Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1890 — KNIGHTS WILL FIGHT. [ARTICLE]

KNIGHTS WILL FIGHT.

BIQ TIE-UP ON THE VANDERBILT ROADS. Th« Knights of Labor, Ordered by tbe Confederation, Will Make It Lively for Officials of All the Vanderbilt Lines. [New York dispatch.], “Strike,” said Chieftain Powderly, General Master Workman of 300,000 Knights of Labor. “Strike,” says Chieftain Sargent and the three other members of the Supreme Council of the federation of 52,000 railway employes. So say the leaders of the Knights and the brotherhoods in chorus. The Executive Board of the Knights of Labor voted to take the strike from the hands of D. A. No. 246, and prosecute it vigorously in every possible direction to the hitter end! It Is a life and death struggle with them. It means everything. Either they must.wln and gain the rights of arbitration Which they claim or forevef lose their power among the laboring men, who now believe them potent. Chief Sargent wired to the other eight members of the Supreme Council to convene in Terre Haute Saturday morning. There and then, he said, the recommendations of Messrs. Howkrd, Wilkinson, Sweeney and himself woOW he received and accepted and the members of the federation, 52,000 strong, be ordered do help in tying up the entire Vanderbilt system—that Is, the New York Central, West Shore, Lake Shore, Michigan Central, Nickel-Plate, Chicago and Northwestern and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis. So far as mortal means could go to aver, this disaster, Mr. Sargent said, they had been tried in this case, and tried In vain. The railroad company would have it so. On their beads he the blame and the responsibility. They had forced a fight against organized labor, and now organized labor must protect Itself, and the sympathies, of workingmen everywhere would go with it. “We will not break a law,” said Mr. Wright, one of the most level-headed of the General Executive Committee of the Knights of. Labor, “but we will do everything under the sun that we can do legitimately to win this Just fight—a fight which has been forced upon us.” “The company will resist to the end,” said Third Vice President Webb. “We propose to maintain our rights, to run our 6wn business our own way, and not be dictated to by outside parties,” : Nut until all avenues of reconciliation had been closed was the standard of war-raised. The labor leaders had gone very slow, Chief Sargent in particular. Save for the switchmen’s trouble in and about Buffalo, and their grievances against Superintendent Burrows, whom they declare to be totally unfit, by age and Irascibility for his position, their cause for striking was almost a sympathetic one. They had but one reason for going, and that was the supposition that the Central had deliberately entered Into a war of extermination of trades unions. The leaders do not more than half believe this now, and there is reason to believe that if Mr. Webb had been more diplomatic he could have averted the strike. But he failed to lay on the molasses thick enough and the damage is done. ' New York was the stage to-day and Grand Chief Sargent the Richelieu. He pulled the strings which made the puppets dance. He was the last man to say yea, and when he said It the thing was done. The Chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and the Federation of Railway Employes kept at the St. Cloud Hotel with a great deal of fidelity, and did nothing to strengthen the bands of friendship between himself and the Central officials. It wAs'nearly 11 o’clock when Messrs. Powderly and Devlin betook themselves to the den of the enemy. They wero received with great apparent cordiality by Messrs. Toucoy and Voorhees and were closeted with them for an hour. Mr. Powderly went over the ground already covered in his. letter, stated what had been learned In the Investigations, and pleaded valiantly for Mr. Webb’s change of mind regarding arbitration. He was in’formed that Mr. Webb was as solid aa a rock, and that the company was prepared to back him up to the last notch. The Knightly employes who had been discharged were discharged for cause, and that was all there was to it. Messrs. Powderly and Devlin returned with this message to the waiting leaders, and for about half an hour the strike was considered a settled thing. Mr. Powderly described Mr. Webb as a very young and apparently inexperienced tuan who had no business to be dallying with the lever end of a big railroad system. This brought matters down to a pretty fine point and the fog bank of mystery surrounding the-leadero'grew dense. It was dangerous to approach them. Mr. Sargant was the exception and he talked for half an hour quit* as If he were tired of the muzzle which the Knights of Labor had striven to place upon his lips. “I don’t believe in all this mystry- and eecrecy,”hosaid;“wo are engaged in a legitimate public business, and I believe in letting the newspapers know what is going on. “ The situation has reached a very serious stage—a very serious stage, indeed. There Is going to be a great 'deal of trouble yet, and you can say that I said so. So far as the railroad company is concerned, their attitude is not different to-day from what it was yesterday. They are determined not to submit the grievances at issue between them .and the Knights, and nothing less than a fight and victory against them will to change their position. So far aa-I am concerned, I do not believe that the Central Road is engaged in an effort to wage a war of extermination against the labor organizations. It’s too late in the day for a great railroad to enter upon any such foolish course.” Mr. Sargent said distinctly that if the Knights oould show that the Central was waging war upon organized labor the firemen and allied organizations in the federation would not hesitate to join in a strike. “But rest assured,” said Mr. Sargent, “th« strike will not be ordered on the part of the Federation until the Supreme Council has passed upon it and the public been given ample opportunity to prepare for it. Then If it comes-to this it will be a whopper.” A reporter asked the leader of the Federation what strength the brotherhoods in the Federation could muster... He said: "Fiftytwo thousand men. There are 20.000 members in the Federation of the United Order of Railroad Employes, 18,000 in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. 8,000 members of the Switchmen’s Mutual Aid Association, and 8,000 of the Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors. The number is not great compared to the 300,000 Knights of Labor, but you must remember that they are all railroad hands, many of them skilled workmen, while they are divided Into all branches of work.”