Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-12-01
LEFT WITHOUT POWER.

pany's great plant on Greenwich and
| Washington streets, between Cortlandt
and Dey streets, struck shortly alter
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 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 company'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 80
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 were soon
ioiued by nearly all the men Of the day
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 90 back
unless the proposed reduction was
abandoned.
While they waited they told the story
Of their troubles. They had been re-
ceiving Is cents an hour and were
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 firemen, and they
| said that this reduction would bring
their wages down to lower figure than
| they could get at sea, especially on
| American boats, and all joined in say
| Ing that it was physical impossibility
| for q man to fire the boilers Of the steam
| company's plant twelve hours day for
many days in succession. The steam
| shipmen said that the fire-rooms of the
plant were hotter than the stoke holes
of a modern steamer, where
man only worked tour 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 III port. A few policemen
| asked the meaning of the meeting, but
did not modest tie men when they
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 rs 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 q 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 IL
peremptory but polite refusal. Then he
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
shouting to three Watchlnen to help
him. They were the only people iii
the building, They ran to the boilers to
raise what steam they might with the
fires that yet remained. The strikers
we've inhilant at the CONSERVATION thcy
had caused. 'rney said that the
newspapers, which gather power from
the company with the exception
Of one, which lbs Its own steam
plant. would be late on the
streets, if they could come out at all,
and that the post-ollice and Western
Union Telegraph service would be scr-
ouslv fampered and that the big office
buildings down town would be cold this
morning.
Before l O'Clock the steam had fallen
from the regular pressure of 50 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-ofiice 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 were 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