The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-08-17
ONLY ONE REMEDY
Government Should Own
the Roads.
LABOR LEADERS TESTIFY.
There Is Unanimity Upon That
One Point.
Mr.. PULLMAN WILL BE CALLED.
AS to Whether He Will Give His
Evidence That Is Another
Question.


called before the Government Strike Com
mission to-day was W. Ii. LOvejOy, the
Rock Island Railroad employe. from La
sale, III. Lovejoy declared the men al
! Lasalle went out at that point because he
was unjustlY discharged.
! Secretary Keliher OF the A. R. U. sue
ceeded LOvejoy on the stand. He entered
! into a detailed statement of the trou bles
leading up to the strike, and was cues
toned closely regarding the convention at
| which the boycott was declared.
Secretary Keiher was asked for his
views as to the best method of preventing
strikes. aud said he believed Government
ownership would solve the problem.
Next to THAI" he continued, Il think
compulsory arbitration would answer"
How would you force the railroads to
abide by the arbtrators' decision?" asked
Commissioner Wright.
by law" promptly replied the witness.
Let the law be such that in case of
trouble with its employees the railroad will
be compelled to submit the matter to arbi-
tration. Then let it be understood that if
the railroad will not accept the terms upon
which the arbtrators decide the company
be compelled to go out of business. In
other words. the railroad should DE COM
PEELED to abide by the decision. and as TO
the employees IF they are not suited by The
decision let them leave the employ of the
company"
B. B. Ray of Rock Island. H., was next
called. He stated that the strike at Rock
Island was caused partially by the Pull
man strike and partially because of the
treatment they had received at the hands
of the Rock Island Company.
II had gone West to visit my relatives"
he said. land when l returned l was told
by the Rock Island officials that l had
been discharged. | asked for a reason,
and was told that it was because 1 was
member of the American Railway Union.
General Superintendent Dunlap said
would be blacklisted and never given
work on his or any other road. l was not
a member of the American Railway Union
at the time of my discharge, but have since
Joined that union"
Ray agreed with Keliher that Govern
ment OWNERSHIP of railroads would pre-
vent strikes. Ray favored law, he said.
compelling railroads TO give discharged
employees documents setting forth the rea-
sons for their discharge. AT the conclu-
sion of his examination a recess was
taken.
Chairman Heathcote of the Pullman
strike committee was on the witness
stand during the afternoon session. he
showed table of the Pullman Company's
wages and claimed that wages have been
cut 60 per cent in the last two years. MI
Heathcote also exhibited what he claims
was blacklist issued by the Pullman off,
lS ut kO
TO employ the men whose names appeared
thereon.
There is no doubt that George NJ. Pull
man. Vice President Wickes, general man
ayers Egan, st. John and other corpora
ton officials will be called. Whether they
will testify or not is another matter.
Miss Jennie Curtis. president of the
Girls Union at Pullman. testified in the
afternoon. Her father had been in the
employ of the Pullman Company for fif-
teen years until shortly before his death
last year. He was delinquent in his rent
to the amount of $50. The company COM
PEELED her TO assume the debt and sign a
contract to pay it out of her wages at the
rate of So week. Some weeks she had
so little left from her wages that she could
not pay board.
In 1898 the company was paying It's girls
22b cents an hour for sewing, and the
poorest seamstress earned 81 so a day.
Before the strike tho best of them had got
down TO 20 or so cents day, while the
poorer needle could only make 40
to 80 cents.
Theodore Rhode, representing the paint
ers' department, followed Miss Curtis.
He has worked for the company twelve
years and had been gradually cut down
until he could not make 81 % day. The
foreman abused the men and the manage
ment experimental with the materials I'M
til piece-workers could make nothing.
He had not applied for work since the
strike, because the company compelled
every man to surrender his card of 10 en-
bership in the Railway Onion and sign an
agreement to have nothing to do with any
labor organization for five years.
r. W. Coombs Of the freightcar shops
had been In the employ of the company
for ten years. Where men in that depart
ment were able to earn 50 % a day.
piece work, they were unable to make
more than 6S cents day in March of this
year. Between 1888 and 1891 there had
been no reductions. but in Novem Der of
1898 came a cut that made difference of
$50 in freightcar TO the men who built it,
and S6 of this fell on the carpenters.