Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-02-27
FOR DOLLARS AND CENTS
GIANTS OF LABOR AND CAPITAL
START A BIG FIGHT.
The Locomotive Brotherhood and the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
the Opposing Forces
in the Struggle.

"A m.
49,, ,,,-, ..,,..- ,,,,,.. ,..,,. an.
men l" Lay "n-sy""ps'' III ''e we"
Demands and the Comp""y's Answer
Position OF the X. of l..
CHICAGO Feb. ~ The Chicago Burlington
q Quincy engineers aud iremeu went out on
strike at ! o'clock Monday morning, As Is
customary in such combats the Brotherho cd
Of Locomotive Engineers will offar no obJec-
ton to taking out maIl trains furnishing AN
engineer ana fireman Tor each man car hhu
engine the company chooses to send out
Nothing else Will be moved, however, unless
by non-hrotherhood men which the company
may be able to employ. The Brotherhood OF
Locomotive Firemen is linked with the On.
gineers in this movement, and long and
exasperating contest seems about to ensue,
Ii is also customary for the brotherhood
to give at least flve hours notice OF an eH-
tended strike, and Sunday AFTERNOON conf
mittee from both brotherhoods waited on
General Manager Stone at the general Offices
Of the company on Adams street
This committee consisted OF s.
L. Hoge, chairman of the engineers
grievance committee, and j. II. Murphy
chairman of like committee from the hre-
men. The duty OF thls delegation was
easily performed. Mr. Hose acted as spokes-
man on the start, and informed Mr. stone
that as he had refused to concede their re-
quests as modified by Chief Arthur, the
brotherhood which he and his colleagues
represented, would, at o'clock Monday
morning, enter upon peaceful ana orderly
strike.
"All the engineers and hremen, he sald,
shave been ordered to quit work, and, as
you are aware, this is done with the consent
and approval Of Chief Arthur, and Grand
Master Sargent, of the Fremen's Brother
hood"
Mr.. Stone, in quiet, unconcerned way,
informed them that he had discovered no
reason to change his decision which he gave
Mr.. Arthur on Friday last. Thus the inter-
view ended The delegates retired and re-
ported to Messrs. Arthur and Sargent at the
Grand Pacific. The whole performance was
a mere formally. 1t was not done Tor tine
purpose OF reOpening negotiations with the
company, as Mr.. Sargent afterward ex-
planned, but to give the company reasonable
warning of the strike. The officials already
knew, he said, that strike would take
place but they did not know the hour. The
visit of the delegation was simply to notify
them of the exact hour. Chief Arthur was
seen Sunday evening and asked AS to his ln-
tentions.
~ may go east" he said, "for short time
ANY day CT hour, but you will understand
this, We have iathered this strike and we will
take care of it to tho end. 1t is not fight
between the employees of the Burlington sys-
tenn and that company merely, but it involves
every railway employe In the United States
belonging to the five brotherhoods connected
with the railway service"
"What about the mail trainsF
"Our policy is always the same on that
point. The Burlington officials have already
been duly notified that weare ready and will
co ltnue to be ready to furnish one engineer
and one fireman to take out every mail car
over the road"
"When you say mail car do you mean mail
trainsP
mo, sir not by any means, answered Ar
thar, sharply.
at Is stated that the railroad company is
already importing non-union men to take the
places of the strikers"
ave considered that matter thoroughly
The local organizations have gone into the
fight with their eyes open. The situation
now is just about as we anticipated from the
start. Ii Mr. Stone eau find reliable and
men enough to man his 5000
miles of road he is welcome to do So But
we shall exercise the right to go
into the market and buy up men, which |
right Mr. Stone will exercise also There
will b, no intimidation and undue il fluence |
used. We will simply fight the company,
lawfully exercising the same rights as a cor
poration that the railway company -exer-
cises The backbone of the conflict will |
consist in n race for the non union men. We |
know where thew are and can reach them, |
mr. have reached them. as YOU choose to put |
II We are not going into this fight to be |
beaten but IL wa are beaten we shall con.
ress it honoraby and throw up the sponge"
"Can Won hold ont for six monthslr
awe can hold out until the fight is over, no
matter if it should last two years. 1t is not
A question of holding out. IL the company
rnn man its system of lines with competent
men. then we are beaten and shall acknowl-
,dpe it but we saw it can not be done Now
h will take time to settle this matter. We
m va countad the cost long and we'll and. as
said are nranored for the worst We have
,sked nothing which third @ lass roads have
rot granted. and when the whole matter be-
,ones nnhli, wa shall have the symnathv of
ba Dennls or am very mich mistaken. We
lo not live nv strikes az mn organization. 1t
a now eIaven wears since we had A strike
We have always beep able to settle our diff
Midas nv conferrinp topether with railroad
,fIlcials but in this case negotiations have
'eiled to give us iustice. and we have ac-
,epted the inevitable. Now for the fight"
The revised schednle of waoes governing
he nav of engineers and firemen was pre.
,ented to the peneraI Inanagers Fab IL nv a |
of enpineers and firemen. of which
! E. Hoge was chairman for the former
and J. H. Murphy Tor the
of Locomotive Firemen. The
,cbsdule prevailing at that time had been in
'orce since April /, 1886, and was so short
md concise that its provisions were embodied
n eleven short paragraphs. The new sched-
lie is more than double it in size, and con-
lists of twenty-three different articles or
some of which are subdiyided