Las Vegas daily gazette., 1886-04-22
Investigating the strikes.


Dor appropriation bill.
Investigating the strikes.
WASHINGTON, April 21.--The house
select committee, investigating the
cause of the strike on the southwest
ern system of railroads, resumed its
sessions today. Mr.. Hayes, one OF
of the general executive committee
of Knights of Labor, resumed his tes.
timony and said "After delivering
Powjeriy's second letter to Gould
he say Gould personally and that
gentleman expressed desire to meet
Powdt rly aud himself on the follow.
ing day. Nj. Hopkins joined in the
interview; Gould expressed himself
so strongly in favor of arbitrating diff.
ficulties that it seemed to witness that
au sgleement was sure to be reached
They met again in the evening and
Gould proposed and read to Powderly
the result of the morning
conversat on, which he pro
posed to telegraph to Hoxie;
Gould read the telegram down to the
words. I'VE see no objection to arbi
trating any difficulties between en-
ployes and the company, past or fu
ture." and then asked Powderly if il
was satisfactory so far. Powderly an
swered In the affirmative. Gould
said, " hen let it end here" Wit
ness suggested that Gould should
put the telegram into the form of g
letter to Powderiy, and Powder'y
agreed that if the general exec
utive board approved of the
rest of the letter the
men would be ordered back
10 work. After Powderly left. Gould
placed the letter in witness hand.
with the understanding that if the
order to 60 10 work was issued, the
order anu the letter were to be given
to the pres, that night. Towards the
end of the interview Gould received
telegram which seemed to disturb
him, and he said there was something
wrong in st. Louis. Witness said
don't at this stage split hairs; tel
Hoxie in taking the men back tC
work, to be kind. Gould wished to
to see Powderly, but that
gentleman could not come and
witness and Mr.. Turner went
to sec Gould with the question from
Powderly, "Do l understand from
your personal letter of this date that
your company refuses arbitration
and must | SO telegraph to Martin
Irons?" Gould was not in, and Hop
kins answered by saying, mo, we dc
| not; it is not so understood in the let
ter"
Mr.. Buchanan, inquired whether
in fact an order tor the men to go tt
work had been issued by the execu
tive board as result Of negotiations
and correspondence"
Witness replied that such an
order had been issued on the
eve of March 20. The
order was predicated, he said
on the correspondence, and on the
understanding that an actual solu.
ton had been arrived at 1T was moi
until noon next day that any sugges-
ton of Misunderstanding had reached
him; the ultimate WIS that three
members of the executive board went
to st. Louis. Mr.. Hayes could not tell
the committee what took place there;
witness was not present. Another at.
tempt was made at New York through
Cyrus W. Fled to bring about a con.
clusion, but it failed.
by Mr.. Burnes- Have you suf.
ficient evidence to enable you
to STATE that the men on the strike
at st. Louis would have promptly
obeyed the order to him by Gould?''
W!tness-I have not the slightest
doubt of it,"
Mr.. Buine .-"Haveyou any evidence
tending to show any secret instruc-
tions flom Gould to Hoxie, in conflict
with his Telegraph dispatch embodied
in his letter to Powderly?"
Witness-"Not Nothing, except the al.
lusion in Powderly's dispatch to the
letter of instruction and the order is.
sued on the line"
Mr.. -Crain-"WhAt was the or r'ginal
cause of the striker n
In reply to the question witness
made long statement involving the
diff renee between the principle oi
payment of dav work and
piecewdrk, and quoted Gould as say.
ing that by making a change OF chat
, sort m the Western Union Telegraph
company, ho had effected saving oil
eighty per cent. He added that the
generalHcause of this strike and ofthe
rana,,t ctr;kac oil oyar . l. n cor, -, l. /. Il