The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-10-05
THE STRIKE RUG GFUP 70 BOARD Of HEALHDAID BROUGHT nGCOM LOTS
HELLO GIRLS GO BACK TO THE
SWITCHBOARD
Say They were Persuaded to Throw Up
Their Jobs But Want to go to Work
Again.

The strike of the telephone girl is
over. No longer is the hello girl abroad
in the land seeking whom she may de-
YOUR. She has returned to the switch
board where she can kill her victims
off more surely. Yesterday she march
ed from the office naughty and huffy.
Today she returned to her work peni-
tent and peaceful. But wait. Her vic
Tins will feel the weight of her dis
pleasure If they have any need of the
telephone for a disciple of the Homo
lulu switchboard never forgets and she
never seems to learn.
The inception of the strike and it's
close were fully as brilliant as the
march OF the King of France and his
10000 men, only the girls marched down
the stairs and then marched up again
But the Amazonian march was sensa-
ttonal while in progress and for an hour
or two CONSERVATION wrung the soul of
Mr.. C0rcoran, the new expert. Nobody
appears to have any we'll defined idea
as to why the girls went on the strike.
some of them declare that the super
sedlng OF Miss Maria Brede by Miss
Louisa Bal as chief operator was the
cause of the trouble. They liked their
former chief and regretted her being
reduced in rank and when the new chief
undertook to institute reforms they
declared and they did not propose to
have any new incumbents run any Iala-
polusa rules on them. One of the de-
mands of the new chief was that the
girls should not take more than twenty
minutes to make connection, and if
at the expiration of that time any un-
reasonable subscriber got mad and
swore the girls were not to swear back.
81 want it distinctly understood. I"
ciY
you girls wear switches you need not
think that you don't have to make any
and If those telephones ring some of
you must stop reading and answer
them"
A murmur of discomfort greeting this
announcement of 6espotism and fearing
trouble Miss Bal fastened to qualify
the curtailment of hello girls rights by
adding that is, when you have fin
ished the chapter you are reading"
But even this concession did not pa
city the crowd who grew more furious
each moment. isn't this terrible"
snapped one of the strikers, there we've
been working four hours and that hor-
rid Bal thing has forced us to make
three switches. I won't work so hard
for any body. I'm down on these mo-
nopolies any how. I'm going to vote
the Independent ticket"
What do you think" chimed in an
other, this nasty old rubber neck on
4-11-4t says I'm slow. He don't know
me-"
But matters became worse as the
morning advanced and at last when the
noon hour arrived the force of opera
tors to the number of fifteen, marched
in solid phalanX out of the building
| to breath the free air of the unemploy-
| ed Expert Corcoran looked like a hen
who has just raised a brood of ducks
only to see them desert her on the
edge of pond. He was unable to cope
with the situation. He was an expert
on telephones not telephone girls and
pacifcation was as much beyond him
as the Democrats say the Filipinos are
beyond Uncle Sam. For an hour or more
he was busy assisting the students
operate the system and the subscribers
were finally served as well as could be
expected under the circumstances.
EARLY this morning there was big
delegation Of strikers waiting at the
door. The manager naturally feared
they were waiting to mob somebody
but instead of continuing the fight, the
army of strikers We're repentant and
ready to capitulate. They had been
misled declared the spokesman. Several
of the girls had induced them to stop
work but they were sorry now and
wanted to return. Inasmuch as the
crowd seemed willing to resume work
under the new chief operator and pro-
missed to be good little girls, Expert
Corcoran decided to allow them to take
their former places on the switchboards
All but three, or four of the original
strikers returned and Mr. Corcoran said
that he anticipated no further trouble
from the girls, and thought that the
system would soon be perfectly salts
factory to all concerned. The girls are
paid from 800 to $S5 a month, begin
ners receiving the first amount and are
advanced according to their proficiency