Because of a failure to agree on certain demands made by the union, which would have resulted in reduction of production, a strike was commenced in the city of Cleveland by the union about two years ago, which lasted over seven months and cost upwards of a million dollars, but at the end resulted in a conference lasting some days, in which both parties to the conference agreed to prevent a recurrence of warfare and united in an agreement which marked greater progress in the labor situation than had ever been reached before. The resolution was as follows: _Whereas_, The N. F. A. and the I. M. U. of N. A., through their duly accredited representatives, at a joint conference held in Detroit, Mich., June, 1900, each formulated a declaration of principles to which they still adhere and which they have been unable to harmonize after careful consideration; and _Whereas_, The consensus of enlightened opinion points to conciliatory methods and the principles of arbitration as the most desirable and equitable policy to be pursued when disputes arise between any employer and his employees; and as this is a policy to which both the N. F. A. and the I. M. U. of N. A. most heartily subscribe, they entered into an agreement, the one with the other, since known as the New York Agreement, by virtue of which their representatives have been enabled to meet and harmoniously discuss important matters affecting their mutual interests, and to endeavor to settle them in accord with the more enlightened and equitable policy referred to; and, _Whereas_, These efforts have discovered the fact that wide differences of opinion, upon certain vital and essential principles, exist between the members of the N. F. A. and the I. M. U. of N. A., which their representatives have hitherto failed to harmonize by the method provided in the New York Agreement, thus seriously endangering the high purposes to which they stand committed, and in one instance leading to a serious conflict between the members of the two associations in an important section of the joint jurisdiction; be it therefore _Resolved_, That it is the earnest opinion of this Joint Conference Committee, composed of representatives of the N. F. A. and the I. M. U. of N. A., that agreement upon the essential points of difference can only be secured by the slow evolutionary processes begotten of friendly intercourse and the more intelligent understanding of mutual interests, which time and the influences of education alone can bring. And be it further _Resolved_, That we hereby reaffirm our adherence to the New York Agreement, whose beneficent provisions we will continue to invoke, until by joint agreement we are enabled to reach a more defined code of conciliation and arbitration.