best bits Of political maneuvering is to accept the law as it is found and to enforce It, and there isn't any brass band trimming with his reform in the Assessor's office. He recognized "the boys'" when he gave out the places In his office and he put Hhe drones or unstable workers on the tobog gan slide. He didn't tell the public any thing about it, but he did tell the mate rial in his office that he intended to get at a square assessment and to discover the property that bad evaded taxation for years. The first intimation that came of Par ish's plans for complete assessment of property within King County came when the newly-elected Assessor asked the County Commissioners for permission to employ competent cruisers and re-cruise every foot of timber land In King County. Hitherto the ridiculously low valuation of $6 an acre has been accepted without demur but Parish conceived the idea that this value did not comport with actual values when tlmbermen were selling their lands at from $1.50 to $2.60 a thousand. He figured the county must be losing millions on its valuation of timber lands alone. - Has Long, Hard Fight. The County Commissioners wanted au thority to employ "competent men and Parish took the question to the Assessors' convention and then to the Legislature, asking permission to employ experts in appraising property for purposes of tax ation. The Legislature turned down bis bill, so he came back home and induced the Commissioners to employ the cruis ers anyway. For the first time in his tory, King County this year w!ll have a complete cruising of all tlmher landfi showing on the assessment rolls this year. Lewis and Snohomish counties ha'e taken up the Idea and It is feared by tlmbermen that It may become epidemic on the West Side. That was the reason they defeated Parish's bill. A year ago the suspicion became pretty well founded that some of the Deputy Assessors sat In a corner grocery store and - figured valuations thereabouts by gossip or guess-work. FarlBh sent out a new set to make an actual examina tion of all properties and then set him self to work to check up their findings. One result of this work will be that the poorer class of property in the inacces sible localities will be valued at pretty near its real worth instead of being overestimated. The big department stores have ,been paying taxes on practically the same valuation for six years. The fact aroused Parish's curiosity and he instructed his deputies to learn whether there had been any additions to the stocks within recent years. They reported, or began to re port, wonderful discrepancies between actual values and taxation reports. Then the department store managers waited on the Assessor in a body and attempted to show him they would be ruined if he persisted. . The Assessor retorted that a new appraisement would be made . and that it would stand. Washington assesses real estate bien nially. This is the year that real estate is exempt, but from the start that the new Assessor has made the figures on property valuations fixed on realty next year are going to be startling to those who paid taxes at the old rates. Quakers to Meet in Newberg. RICHMOND. .Ind.. April 28. An nouncement was made today of dates for yearly meetings of Friends, which includes Newburg. Or., July 1. Oregonian Staff A rtist, April 24, 1007. PEARY MAKES AN APPEAL FOR Must Get $60,000 or Drop Trip to Pole. SCHOOL CHILDREN TO HELP Arctic Club Suggests That They Lend Helping Hand. IS SURE MONEY WILL COME Arctic Explorer Says Discovery ol Pole Is Work for Which He Is Intended He Is Anxious to Start Again Very Soon. NEW YORK, April 28. Lack of $60. 000 to finance the expedition may mean the abandonment of the dash to the North Pole, which Commander R. K. Peary has planned for this Summer. The explorer, who has earned the dis tinction of having reached" the farthest north," and who truly may be said to live for the purpose of revealing to the world the mysteries of the Polo itself, is deeply downcast at the pos sibility that he may not be able to try again. Feels Called to the Task. "This is a work which I must do, a great work for which I was intended," said Commander Peary today to the Associated Press, and with a confidence that his work must be helped from somewhere, he said: The money will come; somehow I feel certain of that . But if I was on ly assured now, what a relief it would be, and how I could concentrate all my energies on the details of the ex pedition. Remember, we were but 174 nautical miles from the goal on our last trip. It would be a pity indeed if we could not try again." Peary wants to start from New York the latter part of June. His ship, the Roosevelt, which proved its high worth on the last expedition. Is now being prepared for the next attack on the northern ice fields. The greater part of the $40,000 already subscribed will be i spent in repairing the boat, and $60,000 more will be needed for gen eral expenses. Appeals to School Children. The Peary Arctic Club is caring largely for the refitting of the Roose velt, and It has Issued an appeal for contributions from the people of the country, so that a total of $100,000 may be raised. The club feels, as does Commander Peary himself, that the people should share in the next ex pedition. The Idea of permitting tho public school children of the country to take part in the movement has been suggested to Peary. It met with his approval, but he is in doubt as to how such a programme could be carried out. '1 am not complaining." he said, "but if I was certain about the material aspect of the expedition a great bur den would be lifted. Did you ever think what the details of preparation for the Invasion of the North means? If anything is left undone or anything (Concluded on Page 28.) CONTENTS TODAY'S PAPER The Weather. YESTERDAY'S Maximum temperature, 67 degrees; minimum, 43. TODAY'S Fair; northerly winds. Foreign. Queen of Spain attends banquet. Page -0. Crew forced to abandon steamer Luclfer un high seas. Page 32. National. Suggestion for Htanuing Army in Cuba meets with opposition. Page 2i. . pomcflUc. Peary makes appeal for cash in order that he may make trip to North Pole. Page o. H ak in gives some facts about dogs. Page 27. Car strike In Halt Lake tics up entire sys tem. Page 26. Secretary Taft lay cornerstone of Y. M. C. A. building. Pae 2G. Ianor conditions in United States have not been better on May 1 for years. Page 25. McClellan Intends to wrest control of Tam many from Murphy. Page 25. Sports. Portland an slow game to Txe Angeles ,111 presence of 50'0 fans. Page ii. Big shake-up coming In the Northwest L.eagu. Page 2S. Coming of May really marks the opening ,. of the sporting jeason of 1007. Page Pacific Coast. Seattle Assessor throws down gauntlet to big corporations and will put real valua tion on property. Page 2b. Seattle cable-car runs away down steep bill; two badly hurt. Page 27. Senator Borah refuses to discuss his Inter view with President Roosevelt. Page 2ft. Heavy frost in Inland Empire does great damage to fruit orchards. Page 27. Portland and Vicinity. Candidates have a bury week ahead, for primary election comes next. Saturday. Page 20. Churches plan to wage war on saloons In residence districts. Page 13. Local pastors preach against candidacy of George Baker because he operates Sunday theater. Page 13. Dr. Kiram Vrooman lectures to Garfield Grange advocating Government owner ship instead of Government control. Page 29. Portland theatrical managers discuss mer ger of theatrical Interests and say publlo will be benefited. Page 13. ,