Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-08-27

EVANSVILLE, IND, August 27.-The loco
| motive engineers, firemen, brakemen and
| smithmen on the Peoria, Decatur & Evans
vile; Evansville & Terra Haute; Evans
| vile Il Indianapolis, and Evansville Belt
railroads, about 800 miles in all, went out
4 on strike yesterday at p. m. The I'M
mediate cause of the trouble was
the refusal OF President Mackey to
| discharge F. C. Smith, Master Me
chanic OF the P. ID. & Z. railroad at Mat
tOon, Ill. The men claim that smith IS
| overbearing and unreasonable and that
| they are unable to agree with him. Smith
has been on the road since October, 1881.
| Chief Arthur, of the Brotherhood OF Lo-
comotive Engineers. and Chief Sargent, OF
the Firemen's Brotherhood, arrived
in this city last Friday, and in
ger Ewing of the Mackey system
| demanded the immediate discharge of Mas
| ter Mechanic Smith. This WAS refused.
| Upon the receipt of the refusal OF the
| Mackey Company ~ comply with their
| demandS Chiefs Arthur and Sargent,
| through their committeeman, Messrs. A.
NJ. Kimbail and C. J. Singleton, notified
| President Mackey that the men would
| strike on Sunday afternoon. Accordingly
| at that hour last evening the engineers,
| firemen. brakemen and switchmen left
their places.
No riot or trouble is reported so far. The
| trains leaving here last evening, will, it is
claimed, get out some hours late. Little is
known of the motives Of the switchmen
and brakemen in joining the engineers and
| firemen as ali refuse to talk. However, the
common cause of complaint-the obnox-
ious treatment by Master Mechanic Smith
is believed to be the prime reason for the
| move.
President Mackey when interviewed last
evening submitted the following as his side
of the case: in October. NJ. F. C. Smith,
Cincinnati. was appointed Master Me-
chanic at Mattoon. Soon after there were
petty differences which are constantly aris-
| ing in all railroad work, and in brief
time a committee composed of some of the
men waited on and demanded the dismis-
sal of Master Mechanic Smith, which re-
/ fused in the most positive terms. From that
time ON there had been insubordination to
some extent continuously to Master
Mechanic Smith. At the last difficulty We
/ had, and when Mr.. Arthur was here.
| anticipating that we might dismiss some of
the prime movers in the matter they i'm
posed condition that we would not dis
miss an engineer or fireman without a
| hearing. This we consented to. They
then made new demand for the dismissal
of Master Mechadic Smith. l replied that
4 WOuiu lhNtSllRdtc lflc CidfgCS tuc
necessary action. See the consistency.
They demand the dismissal of a
high official without preferring a
charge, come TO us with this demand
when we were oyerrun with business. seek
ing to take advantage of our surroundings
| and all this week have been working on
our men to get them to join in this in
famous work. | charge them with this
mean low. contemplate dodge and their
chief p NJ Arthur admitted this time had
been so chosen because of the work we had
to do and now this afternoon at , 2o'clock
| they spring this on us. when we have
thousands of people to move, many OF
whom are long distances from home, and
| but for the fact of having engineers in all
/ departments, much inconyn nience would
| be visited upon our passengeu"
| "Do | understand then, there is no OBJ
| lection to wages or other conditions?''
| None whatever. A band Of men con-
spired to make US dismiss Mr.. Smith and
have sought this chance to spring the mat
/ ter upon us"
| The three railroads, il is probable will be
| able TO run very few passenge9 trains, and
no freights for at least day q two. 1t is
impossible to tell with certainty the num-
ber of men that can be obtained to take
the places of the strikers. if no compromise
| is effected Neither Chiefs Arthur or Sar
gent are in the city. the former having re-
turned to Cleveland, and the latter to
1 Tarra Hauto