The record-union., 1896-06-04
STRIKERS TO Be EMPLOYED.
An Important Order by the Southern
Pacific Company.
It Means a Great Deal to Many
Men Who Had Been on
the List"

The Southern Pacific Company has
granted amnesty to the strikers or two
years ago, according to the following
article in the San Francisco Post, =
published last evening:
An edict to that effect has been issued
by Manager j. A. Fillmore to the Su-
perintendents of the company's various
systems says that paper and within
a very short time many of the Old en-
ployes of the big corporation who up
to the time of the great Pullman strike
served the company faithfully Will De
again on the company's payroll.
They may not all secure their old po-
sitions, but nevertheless they will be
furnished employment and advanced as
opportunities permit.
This news will be most welcome to
thousands of men throughout ,the
State, who two years ago quit work
and remained out during the long and
disastrous strike. When peace by force
of arms, made necessary by the overt
acts of those who had nothing to lose,
was restored, thousands Of men and
many of family, found themselves de-
prived of work, for the railroad COM
pany had employed others in the mean
time and could not without cause re-
move them.
AS result the idle men in many in
stances were compelled to seek other
fields for employment, and in moving
from their old homes they encountered
more and more frequently severer hard
ships. That the majority of the men
who left the Southern Pacific Company
in the hour of trouble afterward regret
ted their rash step few will doubt, and
they themselves have since frankly ad-
mitted their folly.
Young men, those not burdened with
family ties did not suffer near as much
as those on whom mothers and chill
dren were dependent, yet all were made
to feel the penalty of the unsuccessful
movement.
Since the events of June and July two
years ago many of the men who walked
out on June 2Sth of that year have
endeavored to regain their old places in
the company or other work in order to
maintain themselves with the needs of
life, but they have failed. The COM
pany was not inclined to forget the
treatment it had been accorded
Efforts to secure employment on other
roads throughout the West and East
met with similar fate, for the magnates
there We're even colder than those who
control the Southern Pacific Company.
But change of feeling has at last
been effected whereby past differences
between employers and employees, with
an exception in a few cases, have been
erased from railroad memory and am
nesty extended to the men who have
been out so long.
This change in the situation is due
directly TO the persistent efforts of
Manager ]. a. Fillmore, than whom no
cne more fully appreciates the hard
ships that have been endured by the
discharged men, in whom the latter
have ever reposed the greatest respect.
During the entire strike Manager Fill
more, who then filled the position of
Superintendent of the Pacific system,
although opposed to the stand taken by
the strikers, lost none of their respect.
These men had always been justly
treated by him during his many years
as Division and General Superintendent,
and they realized that it was but his
loyalty to his employers that prompted
him ito take sides against them. Even
the late Manager Towne commented
upon the wonderful control Mr.. Fill
more exercised over the employees of the
company and Of the high regard in
which they held him.
That the respect and sympathy of the
men for their Superintendent and lately
Manager was properly appreciated and
reciprocated by the latter popular Off
cial wants no better proof than the re-
suits of his latest efforts on their behalf
Nor has his modesty forsaken him in
the final hour of success, for it is two
days since Mr.. Fillmore's edict went
forth and he has not made the slightest
effort to give it publicity.
When compelled this morning to ad-
NIT that amnesty had been granted, he
Gid so in manner 70 infer that it was
but the simple wish of the ineorpora-
ton.
For the past six or eight weeks" said
Manager Fillmore in discussing the sub
ject, I'VE have been in receipt of re-
quests from our Division Superintend-
ents and Superintendent of Motive Pow
er asking that certain names be taken
from the discharge list that now stand
on our list as strikers, and it has been
done in every case where, after very
careful and thorough investigation, it
was found that the man was not en-
gagged in any way in the strike except
to leave our service.
LAS nearly two years have now
elapsed since the strike, Monday l is
sued circular to our Superintendents,
asking them to take up with the heads
of the various departments under their
Jurisdiction, viz, division master me-
chanics, resident engineers, foremen of
car repairers, roadmasters. etc, and go
over the list of names very carefully,
and all those who were found not TO
have committed any overt act to send
their names to me and they would be
taken from the discharge list and the
men thereby be placed in good standing,
when our Superintendents will be at lib
erty to employ them whenever addi-
tional men are required in any branch
of the service.
Il have asked the Superintendents to
be very careful in their investigations
to the end that no ones name be put on
the list of active strikers except they
have positive proof to that effect; in
other words in passing upon any indi-
ABSOLUTI