The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-07
The Engineers Strike.

A great strike OF engineers and fire.
men along all the lines of the Chicago,
Burlington g. Quincy railroad began
last week Monday. The trouble be-
tween the company and the strikers
appears to be this: The company
claim the right to employ engineers
according to their qualifications and
to graduate their pay. The engi-
neers demand that the pay shall be
uniform and that this is necessary
to protect the best and most ex-
perienced engineers from discharge
the less experienced being preferred
by the company because they can be
had for less wages. 1t is claimed that
several of the other roads centering in
Chicago have adopted their system.
Chief Arthur of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers says: "The
men are striking not to compel the
railway company to pay them for serv-
ices they do not perform, nor is it to
compel the company to accept blind
men to run the engines. The principle
of grading the men according to years
of services as engineers adopted by
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and
for which they argue with such We
hemence, is illogical and unjust, and if
it were possible to get it there would be
so pronounced by court of equity"
The officers of the railroad state the
case thus: "At present we have one
rate of pay for engineers just promoted
from firemen, which continues one
year. In the second year of service as
engineer an advance of pay is given.
On the expiration of the second year
further advance to full engineers pay
is given. The schedule proposed by
the committee [of engineers does
away with this classification and insists
upon full pay for every man as soon as
he runs an engine"
AS to the merits of the controversy,
we notice that all of the leading Chi
cago journals are disposed to regard
the strike as ill-advised and the demand
for uniform pay as unwarranted. The
principle involved in the demand would
seem to be indefensible. However it
might work in the case of railroads, it
would be demoralizing in most kinds of
business. The Chicago Times makes
some strong points against the "dead-
level SYSTEM" as follows:
1t is calculated to injure the mex
perienced as well as wrong their seniors.
Most men are so constituted that incentives
are required to bring out the best of which
they are capable. The dead-evel system of
pay would remove powerful incentive
now impelling engineers to perfect them
selves in their work 1t is, therefore, cal
culated to lower the general standard of ex-
cellence in the calling. 1t deprives the best
OF a motive to maintain their excellence,
and at the same time it deprives the least
experienced of motive to improve them
selves. The dead-level system is calculated
to injure the companies that adopt it. They
the competitive race, from which they can
get no exemption. They are therefore justi-
fed in resisting a demand for change
which would be more than likely to result
in deterioration of the service they render
The situation up to Monday under
went little change, both sides holding
out pluckily. Delegates from fifteen
divisions of the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers met in New York
and resolutions were adopted demand
ing that members of the Brotherhood
on roads connected with the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy strike on the 10Th,
if the offending road does not yield be-
fore that date, and if that does not
suffice then it is proposed that all the
Brotherhood throughout this country do
likewise. But both Arthur and Sargent,
chiefs of the engineers and firemen,
say they do not propose to call out the
men on other roads merely to bring the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to terms.