Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1892 — STRIKING SWITCHMEN. [ARTICLE]

STRIKING SWITCHMEN.

Sixth Day Closes With Increasing Complications. \ Plat* Switchmen Join the Strikin'* —Ught Thousand State Troop* on the Field to Control Three llandred Switchmen. ■Buffalo, Ang. 18.—Thqjstyth day of tbcswitchman's strike" closes with increasing Complications. The leaders of this strike have witnessed the movement and massing of troops with growing determination to meet every advance of their opponents with a counter stroke. Re fore to morrow slrtH have dawned 8,000 troops In the State-service will lm upon tho held hero to watclrand control about 3CO strikers. The presence of so large a number of soldiers is relied upon by the railroad officials as a cofeowdey which they may putto work iion union niafc—atrSiulv en gaged, to break the freight blockade. What the counter stroke of the strike leaden may be to this situation was at

nightfall, to night, problematic, but ft Is not beyond the range of near possibilities that the firemen and the trainmen on all the lines where the strike Is now prevail* ing may bo called out. - v •"The situation may bo broadly stated thus: The latest addition of strength t,{jr thQ Striking switchmen was ninety men in the Nickle Plate yards who struck ber'cause they were required to handle boycotted freight. So it is now that the switchmen upon the entire Vanderbilt system to this vicinity are out Tho Lako Shore men, to be sure, were working - on tlio westerii schedule at the same rates •for which their colleagues in Buffalo went -oh strike last Saturday. They went out solely to add their strength te the moye-ment-of their fellows. The Nickel Plate men who went out to-day stFuek only otitr of sympathy, for they are receiving at, least 10 per cent, highet;, rates than the men who originatedthe strike. The Michigan Central, which is of tbe Vandsrbilt system, practically has no yards in Buffalo, its switching being done on the Central’s tracks. So stands tho Van-, derbilt system, so far as the strike in this city is concerned. The leaders of the striking men hold to-night that tbe Vauderbiit roads aro tied up and inactive at this point. They urge in addition that the Erie, the Lehigh Valley and the Buffalo Creek roads are likewise parallzed by the striw. They feel that tho movement against the roads by the then has now reached such magnl- • tilde and completeness in this locality that it may not be necessary ter any men in allied trades to be called outsat this point. Their ground ter operations is a possible calling out, of the switchmen on the Pelaware, Lackawanna & Western. Rochester & Pittsburg and the Western, New [York .& Pennsylvania roads. The relations of these roads witli the strike leaders aro ex tremely anrjcable, and they will not bf called except to make the strike abso lutely coinpletein tills vicinity. Indecd.it L more probable that the firemen and the trainmen will be called oilt on lines already affected jay the switchmen's strike. Tbe writing of this digest of tho situation at tile %our of 9 bteloyk is embar r assp,d by the fact that even before dawn of to-morrow the switchmen of tho various roads affected here may be cajicd out at Suspension Bridge, Hornellsville, Jersey City, aud‘ possibly Rochester and 'Albany. The Delaware, Lackawana & Western, which lias already conceded the demands of the men, went further to-day and formally notified its employes that tltey would not bo asked to handle a pound Of boy cot' ted freight. The result is that tho men oT this road are extremely loyal to it. One of them in the yards to-c|ay remarked that bo and his colleagues would he ready even to fight for their employers. The strikers regard the Western New York and Pennsylvania officials and the Rochester & Pittsburg officials as a “gentlemanly lot.’ Pooling so sure of this reserve ground in Buffalo the presumption is that the strikers prefer the open countenance by tlie port that might arise from tho going out | of the men op these roads in response to a call. Hence? tho counter strokes in future to be dealt the contesting roads must fall upon their interests at other points. There can be no doubt to-night that, before yielding this flight?the leaders will extend their strike west even to Chicago, and eastward -to New York, ultimately calling out, perhaps, not only switchmen, but firemen and trainmen. The strikers lookjfor wide developments in the next threy days.'" : The strikers claim fuirsvmpathy on the part of the firemen, and they state that if they are called out they will quit their engines wherever the order may reach nßrm.-__ The railroad companies at' Buffalo, un. der tho protection of tin* soldiery, sucseeded Sunday in breaking the blockade and moving trains. It is alleged the companies have been discharging firemen refusing to act as switchmen. If this is true all engineers and firemen will be culled out and the contest will begin in earnest. An investigation is being had.