Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-08-14
THE LABOR COMMITTEE.
INQUIRY INTO THE COURSE OF
THE TELEGRAPH STRIKE.
master Workman Cainpbeil on The stand
= Clear Exposition at Tie situation
aud Grievances.

a.
New York, August lS. The snl,.co,n.
nittee of the United States senate
commission on labor and e,larafion
began it's session to-day in the post-
office building. Present Senators
Blair, of New HAMPSHIRE chairman.
George, of Mississippi. Puph, of Ala
bama, Call, OF Florida, and Aldrich az
Rhode Island. The special snhiectofn.
vestgation IL the strikes and labor
movement in general, the object beinir
to obtain information which may be
used in securing future legislation to
prevent them.
The first witness to-day was Master
Workman John Campbell Of
Pittsburg. He testified he
had been q telegraph operator over
twenty years and had been connected
with the Knighlsof Labor and Broth
erhood of Photographers for two years.
There were between 1900 and 10000
telegraphers In the United States and
Canada who are members of the broth
erhood and the whole membership Is
about 1000. The cause OF the strike
WAS a refusal TO grant the demand on
the part of the operators for increased
compensation, decrease in hours,
ana extra compensation for Sunday.
since 1870, the salaries of telegraph
operators have been Systematically cut
and the object of the strike was to
bring the rate of compensation back
to the former standard. Operators are
now PAID q fixed salary per month,
theaVerage rate throughout the country
country being about filty-four dollars
FOR commercial, operators, and thirty
nine per month for railroad operators.
| The average rate hr railroad operators
| IN pennsylvania by actual census Is
$3.50 per month. TIE rate OF wagt S
for Ilrst class commercial operators
now ranges from $50 To SIS per month.
| The salaries III New York city were
higher than those ia smaller cities
with the exception of New Orleans,
Memphis and Nashville, where the
scale of wages WAS about equal to that
in this city. The rates for CONNER
cial operators were from S35 to $40 per
! month for operators at small way
| stations. Before the reduction in
wages the rates We're % to 10 per cent.
! higher than 1T present. In $50 first
| class operators could make FROM $50 to
| $500 per month. These rates extended
back to the time of the beginning of
/ the war, when the scale WAS the same
as at present for railroad operators,
and that for commercial men a
little higher. The Western Union
company employs quarter Of all the
operators in the country, and about
twe-thirds are railroad operators. The
American Rapid company only EN-.
pioys about one-fifth as many opera
tors as the Western Union. The pro-
test of the Brotherhood was against al
companies and all employers of tele.
graph operators. The rate of wages
was not considered sufficient to live
upon, and was much below that oi
common laborers in many in
stances, The companies were
able to pay higher wages Il
their men without increasing Their
rates for service to the public. This
was evident from the large dividends
paid by the Western Union. Besides
the faculties for transmitting messages
Of the duplex and qlladrupleX instru
ments Tnere has been no reduction il
tariff in consequence OF these improve
ments, but on thc contrary the wage
of operators were reduced. The mum
Der of operators had doubled since 1870
while the facilities of the COM
pany's had more than doubled
The Western Union IL that yea
handled seven million messages, ant
last year the number was thirty.flv
| million. Campbell recited the hlstor.
of the strike since it began. Their
, was u convention of the Brotherhood
r he said, held in Chicago last March, Il
; which bill OF grievances was draw
, up. This was presented To the differ
ent local assemblies of the Brotherhood
throughout the United states and Can
ada, who unanimously ntilied the &c
ton of the convention. Returns TO TN
executive board We're made about tw'
months ago, and the committee wa
instructed to present the demands @
the operators TO the different compa
: MES, and they were also empowered t.
, arbtrate upon all propositions tina
. might be made.