The record-union., 1895-01-29

the engineers. The committee were as.
sured that the company wished to pay
and treat their men well, and if in the
future any trouble arose that could not be
settled satisfactorily by the local officials,
the men were TO come to the general office
and they should have hearing. The en-
gineers could not have been treated bet
ter if they had been high officials of the
Government, and ali went home per-
fectly satisfied.
Now, after all this, and having the as
surance OF the high officials of the COM
pany that all grievances should be at
tended to. the engineers on the line west
OF PlttSburg were notified in the fall of
1873 that reduction of wages would be
made, temporarily, to tide over the hard
times. The engineers, contrary to all
rules of the brotherhood, went on ruin
Gus GUS strike, destroying property and en-
dangerlng human life. All this was
brought about by the insane idea of say
Ing the word and having every wheel
stopped. The wheels did not stop long
but the men never got employment there
again.
The same plan pursued on the Penn
sylvania Railroad was carried out to get
wages arranged satisfactorily and other
complaints corrected on the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, the old Erie, the New
ork Central, Lake Shore and Michigan
hOOtthOhh IlIlilOlS C0HtIdl anu ludLy OIl0T
roads. John King was the General Man
ager OF the b. and o. at that time, and no
man could have treated a committee bet
ter. The d. and 0. was considered an
arlstocratlc company, and no committee
OF workmen had ever been to the general
office up to that time, but alter the
business was settled the committee met
the officials and Board Of Directors and
received assurances Of good treatment
and good pay and all went home happy
and contented. l should say that the pay
was established at that time at 81 day.
On the New York Central at the begin
ming OF the war committee asked for an
advance in wages. The lamented Dean
richmond was President of the road and
Chauncey Willard General Manager. The
result was that the engineers got more
pay than they expected and were treated
fairly IN every respect.
Without going over in detail each road
can truly say that the treatment re-
celved by the committees was uniformly
kind and cons!derate, and during the ten
years that L was Chief of the Engineers
brotherhood l never knew case where a
committee did not receive a respectful
hearing, and as a general rule obtained
redress If any real grievance existed.
Erastus Corning, Dean Richmond, Com
modore Vanderbilt, Horace +. Clarke e,
Thomas Allen, w. H. Vanderbilt, c. w.
S4dpld, ~. LOOuJs SoIhSlilS ' duuefDlll,
Thomas Scott, John King, Amasah Stone,
John Newell, Albert Fink, Governor
Smith. c. NJ. Depew, J. II. Devereux, and
hundreds OF other prominent railroad
officials were always willing and appar-
entity anxious to do justice to their en-
ployes. No shopman or other employe
ever applied to them in vain if he had
any real grievance.
have had long experience as a shop
man, as well as an engineer, and so far
as my experience goes, l never saw any
difference in the treatment OF men. No
employer of labor wants, or can afford,
TO change old, reliable men for new, un-
tried men, and all that is needed to COM
mand good treatment is fair and open
work, but no amount of force will com =
pei any true American to submit to an
unjust demand. The officers of the en-
gineers' brotherhood have tried just the
same plans that Debs tried, only on a
smaller scale, put they have always got
beaten, as they deserved, in every effort
| to stop the traffic and TO boycott the
business of the railroads, and as | have
already stated l believe that they have
seen the folly of the force plan and have
returned to the old and better plan-to
rely on merit alone.