The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-04-27

I
give us what YOU know. but also what
YOU have reason To believe.
Gould-The first recognition which our
company made, as far as j know, of the
Knights of Labor came out of the strike in
April of last wear | was away at the
time and until August In August Mr..
Powderly came TO New York with COM
mittee. That was the first time l had any
thing to do with them. He stated their
view. which was that the part of the road
that was I'm
THE HANDS OF A RECEIVER
should reinstate large number OF men
who were Knights of Labor who had left
the employ of the company, and whose
places had been largely filled. The i'm
preston seemed 10 be that j practically
controlled all the railways in the United
States; that the sun did not rise or the
moon did not set without some solicitation
of mine. | had nothing To do with the
road explained ii To them.
While this interview was going
ON. my time came to leave. / turned to
the committee and said "Now, gentlemen,
has the Missouri Pacific lived up to its
agreement with YOU? | want TO know
that" They said: "Yes, YOU have Z"
"Well, them" said /, 81 want il now under
stood that If you have any grievances
hereafter against the Missouri Pacific you
shall not strike, but you will come to me,
and we will talk il over and settle II"
They agreed to that and said good bye"
and left had
NO FURTHER CONMUSICATI0N
with them. / went off on a yachting
cruise in the Atlanta, relying on the good
faith of that arrangement being carried
out. The strike came on while was away.
The Texas K Pacific was In the hands of
the United States court, and not under our
control at all. In the course of business
the receivers discharged a man named
Hall. | DO not know who he was. | had
never heard of him. But that
act was taken as the pretext,
and the sole pretext, for a strike on our
road. Our men told Mr.. Hoyie that they
had no grievances. They were ordered to
strike and that was the only thing they
could do. When The strike occurred Mr..
Hopkins, our vice-president, who was pres
ent at that agreement in August, naturally
took il up with Mr.. Powderly. There was
strike on our road, contrary TO agree
ment, and so sent dispatch 10 Mr.. Pow
derby just as coolly As
A BUSINESS MAN WOULD DO.
The witness then read the dispatch sent
by Mr.. Hopkins to Mr. POwderly on the
9th OF March, in which he informs Pow
DERBY of the strike; states that the men
have no grievances and expressing wish
TO [. Il. the matter over with him. Two
DAYS afterwards Powderly telegraphed that
he learned from the public press that the
strike was caused BY the discharged Hall,
and asked ifThe could be reinstated.
HOPKINS replied that Hall was employed
by the Texas & Pacific, and not BY the
Missouri Pacific, and that the latter road
had no control of the receivers. To this
no answer was vouchsafed. The eastern
officers of the great railways are their
financial repositories. They have nothing
10 do with the labor. Mr.. HoXie had con-
troll of that anyway, but the board, IN or
der to make it doubly distinct, put it in his
hands and he managed il from that time
on until after NV return. Let me explain
10 the committee what the strike was which
took place in March and what the effect
would have been of
SIMPLY STRIKE.
We had at the date OF the strike l4,3l3
employees The Knights of Labor 1.-THE
strikers) numbered 3,7l7, but they were
not the men who were necessary To the
operations of the road. The men in the
machine shops, men along the road,
switchmen, men who perform the lower
duties of the railway, so that
| if these 3,7l7 men had struck
and left the premises we would not have
missed train. Our business would have
gone along as regularly as clock-work,
But following the leaving ef our employ
ment. they took 81. Louis, Sedalia, Kansas
CITY. Parsons, Fort Worth, Little Rock
and Texarkans. They
TOOK FoRCTBLE POSSESSION
O. lem, and said "No man shall Iun q
train over that road That is what they
said What did Hoxie do? He said "they
have taken possession of our road we have
got no earnings now" and he was forced tC
write an address To all the men, suspending
payment, and thus 10000 men, who wer'
ioyal to the company, who could rur
our trains every day were deprived of thei
work, of their power to earn their wages
That was what followed the strike, th'
seizure. YOU can call il by no other word
forcible seizure, something that the car o
Russia would hesitate TO do with his mil
lions of soldiers behind him.
Mr.. Hoxie's address to the men was theI
read by General Swayne. As he was read
ing it Mr.. Pewderly entered the room an'
secured position opposite Mr.. Gould.
The chairman-What was Hall charges
WITH What crime had he committed
What was the reason of his discharge?
In reply to this question Mr.. Swayne, a
the request of Mr.. Gould, read the state
ment issued by Receiver Brown, declarin
that Hall was
AN INCOMPETENT MAN
and that he was discharged for absentin
himself without leave. He also read tn
circular issued by the Missouri Pacific nc
tifying non-employes to quit the premise
and also advertising for men regardless G
their connection with the Knights of Labo
Mr.. Gould then continued the recital {