The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-25
ARA1LRoAD TO BE TIED UP.
Engineers and Fireccen to Fight Classi-
fed Wages. Q.


CHICAGO, Feb l4-Probably the Chicago,
Burlington am! Quincy will be tied
up from one end to the other. Freight as
we'll as passenger traffic will be stopped and
most of the switch engines will be abandon
ed The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen have decided upon strike "a the
last resort to enforce their demands upon
the railroad company, and as both organl-
cations are very strong on this road as well
| as elsewhere, they confidently expect to tie
up the road completely and win the strike.
This step derives its Importance not only
from the large interest involved If the
strikers succeed III paralyzng one or tue
biggest railroads of the West, but because Of
late it has been generally accepted that the
locomotive engineers were so unalterably
opposed to strikes that no conjunction of
circumstances could be imagined that would
induce the members to resort TO that
means.
CLASSIFIED WAGES
The resolution of the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy men is a genuine surprise. A
few days ago Chief Arthur startled the labor
world by the announcement that II was the
intention of his organization to do away
with classiged wages and make the pay of all
men the same for the same work without
reference to the length of time they had
been employed by the company. Thus the
locomotive engineers, hitherto consl Tered
the most conservative labor organization of
the country, placed itself in the matter of
wages, on the same grou"d as the most adj
vanced trades unions. The conclusion to do
away with all classification Ia the wages of
the engineers-and it may be added
here that the firemen are acting in
concert with them throughout-was
reached by the brotherhood at its session in
Chicago last October, and a resolution was
adopted to enforce this new plan all over
the United States wherever the organiza-
ton was strong enough to do so. This
proviso was added for the purpose of avoid
ing conflict where the organization was
sure to be beaten.
CAUSE OF THE STEP.
The principal reason for this step, as
Chief Arthur explains, was that the rail
roads were beginning to discharge men who
had been in their service a long time and
were drawing better pay, and to put in
their places men who were not veterans in
the trade, but were capable of doing
the work just as well and who
were willing to take lower wages. The
result was that engineers of long experience
had difficulty in getting work and the gen
eral standard of wages was reduced. The
same applied to the firemen who got So to
80 per cent of the pay Of the engineers. AT
ter several months of labor the men have
succeeded in introducing uni
form scale of wages for all
engineers on the road service ON
the Chicago, Milwaukee and ST. Paul,
Chicago and Northwestern, Chicago and
Alton the Wabash, Chicago and Atlantic,
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and other
Western lines. The new scale is 315c. a
mile for freight engineers and &c. for passen-
ger engineers and 60 per cent. for firemen.
All their negotiations were successful until
they called on the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy road. For three weeks
past the committee of the engineers and
firemen of that road, with Chief Arthur of
the engineers, and Grand Master Sargent of
the firemen at their head, have been nego-
tiating with General Manager Store and
Supt. Bessler to bring about a similar ar
rangemsnt to that on the other roads. At
present the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy
is working under an arrangement made last
year with Vice President Potter. 1t makes
special arrangements with its men by the
trip, paving certain amount.