The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-07-21
THE TELEGRAPHERS.
Situation at the Western Union Of
es--Managers Smiling
and Assured.
No Lack of Confidence on the Part OF
the Strikers Talk on Both
sides.

CHICAGO. July 20.-A spirit of great cheer
fulness prevails among Western Union
officials II tell you," said Col. Clowry,
1--WE are all right and we are going to win
this fight. Why, We had more operators last
night than we could use. There We're omany
of them that the business did not keep them
husy, and we had to send them home We
are doing splendidly;n and he smiled as
though he had almost convinced himself that
things were really in good shape. 81 knew
we had the men beaten ten minutes after the
strike had taken place. he continued, and
subsequent developments have proved that
my opinion was correct. Our force is now so
complete that we could handle more business
than the public are handing in The latter,
l suppose are hanging back because they are
afraid of the messages not being transmitted
promptly enough.
dispatches are being received by me right
along giving the most encouraging accounts
of the way the vacant places are being filed
up, many of the men having returned and
asked to be reinstated in their positions when
the excitement of the moment haddied away,
None of the Chicago strikers, however, have
acted in this way"
when can the condition subject to delay
VERY probably at the close of the day,
and if not, certainly very soon. Our board
of trade connections have all been restored,
and as soon as the members get to know it,
the feeling of uneasiness that has prevailed
in commercial circles will disappear
The Office seemed fairly well filed with
Geographic talent, such as it is. Many are
new corners, strangers alike to the city and
to the intricacieS of handling commercial
business in a large office. The Wheatstone
system is in operation, but not to its full
capacity.
In tine receiving department business is still
taken Subject to delay and the delay must
be fully as great as the sender anticipates The
volume of business offered is very small, it
being generally understood by the public that
no company is in very good shape to handle
much business
A slight Improvement is noticeable at the
Baltimore & Ohio Office Four new men
have been taken in, but as they are entirely
green it is not expected by the officials that
they will make much Roadway for some time
to come Fortunately for them but few
messages are offered for transmission.
The Mutual office is doing practically no
business.
The Western Union are giving employment
to all who apply and in addition are looking
up old operators now out of the business.
THE BROTHERHOOD.
ut seems very strange to me, said an OPP
orator, that the Western Union should be
perfectly deluged with operators. and the
other companies not get any. We are not a
bit scared by the bluff of the officers. We
know they don't get all the men they claim
to have got, and what they have are not
worth anything that is, the green ones, the
scabs who kept pouring in last night Why,
it takes man long time to get used To the
business of a big city office, like this one, and
to my knowledge half of-the men who were
indiscriminately engaged by the superintend-
ent on making their applications are not
worth a dollar day as operators. The
| Western Union say they sent some men
away last night because they couldn't give
them any work, but they were bounced be-
cause they were utterly incompetent opera
| tors, and were not any manner of use. A lot
Of them were fellows who thought they
might earn 81 or so, by sticking out the day,
although they knew they would be fired
when their incompetency was discovered"
The striking operators met at Uhlich's hall,
where speeches were made and reports read
The hall was filled during the morning bv a
trausitory crowd of strikers and their
| friends, and the general sentiment was one OF
| hope and promise of quick victory The
members of the brotherhood are very brtter
| against the reports of the situation in other
| cities, given by the morning papers. which
they claim are transmitted by the telegraph
| company and doctored to suit their wishes
| They claim they have certain information
that in St Louis only fifteen. good men re
mann, that there are only ten in Kansas City
two in Little Rock, Ark, and sixty in
| New York city. The brotherhood is con
fident, Judging Eom 1.-THE known falls
ity of the reports from places where
communication is established, that the
| reports sent out by the Western Union are
three times Overrated in the c0mpanys inter-
est. The telegraph company claim that they
are able to work their Wheatstone system
satisfactorily, but the strikers assert that
| they have only six Wheatstone operators in
Chicago, out of a former thirty, while in
| New York every Wheatstone man went out,
and their places had to be filed by CONNER
cial men, lily qualified to take their places
| The entire feeling among the brotherhood is
!
fears one may feel, none is shown in the gen
eral talk around the room.
A dispatch from st. Louis, asserts that the
line there is unbroken, and the strikers there
are strongly backed by the people and mer.
chants of the city.
The strikers appointed a press committee
which went into session at Uhlich's hall and
furnishes to the papers their side of the story
They say that the reports that on leaving
their desks they gave expression to feeling:
of regret in parting with their chiefs were
entirely false. They had been ground down
too long by the Western Union Telegraph
company to feel any regret in leaving them
and were only sorry that the separation was
temporary and not permanent
The committee also claim that they have
learned by actual investigation that the teIe
graph company purchased 800 postage
stamps, an amount that would ordinarily
last the company year, for the purpose of
mailing messages which they had received
Subject to delay" and that there are nov
employed in the Western Union office in thi.
city twenty-five or thirty clerks who are moi
operators, and whose entire duty it is to copy
messages transmitted by mail and inclos,
them in telegraphic envelopes
The Public Grain and Stock exchange or
dered William Sanderson, their operator, t.
take one Of the Western Union instruments
and on his refusal TO do so at once ordered
his discharge. The brotherhood committee al
once informed the exchange that unless San
derson was returned they would order all til,
operators in their Office out, but at noon u
reply had been made.
My sympathies are certainly with tn,
strikers" said Mr.. j. P. Barrett, sulerinten
dent of the city telegraph, ''and It looks t.
me as though they would win. They would
not have ghost of chance. however, if TIN
feeling of the old-time operators, now in othe
lines of business, was favorable to the com
pany. Fortunately it is not. The Western
Union has treated its best operators most
shabbily, and the men who ought to I've bold
ing the responsible positions were Ion" ago
frozen out. They will not, therefore, lift
a finger tohelp the company in this emergency,
Rs they would have done in a similar event
IFhen Gen. Stager was in authority and be-
tore Gen. Eczert inaugurated the system Of
tlvoritism and oppression, which is the policy
of the company to-day"