The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-03-21
Progress OF the Strike.

cago ~ Burlington strike TO other lines
doing business with it has been carried
out in part. The engineers and fire.
men on the Atchison & Santa Fe sys-
tenn and Atlantic e Pacific stopped
work last week Thursday. This prac-
tically ties up thirty-two hundred miles
of railway and deprives thousands of
railroad hands of employment. The
strikers do not claim to have any
grievance of their own, but say that
having examined the lists of stockhold-
ers on the Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy and the Atchison, Topeka e
Santa Fe, and found that a considerable
number of Santa Fe stockholders are also
largely interested in Co.," they came
to the conclusion to dip into both
pockets at once and let these men feel
the full effects of the strike by Grip
ping their resources. 1t is stated that
the action of the Atchison engineers
is not approved by Chief Arthur, and
that he regards it as apparently in
open rebellion against the Brotherhood.
Governor Martin of Kansas proposes
arbitration in this case, but as the
strikers have no real grievance we do
not see what there is to arbitrate.
Meanwhile the business of the Chicago
& Burlington road is excellent and the
company finds no difficulty in run
ming trains with their new men. The
fact that they have placed twenty
crews at the disposal of the Atchison
& Santa Fe road shows that they are
we'll supplied with help. Thus, as far
as the former road is concerned, the
strike must be considered failure for
the Brotherhood.
1t is estimated that the strike thus
far has cost all interests six millions of
dollars. What have the strikers to show
for their folly? Nothing; and they
have lost not only great sum in
wages, but have made their organiza-
ton an object of public distrust and
dislike. To a great extent public
opinion is against them, and there is
hardly reputable journal in the
country that does not condemn the
strike as causeless and indefensible.
In the list of such journals we find
many that are usually hostile to the in
terests of corporations. The Chicago
Advance, religious paper that can
have no possible motive for doing in
justice to the strikers, says:
"The demand of the Brotherhood that the
graded system hitherto adopted by this
road shall be given up, and that all en-
gineers shall receive the same pay for the
same amount of labor, can not be said to
have commended itself to people generally.
In homely phrase it is considered an at
tempt to draw every man through the
same knot-hole' The objection made by
the Brotherhood to the graded system is
that the higher-paid engineers were apt to
be graded off the road to make way for the
cheaper grade of workmen. But no specif-
cations are given to support the charge"
1t is claimed that the object of this
strike is to grasp for engineers a mo-
nopoly of the employment and to pre-
vent the promotion of iiremen. cit
was found that the companies all pre-
ferred to promote their own firemen,
when they became qualified as en-
gineers, instead of hiring men from
other roads" If this charge against
the engineers is true, then it sets their
case in even worse light than before.
We hold that while labor has the right
to organize for mutual protection and
benefit, it has no right to conspire to
disturb commercial and industrial inter-
ests any more than trust " or other
monopoly. What remedy is there? To
treat an organized strike as a con-
spiracy and to enact laws to punish the
leaders might operate well in some in
stances. A public sentiment hostile to
strikes is worth much more. Arbitra-
ton as a method of settling disputes
between labor and capital has not been
as fully tried in this country as it should
be. 1t is true that arbitration does not
always compass satisfactory conclu-
sion, and the fact that there is strong
opposition to making it compulsory
upon the parties involved in the dis
pute renders it imperative as an infalli-
BILE remedy in many cases. But we
believe that legal arbitration is the
only practicable remedy to settle such
differences, and the party that will not
submit to such reasonable disposition of
the case should receive neither aid nor
sympathy from the public.
Since the above was in type the
strike of the engineers on the Atchison
& Santa Fe has collapsed. Chief Ar
thur doubtless foreseai no that this nm