Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-08-27
Indiana Roads Tied Up.
Engineers, Bremen and Brake
 men Quit Work.
ALL ON ACCOUNT OF ONE MAN.
They Did Not Like Master Mechanic Smith, and Demanded His Discharge Being Refused They Struck-Serious Predicament of Several Railroads.

Predicament of Several Railroads.
 EVANSVILLE, Ind. Aug. 2.-The local engineers, tremen, brakemen and switch men the Peoria, Decatur and Evansville, Evansville and Terre Haute, Evansville and Indianapolis and Evansville Belt railroads, about 5U0 III les ill all, went out on a strike yesterday at 2p. III. The immediate cause of the trouble was the refusal of President Mackey to discharge F. [. Smith, master mechanic ot the Peoria, Decatur and Evans vile road at Mattoon, Ills. 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, 1SS7
 Chief Arthur, of the Brotherhood of Loco motive Engineers, and Chief Sargent of the Firemens Brotherhood, arrived in this city last Friday, and i'll a conference with General Manager Ewing, of the Mackey system, de- manded the immediate discharge of Master Mechanic Smith. This was refused. Upon receipt of the refusal of the Mackey com pany to comply with their demands Chiefs Arthur and Sargent, through their commit teemen, Messrs. A Nj. kimball and c. J. Singleton, notified President Mackey that the men would strike on Sunday afternoon. Accordingly the engineers, fremen, brake men and switchmen left their places
 No riot or trouble is reported sol far. Little B known of the motives of the switchmen and brakemen ill joining the engineers and f1remen, as all refuse to talk. However, the common cause of complaint-the obnoxious treatment by Master Mechanic Smith-is be- lieved to be the prime reason for the move.
 President Mackey when interviewed sub mitted the following as his side of the case;
 "In October MT. +. C. Smith, of Cincin- y,in at Mattoon. Soon after there were some petty differences which are constantly arising ill all railroad work, and in brief time com mittee, composed of some of the same men, waited on me, and demanded the dismissal of Master Mechanic Smith, which l refused in the most positive terms From that time on there has been insubordinstion to some extent continuously to Master Mechanic Smith. At the last difficulty we had, and when MT. Arthur was here, anticipating that we might dismiss some of the prime movers ill the matter they imposed condition that we would not at any time dismiss an engineer or fireman without a hearing. This we con- sented to. They then made a new demand for the dismissal of Master Mechanic Smith.
 ''I replied that l would investigate the charges and take the necessary action. See the inconsistency. They demand the dismis- sal of high official without preferring g charge come to us with this demand when | ws were oyerrun with business, seeking to l take advantage of our surroundings, and all this weak have been working on our men to get them to join in this infamous work. | charged them with this mean, low, contempt ible dodge, and their chief, P. M. Arthur admitted tEis time had been so chosen be- cause of the work we had to do, and now al , o'clock thoy spring this on us, when we have thousands of people to move. many oi whom are long distances from home, anC but for the fact of having engineers in al departments much inconvenience would bt visited upon our passengers"
 Do l understand, then, there is no objec tion to wages or other conditionsF'
 ''None whatever. A band of men con spired to make us dismiss Mr. Smith anc have sought this chance to spring the matter upon us"
 The three railroads, it is probable, will b, able to run very few passenger trains anc no freights for at least a day or two. It il impossible to tell with certainty the number of men that can be obtained to take th places of the strikers If no compromise effected Neither Chief Arthur nor Chic Sargent are in the city, the former havin, returned to Cleveland and the latter t Terre Haute.