Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-11-30
LEFT WITHOUT POWER.

1
employed in the New York Steam Com
pany's great plant on Greenwich and
| Washington streets, between Cortlandt
| and Dey streets, struck shortly after
midnight this morning. The establish
ment furnishes the steam supply for
| hundreds of immense manufacturing
| establishments and the newspapers
and is the sole heating supply Of thou
| sands of great office and mercantile
buildings. The strike is against a re-
| duction of wages This red uction had
| been ordered by General Manager St.
John on Wednesday, to take eff
feet to-day. The men had told
| their superiors. when informed
of the decided cut in wages,
that they would not work for less than
they were getting, and were then re-
minded, they say, that if they did not
choose to accept the comDany's terms
they were at liberty to seek work else
| where. Then they decided to quit at
the midnight change of men last night
but they did not serve their employers
with definite notice Of their intention.
The company employs about fifty fire.
| men on the ffty-six boilers located
around the bases of the great chimneys
which are among the most prominent
landmarks of the city. Eleven of these
men work from midnight until morning,
because in those hours there is not so
great demand upon the service.
The night watch gathered at the
four corners of the block on
which the plant stands shortly before
midnight last night, and we're soon
iAin hy,y oil of 81.
shifts and large number of sympathiz-
ers who had left their beds to see the
beginning of the fight. They all were
resolved that they would not go back
unless the proposed reduction was
abandoned.
While they waited they told the story
Of their troubles. They had been re-
ceiving 25 cents an hour and were
working from eight to ten hours day.
The company had announced that here
after they would be paid but 20 cents an
hour and would be expected to work
twelve hours day. Nearly all of them
had been steamship fremen, and they
said that this reduction would bring
their wages down to lower figure than
they could get at sea, especially on
Ing that it was physical impossibility
for a man TO fire the boilers of the steam
company's plant twelve hours day for
many days in succession. The steam
shlpmen said that the fire-rooms Of the
plant were hotter than the stoke holes
of q modern steamer, where
a man only worked four hours at
stretch, and then was allowed to rest
eight hours, to say nothing Of the long
vacations with full pay when the vessel
was lying IN port. A few policemen
asked the meaning of the meeting, but
did not modest the men when thew
learned why they had assembled and
saw that they were orderly.
AS the hand Of the big clock on the
Cortlandt Street ferry-house pointed to
the zenith, the strikers all assembled at
the entrance to the big boiler-house.
The men at work finally left their posts
one by one, and as they stepped out
upon the sidewalk were greeted with
cheers, and in some cases caught up and
carried on the shoulders Of the strikers
to the corner. There was not a fire.
man left in the house, and before the
men had left they had opened the
hampers, letting great volumes Of cold
air into the furnaces and bringing the
steam pressure down like shot. Chief
Engineer Clarence, who was in charge.
rushed out into the street and begged
the men to return, but was met with
| peremptory but polite refusal. Then he
caught up directory and began to hunt
up the residences of the officers of the
| company. AS he turned to the tele-
| phone to call a messenger, his eye
caught the needle of the big steam
gauge an the wall travelling rapidly to-
ward toe zero point. He changed his
| plans and darted back into the building,
started up the big blowing engines and
Iuh to fo1r -
| him. They were the only people in
the building. They ran to the boilers to
raise what steam they might with the
| fires that yet remained. The strikers
were jubilant at the CONSERVATION they
bad caused. They said that the
newspapers. which gather power from
the company with the exception
of one, which has its own steam
plant. would be late on the
streets, if they could come out at ali,
and that the post-office and Western
Union Telegraph service would be seri-
ously hampered and that the big office
] buildings down town would be cold this
| morning.
Before o'clock the steam had fallen
from the regular pressure OF IS pounds
to the square inch to less than so
pounds, and was still rapidly falling.
! The elevators in the Western
Union telegraph building, at Broad
way and Dey Street, had to stop
running, and IN this building
and in the general post-office the cleo
| trio lights went out, as there was not
! power enough to run the dynamos.
There was great hurrying around to
start fires beneath the long idle
boilers of their steam plants, and
there was pandemonium in the
offices of the morning news
papers that were caught without
power at the very hour when their
presses we're about to start. The news
papers rose to the occasion and their
editions were run oft, but in hundreds
of Office buildings where the steam COM
pany's power is used there Is great
climbing of stairs to-day. In the
Western Union building five Of the six
elevators are motionless, the one in
operation being run with steam from
| tOiler in the building.
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