Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1907 — BIG STRIKE SPREADS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BIG STRIKE SPREADS.

TELEGRAPH KEYS IN MANY CITIES ARE QUIET. Suspension of Wire Communication Affects All Lines of Business—Daily Newspapers and Market Centers Are Hardest Hit. With Chicago as the center, the strike of the commercial telegraphers had spread to nearly every section of the country Sunday. The strike fever seemed to run rampant, city following city in suffering isolation until the telegraph offices of thirty-five cities had been deserted by the keymen. Chicago was virtually isolated. Although a few leased wires were working when the operators employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company in Chicago walked out on strike at midnight Thursday the industry of the entire country was affected. The men quit work after voting a sympathetic strike to aid the Los Angeles operators, who struck twenty-four hours earlier. Their immediate reason was that the company officials insisted on their working on Los Angeles wires with strike-break-ing operators at the western end. Come from Other Cities. Operators have been called in from the smaller towns and cities and there are many recruits also from the ranks of “graduates”—men and women _who_ have 14ft rhe vocation and are in other lines of business. New York sent many telegraphers to Chicago and otlier eastern ci tie* con-

tributed a quota to the strike-bound municipalities of the West!.. Up to Monday the East remained nearly free from incolivenjence. The brunt of the striking taking 'place in the middle West, far West and the South. The 3,<mm) telegraphers in New York delayed a walk out until Friday, at the request of the National Civic Federation, to give time for an attempt to end the strike by conciliation. The following cities, aside from Chicago, were then reported strike-bound: Memphis. Milwaukee. Minneapolis. Houston, Texas. Oklahoma City. Sedalia, Mo. Dallas. Columbus, Ohio. New Orhans, St. Louis. Topeka. Jackson, Miss. Pueblo. Augusta. St. Paul. Omaha. Knoxville. Council Bluffs. Sioux City. Helena. Meridian. Miss. Kansas City. . 'Birmingham. Los Angeles. Salt Lake City. Spokane. Colorado Springs. Butte. El Paso. Denver. Nashville. (Jhnrleston, S. C. Little Rock, Ark. Hcautnont, Texas. Galveston. Messages to the union chiefs Indicated that the men were straining at the leash and eager for n trivial excuse lo plunge into the combat. More tron-i, ble was added to tlie" many complicit tlons besetting ojierntora tit work by the tacit cbnuivance of railroad tele graphers at the strike of the commercial men. At itoints where there are switchboards controlling the commercial wires the railroad men pull out the plugs, interfering with tin* working of the wire. Eagerness to Join hi the tumult, with or without excuke, seems the paramount desire of each telegrapher. Only the admonitions of the union officials. It is declared, have thus far restrained the men who still are working tbc telegraph keys In many of the cities unaffected by the strike wave.