Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-19
INSISTS THAT CRANE WAS A scan.
Was Appointed Engineer Through
Railroad influence.

! Railroad influence.
| OMAHA. April 16.-To the Editor of The
| Bee: In Thursday nights Bee read a
/ communication from James NJ. Kenney say.
! ing that Ed Crane was not scab, that he
! at the time of the strike was a member OF
| the Knights Of Labor (he conveniently for
! gets to say what assembly Crane was
member Of and that he stayed at work be-
| cause District Secretary Corwiu had ordered
| all knights on the system to do so. That TO
! do otherwise would be a violation of order
| No, 6l That this order No 6l was in full
| force at this time and the agreement must
| be lived up to by all honorable knights
| when it was a fact that nearly all Of its
provisions were at this time violated by the
company, just as much so as the agreements
of the federation were. The reason Secretary
| Corwin sent out this notice was the strike
gave him his long looked for opportunity to
slap the machinists in the face. The writer
| of this, with the able assistance of James
K. Young, compelled him to see the error
OF his ways.
will call the attention of Mr. Kenney
and other knights to General Master Work
man Powderlys orders, towit: In struggle
between capital and labor, or employer and
employees hands Off II sympathy or help
was needed 1t was to be given to labor Did
tho Union Pacific knights do this? Emphati-
cally. no.
win he closed his potato trap and was mum
Now, for the sake of argument. we will
admit that Crane was member OF the
knights of Labor, (Which doubt very much)
He sclbbed in every sense OF the word. Let
us take the case of another knight the
chairman of the populist central committee
Louis j. Ihm. This Knights of Labor rolled
up his overalls and started out with the other
machinists. but was stopped by Kenney and
persuaded by him to go back or he would
be violating order No. 81. so he went back.
Went where? Why to his own particular
place in the shop. Did Ed Crane do like this,
No, sir. He was not working as a maChinist
for the company at the time. He was in the
drauShting room, and thought he saw
chance to curry favor with the company so
he left the draughting room and went into
the machine shop. This was sCabbing in
every seCse of the word Afterward he ap-
piled for promotion to Superintendent
Manning, but they had no further use
for him, except a workman, so he was
told that he had not enough get up and get
to him for bees
But when John Liddell was elected Crane
saw his chance, so he improved it, with
what looks like company influence. The fact
of his application being kept a close secret
and Representative Liddell pushing his claim
The being a union moulder) foreshadow this.
Had 1t been known that he was after
such place there would have been most
emphatic protest filed against his appoint
ueuI Dy tne maCnlnlStS OF the shops. He
knew this; that is why he told none of the
shopmen what he was after. Attorney Cen
eral Smyth says that he was endorsed by
several shopmen and union men, but Hon.
John Liddell Is the only union man that is
known to have done Who are these
union shopmen who endorsed him? Why
don't they come out and say so? Where
are the endorsements? Let them be pub
lished instead of hidden away. He was also
endorsed by the Douglas county delegation
at the request of Representative Liddell
When this mans record was pointed out
to Senator Howell he very much ex-
cited over it and very anxious to have the
matter fixed. He promised to give his |
written word to have the man removed. |
This was before dinner. After dinner he
forgot all about it, treated the machinist |
representative with contempt, and when the |
union sent him a letter he took no notice |
of it whatever. Is this the kind of man |
union labor wants for mayor? l for one |
say mo" and shall refuse to vote for
him.
Commissioner Wolfe says there were only |
four engineers to be appointed, and two |
of these appointments went to the demo- |
Gratis, and out of fifty applications on file |
the democrats picked goldbug scab ma
chinist. UNION MACHINIST.