Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1909 — 7,500 GO OUT ON STRIKE IN PARIS [ARTICLE]

7,500 GO OUT ON STRIKE IN PARIS

Telegraphers and Girl Operators Stop Work. OBJECT TO AN OFFICIAL Postal Department Wires Practically Out or Commission and Messages Are Going From France to England by Way of America—Check For |5,000 Sent From British Union to Help Their Gallic Fellow Craftsmen. Paris, March 16. —A general strike of the telegraphers of the postofflce department has been declared. Orders have been issued immediately for the withdrawal of the 7,500 operators emthe department. The unanimously adopted resolution recites that the strike action is taken as a protest against the arbitrary and tyrannical administration and that the decision was precipitated by an insult addressed by M. Simyan, under secretary of posts and telegraphs, to the officials of the association. The girl operators employed in the telephone bureaus In the afternoon had unanimously decided to abide by the decision of the night meeting, while 350 mall clerks, due to leave on out going trains during the course of the evening, also decided to await that decision. The government put forth every effort to preserve international communication, but the centra] telegraph station was demoralized and practically out of commission. Both telegraphic and telephonic communication with London was greatly interrupted. Some of the London correspondents are sending their dispatches by way of New York, to which both land lines of the cable remain open. The English postmen have telegraphed $5,000 to the strikers.