Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1888 — A BIG STRIKE. [ARTICLE]

A BIG STRIKE.

All the Engineers on the C., B. & Q. R. R. Quit Work. The Beginning of What Promtvee to be the Mont R-markable Strike Known--The Knglneere of the Whole Country will be More or Lees Involved. The engineers of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad and divisions went out on a strike at 4 a. m. on the 27th. The strike promises to be the most remarkable ever known, for in it the strongest single labor organization in existence has been pitted against the largest railroad corporation in the West, and one of tbe greatest in mileage and wealth in tbe world. Should the strike long continue, it is probable that in addition to the 1,400 men directly involved, the great majority of the 14,000 employes of the company will be thrown Out of work, the 25,000 members of the Engineers’ Brotherhood throughout the country called upon to contribute of their savings, and the industries of a vast section tributary to the road subjected to a partial paralysis. The far-reaching effects of the strike can be inferred from the fact the road has six thousand miles of main an 1 leased, lines in Illinois, lowa, Missouri and Nebraska. From Chicago it reaches to Denver, Col., over one thousand miles away, and Cheyenne, Wy. T., equally as far. Minneapolis to the north and St. Louis to the south are within its reach —the territory of an empire. A Chicago dispatch says: At 4 o’clock, precisely, switch engine No. 447 went into the Western avenue round house. Three others soou followed and the engineers and firemen quit work. The strike was on in earnest. No. 5, the fast mail to Council Bluffs, left the Union Depot promptly on time at noon Monday, with W. H. Chapman, of Michigan, at the throttle. He is neithera Brotherhood engineer nor a Knight of Labor. The company asserts that everything will be running as usual in a few days. There is eome prospect of an outbreak among the switchmen, who refuse to handle C., B. &Q. freight. General Passenger Agent Morton said he would not start through trains until enough men had been secured to continue the eervice without interruption. The company will employ only competent men, but their postions will be permanent. The officers of the road talk very hopefully of running trains regularly within a few hours, but at this writing had failed to make their prophecies good.

The ciuse of the strike on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Road is the refusal of the management to abolish grades in the ranks of the engineers and firemen according to the length of service, and pay all engineers 3J cents a mile and freight engineers 4 cmts a mile and all firemen 55 per cent, of these wages. There are about 1,630 engineers and firemen on the system, nearly all of whom belong to the Brotherhood. The strike has been approved by Grand Chiefs Arthur and Sergeant, of the Engineers’ and Firemens’ Brotherhoods. In case the strike is successful, it will throw about 14,000 employes out of work. Vies President Peasley says: **l should say that we run about 250 passenger trains and an equal number of freight trains on the entire Burlington sytem per day. As to the loss which will result from the strike it is impossible to givo even an approximate idea in advance of the actual occurrence. I think it will not be far oat of the way to say that we are earning from $70,000 to 175,000 per day. The stiike coming as it does, at a time when freights are hardly on a paying basis, is not such an unfortunate affair as it would have in more prosperous times.” i . ' General Manager Stone says men have been sent for from the East, and all competent engineers will be given employment. He expects to'be able torun a portion of the suburban service. At terminal points freight will not be received, and passengers and mails sent over other routes to destination. Incidental to the strike the old conflict between the Knights of Labor and Brotherhood came to the front. The former “have it in” for the engineers for their refusal to join in the Missouri Pacific strike in May, 1886, and for their alleged perfidy in filling the places of the Reading strikers.