The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-02-07
ANOTHER Big STRIKE.
1t Is Threatened in Chicago in the
Near Future.
A NEW DEPARTURE ADVOCATED.

The Contest, " 1t Comes, will be Inde-
pendent of Union Bosses, the Men In
terestea Relieving That Previous Strikes
Havc Failed Through Encouragement.
CHICAGO Feb IA morning paper con-
tains the following; Dark shadows of an
impending strike are lowering over many.
If not all. tha railroad lines entering Chi
cago. On authority from several reliable
sources it seems more than probable that
within ten days a herculean attempt will
be made to tie up every locomotive and car
In the city and paralyze hetratfic on many
thousands of miles of tracks Starting
with the unorganiIed switchmcn, the dis
affection has spread until, 1t is claimed,
the various branches of organized en-
pioyes will unite In one of the most de
termined strikes ever known in railroad
annals. The switchmen have decided to
demand an advance of five cents an hour
from their present pay, and to strike it
they do not get 1t. This action was de-
cided on at a rleeting of committees repre-
senting this twenty-seven railroad yards i'll
this city The new scale demands thirty
and thirty-fse cents an hour respectively
for day help, and thirty five TO forty cents
an hour for helpers and foremen working
at night The demand will be made as
soon as petitions can be circulated among
the men iii the respective yards and n ma.
jority Of the signatures secured The pc
culiar feature Of the movement Is that the
regular organs of the switchmen are en-
tiieiy ignored in tile new move.
Tired of Union Bosses.
zone of the men who are prominent in
the new move said: This is not ii new
thing by any means, but we have been
careful that our aims and object should
not become generally known. II has been
serio,lsly considered ever since the failure
of the Buffalo strike. After that affair
the men got talking among themselves, and
their organizations were failures, they CON
ciliied, owing to the way they were con-
dueted. Strike after strike had proved to
be a failure through MISUNDERSTANDING
! and mistakes of the head men of our
organizations, and ii became general talk
among the men that the only way in which
rnilroad men would ever improve their
condition would be by popular uprising.
We concluded to make an effort on our
own account without the guidance or as
! si.tance OF the unions at all. don't mean
to say that individual members of the
| unions will rot support lis; on the con
| trary they will help us, but they will not
j 20 into the movement as members of the
| unions, nor will they go ont of it when
| ordered to do 50 by the officials of the
unions.
1.-THE rank and file of the men are heartily
sick of the way strikes have been managed
and they propose to try hand at the prob
lem in a more democratic way. We have
had little too much union in one direction
and not enough in another. There is nc
lock of officials drawing salaries, while q
great maiorit-Sy-aaf he men engaged on the
variou5<lines are kept out u r4es unions
becaHse Of the arbitrary rulings and fine
lmI6sed by those we'll paid officials. Tn,
IXen to a man agree that wages of railroad
/men generally are too low. and they ais,
express Willingness to 20 into a popula
movement TO secure the same and neye
give up until they secure it. This is
movement of the men and will be sue
cess ~