Daily globe., 1883-08-08
Il Business Mans Opinion.

To the Editor of the Globe:
ST. PAUL, Aug. 6, 1SS3-But few bust
ness men had any faith in the survival of
the Mutual Union Telegraph company
and they were not disappointed, and the
Western Union became one of the heav-
les If not the heaviest monopoly on this
continent. Several thousand young men
found their pay Inadequate to the supply
ing of their every day wants, and they ap-
pointed committee to wait on the head
man of the Western Union, or its repre-
sentatives, with view to an increase of
pay, but were told in not very polite, or
even civil language, that it did not enter
into their plans to listen to any overtures
from operators, and they refused to grant
the committee on interviews then and
there.
1t may be claimed that the operators
were precipitate, and so it would seem to
ordinary business men, but with tele-
graph men on both sides business can be
done in forty-eight hours, and give ample
time for the consideration of any PROPOSE
tion the Brotherhood of Telegra piers may
have wished to make, and a decision arriv-
ed at on the part of the Western Union
without any undue haste. You, Mr.. Edi-
tor, are better aware of this fact than I.
TIE brotherhood organized strike, and it
seems more decidedly obstinate every day
since it began. A few business men see
the wrong the boys are suffering, and have
the manhood to show it in a tangible form,
but with the press as a general thing, with
few honorable exceptions, it is good Lord
or good devil, which being interpreted
means Gould. My meaning may be
little obscure here, but 1 think
an operator would make sense of it
L am no telegraph man, but am not un-
familiar with their duties and work, or
rather aCOrh, as that about constitutes their
duties. Some of the best operators of
to-day commenced by running messages
as boys and Tin the olden times} leaning
nitric acid batteries down cellar OH Satur-
day nights and Sunday mornings, say up
to L and a. N. Il am told that CONNER
cial colleges turn out some fine operators.
but unfortunately, have never met them. J
Any boy of fair parts naturally aims at
something higher than running mes
sages,'' so he asks, and is sgranted the privi-
lege of working some instrument with
some other boy, when both should be in
bed, and after long and persistent labor
road station Office at low pay, and if am
bilious will go higher and become full
fedged operators and can earn the wages
of a skilled mechanic. He can as
pire to one position higher, that
of manager of an Office, and then
stop; his work begins with salary, and
with salary it will end. He cannot en-
bark in business, as any ordinary mechanic
may. He must dress well, must live as be-
comes respectable men, and must do his
life's work in two-thirds of the time that
others do theirs, and should draw salary
that would enable him to save enough to
support him the last twenty-five years of
his life. No good operator should be paid
less than 500 per month.
With regard to the ''watered stock" and
other ''tricks that are vain" have nothing
to say, but am of the opinion of men much
much wiser than I, land the experiment
has been tried with very satisfactory re-
suits; mean that the old trouble with
capital and labor can be adjusted by shar-
ing the profits with labor. The work will
be done better and by more efficient help.
All will be cheerful. and strikes, which
cause so much loss ard inconvenience to
the public generally, will bea thing OF
the pas J. M NJ