Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1917 — Question of Patriotism Wsa a Big Factor. [ARTICLE]

Question of Patriotism Wsa a Big Factor.

The switchmen’s strike is settled and the men are returning to their abandoned posts in the Chicago yards of nineteen railroads. The end of the strike which crippled Chicago’s great railroad freight traffic and interrupted army and navy supplies, came at 5:30 o’clock this morning after a long, hot conference between seven representatives of the railroad brotherhoods and general managers of nineteen railroads. conference began at 2 a. m. At 5:30 both sides presented a joint statement outlining the results of their labor. The main point was that the men Were to return immediately to their tasks and that questions at issue would be taken up for arbitration. The most terrific pressure was clamped on the conference room. From Washington came the threat that the government would step in and crush the strike with a steel-shod heel. The question of patriotism was raised. The seven members of the brotherhoods who came to Chicago for the missions listened. They heard the statements of the managers that traffic was practically at normal. Coats and collars were abandoned in the sweltering heat as the opposing sides threshed out their main pointe. Gradually the seven brotherhood chiefs surrendered pointe. On the other hand, the railroad managers made concessions not considered possible earlier in the strike.