Tacoma's Labor Boycott: Business Men Forced to Meet in a Basement as Tensions Escalate

TACOMA, May 22.—[Special.]—The meeting of business men in conjunction with the Trades Council to take action upon the Ledger boycott has been postponed. There is a desire among business men to hold a rousing meeting and discuss the situation. Some of them favor another effort to secure the return of union printers in the Ledger office, while others, feeling they are placed in a peculiarly embarrassing position and desiring any alternative rather than being forced to face the issue and declare for or against the boycott, thus placing themselves either on the Trades Council's white list as favorable to organized labor, or on the black list as opposed to organized labor, just now embrace procrastination.

There has been much agitation on both sides; both sides endeavor to convince the neutral portion of the community that each is right. There is unanimity of desire to end the struggle. Business men are annoyed by its continuance. They would probably unionize the boycotted paper, thus ending the controversy now. But the principal owner of the Ledger says they cannot with blasphemous emphasis. Seemingly the next best thing to do in the minds of most of the business men is to avert the issue. But the Trades Council, representing organized labor, says they will bring the matter to a head at the meeting arranged for this evening at the Commercial Club.

It was learned this afternoon that the boycott interests would pack the meeting and put resolutions opposing boycotts. At any rate, in view of the opposition, or rather the boycott, that has been placed upon the Commercial Club for the usual courtesy of allowing the use of its rooms for public meetings, or for other reasons best known to its board of directors, it decided this afternoon that it could not allow the use of the rooms for the purpose. It passed resolutions deploring the differences existing between the Ledger and its former employees, and asserted that the primary object of the club was the promotion of business interests and the like, and then states that it has been learned by the board that there is to be a very large attendance, too large to be accommodated for the calm discussion of the subject and arriving at a wise decision. The board is sure the discussions would be heated, and would result in factional differences rather than a wise solution of the knotty problem.

The committee of business men who arranged for the meeting with the secretary of the Commercial Club indorsed the action of the board of directors and postponed the meeting to some date in the near future.

Notwithstanding that Chairman McDonald, of the business men's meeting, declared it postponed, Nelson Bennett, representing the Ledger, appeared at the Commercial Club with a party of business men, called the meeting to order and adjourned to the basement under the Berlin building, where, after a conference with Mr. Bennett, Mr. Merrill named S. A. Gibbs as chairman and a committee consisting of Charles E. Hale, chairman; Abe Groes, Robert Wingate, R. M. Hunt and C. Van Kirk, Mr. Merrill's partner, were appointed to arrange for a future meeting. The Trades Council says this conference in a basement cuts no figure and has nothing to do with the business men's meeting arranged for tonight, and which was postponed because the quarters were not considered adequate, inasmuch as Mr. Bennett proposed to be present, in which event the printers would have been represented and nothing would have been accomplished. It was intended that the directly interested parties should not be present at the business men's meeting. When it was known that the Commercial Club meeting would be packed it was declared off. The muddle is now more muddled than ever. Chairman McDonald did not attend Bennett's meeting tonight. He hopes the matter may still be arbitrated.