Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-20
ROADS BLOCKED
The Street Cars Wele Not
Allowed to Run.
MORE MEN CALLED OUT
If They Do Not Respond the Strike
Will Be a Failure--WOlnen Take
Their Husbands Part--VieWS Of
the Railroad President.

New York July o0.--The extension of
the street car mems strikes from Brook
lyn to Manhattan island was due en-
tlrely to sympathy for the striking en-
ployes of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit
company. 1t was opposed by General
Master Workman John n. Parsons, the
head of the knights of Labor in the
United States, who is engaged in organ
izine the men and is berdng all his en-
erges toward redressing their griev-
ances. Mr.. Parsons declared a strike at
this time to be premature. 1t was liter
ally forced by the appeal made to the
motormen by Master Workman Pines
and the committee of Brooklyn strikers.
Permission was refused by the execu-
tive board to proclaim strike and the
motormen, whose sympathes We're
aroused, de1ied Mr.. Parsons and made a
tour of the car shops early Wednesday
morning. appealing to the men to quit
work. Some of them did so. others re-
fused. The refusal was due partly to the
fact that the strike had not been officially
proclaimed and partly to the fact that
many employees were not willing to make
sacrifices either for the 10-hour law or
their Brooklyn brethren 1t was not
until midday that General Master Work
man Parsons found himself dragged
along with the procession and declared
that the strike was in progress.
At midnight last night after the strike
had been on 20 hours, it appeared to be
| the maddest and most ill-considered bat
! tie with enormous capital that labor ever
entered on. Except on the Second ave-
nue. line, the cars We're only interfered
with to slight degree. and unless the
strikers induce from 1000 to 1.500 men to
join. them this morning the strike will
/ be an absolute allure. This Mr.. Parsons
decided that HE will do. None of the
men, he said, We're regularly ordered out
and he promises to tie up the Manhattan
+ lines today.
E, There are about 1900 men employed on
| the platforms of the cars of the lines
| against which the fight is to be directed
These constitute, barring Broadway, the
most valuable portion of the Metropolitan
company's ranchise-the roads on Sec
| ond, Fourth, Sixth. Eighth, Amsterda m
and Lenox avenues, running north and
south, and the Twenty third, Fifty-ninth
and One Hundred and Sixteenth street
cross-town lines. Certainly nc: more
than 400 of these men left their places.
The largest number had been IN the
employ of the Second Avenue Railway
company. That line was almost COM
petely tied up several times during the
day and the vicinity of the cOmpany's
barn, at Ninety-siXth street, was a bat
tlehe.d from early morning until mid
| night.
Policemen had been concentrated at all
stations of the company and men in uni
! form rode on the cars to protect the mo-
! tomen and conductors, just as in Brook
lyn Eight hundred policemen from
Brooklyn We're transferred to Manhattan
borough, this being done Just as in the
case of the transfer of Manhattan police
to Brooklyn, in order that the bluecOats
should not be deferred from carrying out
the extreme orders by local influences.
None of the policemen were so deferred.
Whatever striker approached the prop
erty of the company in an effort to in
duce men to quit work he was either ar
rested or dubbed. Such measures Of ex-
traordinary severity We're never before
known during a strike in Manhattan, in
which the strikers had not previously
used firearms or great violence.
| While the cars ran with little delay
| and no obstruction on all the rest of the
lines. there was considerable disorder on
Second avenue. Here large crowds gath
cred early in the day, and the police
| threw out pickets to prevent the strikers
from approaching the stable of the COM
kpany Collision with the police began
early and clubs were used so freely that
the strikers became wild with rage. They
! sought to overturn cars and frequently
dragged motormen from their positions
| on the front platform and induced them
to ioin their ranks or else treated them
roughly Frequently cars had to be
/ guarded by four and six policemen.
Blood flowed freely many times. In
| many instances mobs were led by women
who were wives of the strikers. In the
I melee some of these women We're dubbed,
toyerthrown and tramp.ed upon. Other
| women threw stones. decayed vegeta bles
hand bad eggs from the windows of the
fats into the ears as they passed. There
! were small riots almost from one end of
4; second, avenue to the other. On the
otbe, lires there was little disorder.
( The railroad men at their meeting last
! night declared that Second avenue was
! only a small thing CON red with what
| would develop when the strike became
| general today. One detective was car