The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-01-22
LEFT THEIR POSTS.
station Agents and Operators ON the st.
Paul System Q uit Work Dinerent Re-
ports - to tho Extent Of tho Strike
The Cause.

station Agents and Operators ON the 81.
Paul System Q uit Work Dinerent Re-
ports - to tho Extent Of tho Strike
The Cause.
CHICAGO, Jan. IA great telegraph
ers' strike has been inaugurated on the
Chicago, Milwaukee & st. Paul system.
The best information obtainable is to
the effect that 500 operators and sta
tion agents are out While it is not now
expected that tie-up will result, such
o consequence is more than possible.
The road is already seriously crippled
In Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, Missouri
and in parts of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Trains will run under great disadvantr
ages.
The railroad company is doing every
thing possible to avert tie-up or the
possible stoppage of through trains.
As is well known, there are in every
small town several small boys learn
ing to be telegraph operators. The
railroad company has always permitted
these boys-the so-called students-to
practice on its instruments in return
for such small services as they might
render. An order has been issued from
the general managers Office calling all
the students into the Offices Of train
dispatchers to report for duty. There
are plenty of these students
such as they are-to fill every place
made vacant by the men who have left
work, and the company has made ar
rangements to do that very thing.
The engineers have come squarely for
the operators and notified the strik-
ers that they would refuse to
accept clearances from students who
might be put in the places
of the regular men. The engine
men declare that their action was nec-
essary for public safety, as the majori-
ty of the students are incompetent to
receive and transmit train orders. At
the St Paul headquarters it is claimed
that but seventy-two men have quit
work.
At the general telegraph offices in
this city the employees reported all the
lines as working, indicating that the
places of strikers had been filed. The
employees Of the road assure everybody
who inquiries that there is no trouble at
all along the lines.
During the day the strikers commit
tee received kilograms from Milwaukee
that on the Prairie du Chen division
there would be twenty designations.
From other points in Wisconsin came
kilograms that indicate that q
large number of men arc willing
to go out with the rest. On the
Prairie du Chen and Mineral Point
division the kilograms report the
feeling as strong. At Cedar Rapids
several ''scabs'' were said to be at
work. At Coon Rapids, Ia, j. NJ.
Bunker, trainmaster for the Manila
division, was acting as operator. The
strikers rejoiced over this news, which
they asserted exploded the tale Of a
flood of applicants for the positions
vacant.
The cause of the trouble is q reduc-
tion Of wages which occurred over q
month ago. Dec. 8, the men claim,
they were notified that their salaries
had been reduced Dec. l. The aver
age man was getting they say
from $50 to S45 q month
The cut affected each man,
| salary to the tune of about s,
. month. and it is for the reinstatement,
of the old schedule that the present
| walk-out has been ordered. 1t j.
| claimed that some of the men were
drawing but s13 q month, although
such employees were filling unimportan1
| positions.