The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-25
TRAFFIC BLOCKED.
A Gigantic Strike on the Illinois Central.


CHICAGO, Ill, June 24-The strike of
freight conductors, switchmen and brake
man on the Illinois Central railroad has
become a serious one and threatens to
blockade its entire business. The subur-
ban train men struck this morning after
the early trains had come in and there are
about 300 men idle and the business OF
the road Is paralyZed. The bone of cOnten-
tion in the strike is undoubtedly b. u.
Russell. superintendent of the northern
lines of the Illinois & Wisconsin railroad
He came to Chicago year ago and ever
since his accession to the office, 1t Is said,
the men under him have been dissatisfied
The immediate cause was the resignation
Of Trainmaster Berry and his assistant IT.
win 4. PuShie.
The strikers did not wish to be held re-
sponsible for interfering with the United
States mails, the express companies and
bonded matter. They, therefore, attached
fhe mail and express cars to the engine Of
the New Orleans mail train, but left the
coaches with their eXasperated passengers
unconnected Ii was the intention to send
the disconnected coaches down at sched-
uled time but Mr.. Sullivan, the
general superintendent of the Illinois
Central explained that the rail
road, company has no contract with the
Uunited States government to carry mails
except on regular passenger trains and the
Train dispatcher WIS uOb dllbuOIlLCu 70
give orders for the train to start until it
could start with all its usual passenger
coaches. The strikers refused to allow the
whole train to move and warned Mr.. Sui
Iivan as they had not prevented the trans
portation of the mail and express matter
that the-railroad detained 1t at the COM
pany's own risk.
General Manager Beck, General Super
intendent Sullivan and the heads of the
traffic departments had conference today
with representatives of the strikers, in
General Manager Beck'S office. The men
demanded that Superintendent Russell )
name be stricken from the card, and stated
their determination not TO return TO work
until this was done. They said there was
no room for compromise on the subject.
Not one Of them would go TO work again
under him or consent to receive another
order from him. General Manager Beck
was ordered to support Russell, but the
situation was admitted by the official and
his subordinates to be very serious.
The officials ended their conference at
l:30 for the day. The only conclusion ar
rived at was that they would resist the
mems demand for Russells discharge.
They now await Overtures on the part of
their employees who are out and 1t Is said
that unless the men return to work to-
morrow the company Will proceed to hire
new men.
The tie-up will cause serious trouble,
not only locally, but throughout large
section of country, both west and south.
The suburban traffic of the road is
enormous. The trains run in and
out of the city every few minutes
from p. m. until midnight and
are usually crowded. All these people are
now thrown upon their own resources of
transportation. But it is not this that
will trouble the commercial world. To
stop freight traffic on the Illinois Central
railroad means to prevent the thousands
and thousands of people in northern Iowa,
in southern Illinois, in Kentucky, TenneS-
see, Mississippi and Louisiana from get
sing products to market The yards in
this city are already filled with freight
cars and the stalling of trains now in
transit Will block nearly every transfer
track touched by the road. The Michigan
Central, Baltimore * Ohio and Big -Four
roads, which enter the city over the Illinois
Central tracks, were seriously interferred
with owing to the blockade created by the
motiOnless trains of the Illinois Central