St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-27
Knights of Labor Agree to
Furnish Three Hundred
Engineers at Once
To Get Even With the Broth
erhood for Interference in
the Reading Strike.
General Man ager Stone Con-
fident the Trouble Will
Not Last Long.

AHlCAGO. IGD. -O.--AI + u ClOCh W
morrow morning all the engineers of
the Burlington road belonging to the
brotherhood will stop work. An official
notice to that effect was sent to General
Manager Stone to-day. Mr.. Stone was
visited by Chairman Hoge, representing
the engineers. and Chairman Murphy,
representing the firemen, this after
noon, and was Informed that unless
settlement was made the strike would
be inaugurated at the hour named.
They said they had sufficient adVices
from the men at various points along
the line to warrant them i'll taking this
step. Mr.. Stone replied that the Bur
lingtOn would not recede from the posi-
tion 1t had taken. Mr.. Stone was asked
if this was their ultimatum. The an
Swer was yes" The representatives
OF the men then withdrew and the gen.
eral strike will begin tomorrow. Mr..
Stone said tonight that there were 1000
engineers and tiremen in the Burling-
toms employ. How many of these be-
longed to the brotherhood he did not
know. but presumed they all did.
"What is your programme for to-mOr-
row. asked lne reporter.
I'VE will not attempt to move any
freight trainS," he replied. Our OBJ
ject is TO run most of our suburban and
passenger trains as usual. Our first en-
deaVOr Will be TO get III our suburban
passengers and take care of all pasSen-
gers for points not covered by cOmpeti-
tors. There are large number of men
III our employ
CAPABLE OF RUNNING ENGINES
in addition to yard fOremen and road
foremen, who nearly all are old engi-
neerS. At Aurora we have a laboratory
where large number of young men are
engaged who have all learned the art of
running Il locomotive. All these will be
pressed into service tomorrow"
How about the report that you are
bringing on lot of men from the Read
ing SyStem?"
I'VE have no arrangement or contract
to that effect" said Mr., Stone, "but we
have sent East advertisements for COM
petent men, and we have also received
a number of kilograms from individuals
in Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania
points, saying they would come and
bring other engineers with them. To
all these have replied that we will
give good wages and permanent EN-
plOyment to all men of good character,
who are competent to do the work."
But | suppose you would keep these
men in case of settlement with the old
men?''
''Yes sir,' said Mr.. Stone, emphati-
cally. We want all the competent men
whom we can depend upon, and they
will be retained as long as | am general
manager of the road"
In regard to freight traffic Mr.. Stone
said the roads first endeavor would be
TO take care of it on the same basis that
it would passenger traffic. He could
not tell how it would get on till it had
sized up the situation. If the strike
was so serious as to stop traffic it would
have to lay off all freight handlers and
shop men and a number OF others en-
plOyed i'll similar capacity, numbering
six or seven times as many as the en-
gineerS and tiremen. He does not an
ticipate any such serious state of af-
fairs.
VICE PRESIDENT PEASLEY.
of the Burlington road. stated that the
total number of engineers employed on
the Burlington system was about 1,000
and the number of firemen was about
the same.
''IOw many men employed on the
burlington system will the strike af-
fect?"
about %, 600. Of course it will be
manifeStly impossible to keep our en-
plOyes on the pay rolls in case of a
treat our loyal employees Just as well as
is consistent with good business princi-
pies. and as soon as the strike ends the
old men who may be laid Off by reason of
the strike will be taken back. We do
not want to discourage any competent
wOrkmen, but will be forced to do so
temporarily through the action of the
engineers"
'HOw will the strike affect your earn
ings, and how many cars will it tie up?''
''Well, that is a difficult question to
answer, but l should say that we run
about 80 passenger trains and an
equal number of freight trains on the
entire Burlington system per day. We
have 10000 to $4,000 cars and, of course,
when the engineers lay off the bulk of
these cars
WILL BE SIDETRACKED
We expect, however, to keep a few
trains moving, and we have been told
that the Brotherhood of Engineers will
not be called off from the mail trains
or certain of the suburban trains. AS
to the loss which will result from the
strike, it is impossible to give an idea
IN advance OF the actual occurrence. |
think 1t will not be far out of the way
TO say that we are earning from $40, 900
to $4,000 per day. In this connection.
however, the fact must be taken into
consideration that rates on freight busi-
ness between all principal points have
fallen to such an absurdedly low figure
that net earnings have been seriously
reduced. To be sure, passenger rates
are maintained, but passenger business
does not produce much over 25 per cent.
of the revenues of our road. 1t Is. per-
haps true, therefore, that the strike.
coming as it does at time when freight
rates are hardly on paying basis,is not
such an unfortunate affair as it would
have been in more prosperous times"
"HOw are the other employees of the
Burlington disposed to regard the
strike?''
Z $50 far as we know they are loyal to
the company, and we intend to treat
them well and intend to keep as MANY
of them employed as we can. We shall
have new engineers and shall make
every effort to start our trains as soon
as possible"
WILL LIVE IN TOWN.
The people living on the suburban
system of the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy railroad have had their thinking
caps on for the last few days, especially
those who come TO Chicago daily. and
many OF them have already made ar
rangements to live In the city, The
Burlington suburban trains run as far
down as DOwner's Grove, twenty-one
miles from Chicago. There are fourteen
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