Omaha daily bee., 1883-08-15
A Corporation Without a Soul Nor
Honor Enough to Keep Its Word,
Some Interesting Testimony Given
Before the Senate Labor
Committee.
The Wire Cutting War Continues-A
Threatened Suit % Damages
The Iron Workers
Convention.
THE WAR ON WIRES.

the telegraphers presents no new features
to-day. Somerville, of the Western
Union company, said 1876 wires of the
Gold and Stock Telegraph company,
which supply most of the circuits of
brokers' offices down town, and which are
carried around Church and Rector streets
in seven cables suspended under the ele-
waited railroad girders, were all cut last
night and i'll such a way that the wires
cannot be connected again at the point
where severed. Temporary connections
have been made of the lines and the COM
pany hope to be able to repair the bal.
ance today. A dispatch received by the
company to-day state the New Orleans
telegraphers were working and that two
strikers had returned to the keys in
Meridian, Miss. The Mutual Union
wires were cut in Harlem and Manhattan
vile to the number of a dozen or more.
A few wires were cut near Newark and
others near Fleetwood. A rigger for the
Western Union company was assaulted
by two striking linemen to-day when he
was leaving the %company's building.
The offenders were arrested and taken
to court where they were held for intimi-
dation.
So far as could be learned up to noon
to-day zone of the line cutters had been
arrested.
THE sENAT INVESTIGATION.
The United States senate sub-commit-
tee on labor and education reassembled
to-day. John Y. McClelland, member of
the Brotherhood of T~elegraphers, said
the estimated cost of a telegraph line
1900 miles long would be 1925, $50. The
telegraph operators were generally young
men, and usually came from the better
classes of society. The morals of the
men had been greatly improved the past
ten years, and this was one of the results
of organization. The highest paid opera
tors did not receive enough to enable
them to lay aside anything for old age.
In 1870 the Western Union required eve
ry man coming into its employ to take an
oath he would not ally himself with any
trade or labor organization. Day opera
tors worked from s a. m. to 8 p. m, and
had little time to devote to amusement.
Thomas O'Reilly, a telegraph operator
of twelve years experience, has had
charge of the Wheatstone instruments in
the Western Union office. He had been
an operator in that system for ten years
in Scotland. He came here about a year
60. The Western Union gave them $40
a month as a retaining fee until the
Wheatstone instruments should arrive.
Promises were repeatedly made that the
Wheatstone men should receive as much
as first-class Morse operators. On the
2Sth of last February it was announced
the Wheatstone system would begin ope-
ration, and the operators were told their
salaries would be $50 a month. The
operators on the other side were better
paid. They had three weeks vacation
each year with salary, and during sick
ness received half pay. After being a
certain number of years in the service
and the record being good, an operator
receives a pension for life, sometimes at
full pay when he becomes s~uperanuated.
John B. Taltavolt, operator, employed
by the Associated Press, confirmed the
testimony of the previous witnesses in
regard to the strike.
II. w. Orr, of Philadelphia, a member
of the Brotherhood of Telegraphers, said
the salaries paid operators in Philadel-
phia ranged from $50 to $50 per month.
One of the objects of the Brotherhood
was to establish a telegraph company on
the cooperative system, by which opera
tors should own their own lines, and thus
be enabled to protect themselves against
their employers. The evidence of the
hostility of the Western UniOr company
towards its employees was the systematic
policy of reducing the salaries of its
operators during the past ten years.
Witness also testified to the practice of
the Western Union company in black
listing men found organizing a union or
association of operators.
Eugene j. O'ConnOr, of Boston, chair
man of the executive board OF the Brother
hood of T~elegraphers, gave statistics of
the growth of the Western Union COM
pany since 1866. Since the beginning of
the strike the membershipof the brother
hood nearly doubled and now numbered
about 20, 000, One-ffth of the operators
of the country were women, and about
800 of these had joined the strikers.
There were very few first-class operators
among them, as their strength was not
equal to the work required to attain such
proficiency.
THE IRON X
PHILADELPHIA, August lathe after
noon session of Amalgamated Association
of Iron and Steel Workers convention
was taken up entirely with reading the
report of the committee on constitution
and general laws, of which II. j, Mill
GAM, of ~Ironton, Ohio, is chairman. Sew
eral important matters relating to
changes in existing laws of the associa-
ton were held under consideration.
Each branch of business was acted upon
by the convention separately, and about
the first point that came up was whether
the iron men should withdraw from the
steel workers and organize by them
selves, The proposition was negatived
by a unanimous vote. A motion to fix
the scale of wages next June for four
years, instead of for one, did not prevail.
The proposition of withdrawal from the
steel workers having failed to receive
support, the title of the a~ssocia-
ton is to remain as hitherto.
The plan to make each sub
lodge support its own men when they are
on a strike also lacked support. The
paramount object of the association is
union and concentration An attempt to
separate the executive functions of the
body and divide them into smaller por-
tons would fall short of the prime OBJ
jects for which the ~Amalgamated Associ-
alton was organized and which all trade
unions have ultimately in view. The