The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-04-07


felt sure that the officials were only waiting
a prete&t to discharge me, and pnt in my
place some one who was not Knight of
Labor. Mr.. Wheelock, one OF the officials
under the Receivers. indicated as much
day or two ago when in speaking of my case
he said: The case of Hall was particularly
aggravated ore. He made himself obnOx-
lous in the trouble OF year ago, and we only
took him back for the sake of peace. Hop
lDg 10 encourage him and secure his good
will for the company. we promoted him TO
be foreman OF the car repair shop. But he
proved more troublesome than ever, and be-
sides, he was incompetent"
This shows that there was a grudge against
me, and that the company was watching me
and only waiting for some pretext 70 turn
me adrift. When, therefore, / attended the,
Knights of Labor meeting of my assembly,
Mr.. Crosbie, the general shop foreman, who
is bitter opponent of the order, was the in
strument they used to bring about this en-
tire trouble by discharging me on the allie
CATION that was absent three days without
leave, although / can prove by good men
that had Crosbie's permission to be gone
one. two or three days, as circumstances
would require. l told Mr.. Crosoie further
that if there was any objection to my being
absent would not go, and he said, That's
all right 1t was a direct answer to my
question, and was the only kind of permis-
sion anybody received for leave of absence,
verbal consent. No one received writ
ten permission; and as my absence was
only 10 attend a meeting in my own town
verbal permission was all that ! deemed
necessary. ] had been off dozen times.
and that was the only form of permission l
had ever received. After my discharge the
Knights did all they could TO have me rein
stated, but without avail. The higher Off
cials were appealedsto. and they would do
nothing. They refused to recognize the
.o14 0f oh fsrra hat
had right to secure the just treatment of
its members. After the Knights had ex-
hausted all possible efforts at arbitration,
the strike came. No one regrets it more
than / do, because of the loss and trouble
the men who are out have sustained and the
inconvenience the business public have ex-
perienced. But the strike was right and
founded on Justice and on the broad
est of principles After CTosbie had posi-
lively refused any concessions whatever in
the premises, he and / met, and referring to
the matter he remarked: The men in the
shop are not afraid of you, and / want a
man over them they will be afraid Of to
which replied: No, thank God, they are
not afraid of me, and hope you will have
to hunt a long while before you find man
whom they will fear.' This was my last talk
| with Mr.. Crosbie,"
Mr. Hall has many sympathizers in Texas
| He is not a pestiferous agitator, and was
! only helpless instrument in bringing to a
| head he~question at issue between the
! Knights and the railroad companies.
The Knights here assert that the discharge
| of Hall was only an incident in the studied
! policy of the railroads TO crush out all sem
\ blance of organization among their en-
| ployes but the matters had reached such a
pass that nothing more than an incident like
this was needed to produce an open rupture.
Secretary Turner, of the Executive Com
| mittee of the Knights of Labor having
| stated yesterday in st. Louis that Mr.. HOXle
was not acting in conformity with the terns
of the agreement entered into at the New
York conference, Mr.. Gould was to-day in
| terviewed upon the subject and said:
THE stenographer's notes of the New
York conference show that there was no
agreement direct or implied that the COM
| pany would take all men back, with some
comparatively few exceptions. On the con-
trary they show that not one OF the CON-
mittee expected the company to take back
any man not needed or any who had had any
| thing to do with damage to the property
of the company or obstruction to the rnn-
| ming of its trains. Powderly said if the COM
pany would supply him with the names of
| these law-breakers they would be expelled
| from the order. The whole committee was
very positive that its orders to retume work
would be generally observed, and asserted
most positively that those who refused to
obey its orders would be put out of the order.
and, to use the words of one OF the commit
tee, kept out of il forever A message from
Mr.. HoXIe was read to the committee, in
which he said that only portion of the men
formerly employed would be required by the
company on account of a reduction in bust
ness caused by the strike and because large
number of men had been employed TO take
the places of the strikers, who would not be
discharged