Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1888 — THE ENGINEERS’ STRIKE. [ARTICLE]

THE ENGINEERS’ STRIKE.

Progress of the Great C- B. & Q. R. R. Contest. 1 ’ !■■ II ‘‘ill. Probabilities of a General Strike on Connecting Railroads—The Brotherhood Recognize thia aa a Life arid Death Straggle—Fact* arid Kainora. New Yobe, March s.—The Herald has the following special from Chicago: “This is a fight of life and death,” said Chief Arthur to your correspondent. “We must win this fight. The men of the Brotherhood are pledged to each other.” The tenor of hia talk was that if it was necessary to the winning of the strike every road in the United States will be tied up and the traffic of the entire country suspended. This is the first time Chief Arthur has talked so plainly. “The Brotherhood will notcompromise,” said the Chief, “bat will dig the ditch in which it proposes to die in case it cannot win.”

The desperation of the head of the Brotherhood has never been made so manifest before. The organization stakes its existence upon this fight, and Mr. Arthur well knows that to lose it means the extinction of the order, as well as his own official death. It is believed he has imbued the order with his own spirit, and that the Brotherhood men will follow him to victory or defeat. Chicago, March s—Referring to the possibility of a general strike being ordered on the western railroads by the engineers and firemen, a local paper says: It is probable that the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Chicago, Milwausee A St. Paul, the Chicago & Alton, the Wisconsin Central, Illinois Central, the Wabash, the Chicago, Bt. Paul & Kansas City, and all of the branch and leased lines of the above named railroads would be involved. Roughly estimated, this will embrace about 23;000 miles of road, and will completely close the channels of communication between Chicago and the West. It will lay a complete embargo on the Northwest, cut off communication to Council Bluffs, Omaha and upper Missouri River points,except by circuitous routes, and to a partial degree, the same thing to the Southwest. It will destroy the express business, paralyze trade, suspend the operation of all mining and manufacturing industries, and trans form busy hives of industry to .centers of idleness and stagnation, and this is a territory over a thousand miles square. When it is remembered that roads penetrate to the Canadian boundry on the north, to the Rocky Mountains on the west and to the Indian Territory on the south, the scope of the operations and the magnitude of the interests they serve can be better comprehended. More than this, it would cut off the great northern and middle transcontinental routes, reducing them to local roads at once, the consequence being that the great interior basin from Utah to Oregon would suffer eqnally with the Mississip-' pi River Valley. It, is not only trade and commerce which would suffer. Labor, both skilled and common, would feel the effects, and most disastrously. The general managers of the railroads named freely state that in case of a strike upon their lines there is but one course for them to pursue—shut down the shops and the freight houses, discharge workers and await the end. Cessation of operations would mean the immediate discharge of four-fifths of the number. This would throw out of work 92(100 men and according to the average of wages paid entail upon th«m a dsily loss of over $200,000. This is the direct result. Beyond that comes ‘ the stoppage of manufactories, the suspension es mines, the cessation of lumber operations, etc., which must follow any shutting down of the railroads mentioned, and it is a conseivative Btstement to estimate this great outside army employed in the named-industriesat 1,600,000 men.

Chicago, March.—The buHefin board at the U cion Depot this morning announces the Denver express, the Kansas City express, tke Galeaburg express. Through trains, have all been abandoned, and all others have been running on time.' Through trains expected to arrive this morning are four hours late. The abandonment of the trains is accounted for by the fact that several imported engineers returned East, claiming that the situation had b'een misrepresented. '

A dispatchjrom Omaha, Neb., says: “Twelve of the hew Burlington engineers left, Sunday, for the East, saying thev had been brought out by the Burlington, under false representations. A freight train arrived from the east and one was sent ■west, Sunday. A conference was held to day between the chairmen of the grievance committees of the various Western divisions, and it was unanimously decided to stand by the strike, the committee agreeing to give it all the moral and financial support in their power. Chief Arthur announced that there would be a favorable ending of the strike in a very brief time, but refused to divulge his plans to the public. The railroad company appears to be in better shape than at any time since the strike organized. The Bnrlln<ton & Northernlnvolved. Chica«o, March s.—Vice President G. B. Harris,of the Burlington & Northern, was served with a - notice last night, the result of the meeting of the engineers and firemen, held at La Crosse. The notice was substantially that if the Burlington & Northern did not cease interchanging traffic with the Burlington & Quincy before 7 p. m., Monday, the engine men would strike in a body. A ice Tresident HArriß refused to be interviewed regard! QR the situation, but rent word to an Associated . Press reporter ■ that the interchange of traffic would not

cease. “The company,” the' message from Mr. Harris added, “propose to run the Burlington A Northern Road themselves.” All over the country the local lodges of the Brotherhood have met and adopted greetings to their officers and brethren in Chicago, urging them to stand firm. The New York lodge advises a general strike on all railroads in the country, if necessary to carry their point.