The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-14
BROOKLYN tied Up
The Trolley Doesn't Troll
and the IL Roads Can
not Carry the People.
CHAOS AT THE BRIDGE
Over Six Thousand Men Out Of
Work Many Volunteers to
Take Their Places.
The Mails Greatly Impeded and
Uncle Sam Liable to Take
Hand-Yioleuee Feared.

BROOKLYN, N Y, Jan. IA, 1s95.-The
trolley car strike began when the last
night car had been housed which was
shortly before four O'Clock this morn
ing. Not a single day car on any road
in Brooklyn. with one exception-1the
Coney Island and Brooklyn-was run out
this morning. Although the rnotormen
and conductors are in the neiEhborhood
of the striking stations not one of them
offered to go to work this morning and
the usually noisy clang of the trolley car
bell on the busy streets is hushed. The
elevated trains, although the service had
been nearly doubled, are unable to carry
the people, and during the working hours
this morning these cars were crowded
into suffocation When the electricians
employed in the four power houses in
the city went to take their night shift
at six P. NJ. last night they were asked
by the foreman If they would be willing
to take places on the cars as motormen
and conductors this morning. To man
they replied NO Then they were told
that there was no more work for them.
This, the first act in the lockout. threw
some 500 men out. At the Brooklyn
Heights power house 800 men were en-
so, at the Broadway house 100. at the
Atlantic avenue house 2Oo and in the
Coney Island and Brooklyn house at
Kings Highway 60.
The employees say the action of Presi-
dent Lewis in locking out the power
house workers precipitated the strike.
They say President Lewis told a friend
last night the strike would cost the
Brooklyn Heights Company at least half
a million dollars.
MEMS MANIFESTO.
Shortly after midnight this morning
the Executive Committee of District As
sembly No. 75, K. of L.. issued a mani
festo saying :-"Since the introduction of
electricity, trips have been added on all
roads, and the strain on the employees
both mental and physical, has been
doubled
The statement refers to a law making
ten hours days work, and continues =
.sThe. companies all insist on running as
many triTspers as they can at trip price.
the Newest sassss 3Ggs.7s'=.isrtt. d snan for
running a car is s1.5o a day, but. if we
accept the company's proposition wslshall
not be allowed to make more than from
40 to so cents a day.
THE companies, under the law, are
not allowed to run cars at a speed ex-
ceeding ten miles an hour. But one COM
pany in this city has made the slightest
attempt to comply with this plain pro-
vision of the law. The companies all
post schedules which compel motormen
to run cars at speed of from seven
teen to twenty miles an hour Nearly
one hundred fatal accidents have oc-
CURED. and countless persons have been
i fla 1f
porations.
I'VE desire schedules SO arranged that
we can run our cars with safety to the
public and to ourselves. Our people do
not desire to be called reckless or mur-
derers, and we wish the blame for these
accidents to be placed where it belongs"
The strike is the greatest one Brooklyn
has ever seen. Master Workman Martin
Connelly's order was at once obeyed by
six thousand men.
The trolley companies have agents now
in Newark, Philadelphia and other cities
where there are trolley lines, trying to
get men to take the place of the strik-
ers.
Plenty of men, (the company says 2,OoO
applied at. the City Railway Company's
ot5lees this morning ls,,a for work ans :.
they were guaranteed protection. The
company at once applied to the police for
If fhe pGee and a1 t5e sye It
States troops will be called on.
The United States Government gat
The Railway companies have COZ Contracts cf
to carry mail. If these cars are inter
fered with. the Marshals and troops, the
cooperate with the police
The mail cars did not go out as usual
this morning.
The carriers also had trouble getting
to their routes. They could not take
elevated trains. and the mail service is
badly impairesad; sd1JcH A1EPr
That the strike was expected this morn
ing was shown by the activity of the
Poee pepartmen Oh sa5urdag last
by telephone by President Lewis, of the
Brooklyn City Railroad, that 1t would
be advisable to have his extra men in
readiness in case they were needed All
day yesterday the policemen at the vari-
GUS station housees were held in readi-
ness to answer a hurried call It did
not come, however. until two o'clock
this morning when Inspector McKellar
telephoned to the captains to get their
men ready. Patrol wagons were gotten
out and the men hustled into them, and
ten minutes after the order was received
every extra policeman in the city was
on duty along the different lines of the
toned as follows;-Three men at each
of the power houses and depots, with
the others stationed along the various
tain number OF blocks and watch the
overhead wires.
COMPANIES INVOLVED.
The companies involved in the strike
are the Brooklyn Heights Traction Com
pany, one of the largest railroad com
panies in the East: the Atlantic Avenue
Railroad Company, which is now the
Long Island Traction Company, and the
Brooklyn and Neutown Railroad Com
pany.
Oyer six hundred miles of trolley lines
are tied up by the strike
Under ordinary circumstances the
Brooklyn elevated roads run on a head
way of from six to eight minutes To-
iay they ran on a headway of from two
10 three minutes; but even at that rate
there was not accommodation enough for
4 majority Of those persons whose
business brings them down town or 10
New York expected that he strike would
10 into effect this morning, and left
their homes earlier than usual
The cars, however, were filed, and at
many Of the stations men and women
were left standing upon the wind-swept
platforms until another train came along.
When the Ridgewood, East New York
and Fifth avenue trains reached the
main line on Myrtle avenue, they found
line of trains probably nile long.
OVERC'RDWDED Il
"A ho I1x-fd