The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-24
LABOR MATTERS.

The Broadway, New York, Horse-Car Line
Tied Up Because of Trip Schedules.
NEW YORK, Aug. 23-On the blackboard in
side the starters room of the Broadway and Sew.
enth-avenue horse-railroad Offices, at Flftieth
street and Seventh avenue, was, last
week, a notice that on Monday a
new timetable would go into effect,
and requesting the drivers and conductors to be
on the lookout for it. The men were watchful
On Saturday morning, up in the employees
room, was hung new schedule that called for
six trips to the Battery instead of five trips they
had been making. The time table was ingeniously
arranged, so that the six trips were to be done
in the twelve hours allowed by the law. To eff
feet this, in many cases, the hour for starting
on the first trip was set much earlier than be-
fore, and the time for starting on the last trip
was set much later The law takes no account of
the time between trips. The men growled, and
kept it up all day long. Their local assembly
men met last Saturday evening, and the new la
BILE was discussed. 1t plain that the men
were disturbed by the change, and that if they
had their own way they would resist 1t was
deemed advisable to delay action over Sun
day. They met after midnight last
night in the same hall, and at 1:3O
this morning were discussing whether it would
be better to tie up the Broadway line alone or to
wait and persuade the men on Sixth, Eighth and
Ninth avenues and the Belt lines, to act, and tie
up all the lines together. They said that II
they tied up Broadway only. the result
might DO in doubt, but that if all the West Side
roads were tied up, the strike could not last
longer than day at the outside, and the COM
panies would readily go back to the present
order of things. 1t was finally decided to tie
up the Broadway line at once, and no cars
on that route are running this morning
One of the Broadway conductors said that
though the new schedule increased the tripsfrom
five to six, and heightened out the day greatly,
it did not raise the mems pay. The law, which
says that horse railroad employees shall not be
worked more than twelve hours day. ingeniously
omitted to say twelve consecutive hours" and
it would be easy to arrange schedule under it
so that drivers should be lawfully deprived of
any chance to sleep three consecutive
hours day Sergeant Coombs, from
the Twenty precinct police station,
with fifty policemen, took possession
of the Broadway Railroad Company's stables
by orders from police headquarters as soon as
the strike was reported this morning Acting
Police Superintendent Steers on his arrival, or
dered the reserves in every precinct to be held in
the stations until further orders, and
put himself in immediate communication with
the precinct comma nders and instructed them to
neglect no precaution against possible trouble
Most of the captains came to headquarters DUR
ing the forenoon and conferred with the inspect
or. They were told to hold their off -platoons
until notice was given from headquarters that
they would no longer be necessary. The half
hourly reports from the stables represented
everything as quiet
The Belt line employees have decided on a tie
up. They also complain that the company has
not kept its agreement with the men, but has
gradually increased their hours of work. The
company has notified them that unless they re-
turn to work within twenty-four hours their
places will be filed