St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1902-05-21
Around San francisco.

new to write that is not known to the
average New Highlander But San ran
cisco is $500 miles farther west al IS
the most cosmopolitan OF the three On
the same day an Italian blacket my
boots, a German cut my hair, Chinese
cooked ny dinner and my companipn at
the table was a S,andju Wan. Ard the
night stopped at The Grand Hotel my
room was directly over the office pt the
Trans-Streran railway. In the Pullman
car coming East there was an animated
discussion as to wbcl city was the
larger, Singapore or Penang, but not
having visited the Straits Settlements
wisely kept out of the discussion. All
these gimpses of cosmopolitan lie sur
prise a New Highlander, but the San
Francisco man never notices it. Wher
he starts for a seven days trip to the
Hawaiian Islands be caves word at tie
office that he is going to take a run
down to the islands and makes as little
fuss about the journey as a Boston
drummer taking the night sleeper to the
Hub Distances don't count on the Pa
ci6C coast and when you are at San
Francisco you are ISL miles from Pasa-
dena and 1872 miles south of Portland,
Oregon.
happened rather unfortunately to be
in San Francisco during the street car
strike, and that was as complete vic
tory for the employees as was ever won.
The United railway system had just been
sold to Baltimore syndicate for ST.
600, 900 cash down and the Eastern syn
dictate retained the old manager, Mr.
Vining. The latter had always been
unpopular and before the strike was
over was forced to resign. The Califor-
MIA street line was the only system that
run its cars during tie seven days of the
strike, and the second day of the strike
presented all its employees with five
dollar gold piece in recognition of extra
service. The employees of the United lines,
through the officers of the Garments I'm
ion, asked Mr.. Vining tor % cents an hour
instead of 81 cents and 'or a division Of
labor so that they could work 10 hours
and then have the rest of the "a to them
selves. Many of them had been working
on shifts SO that it was impossible to get
more than six hours consecutive rest in
day. The California street line had
always paid its men % cents an hour
and only asked them 10 work 10 con.
secutive hours in a day. Manager Vim
ing declined to treat with the employees
except as Individuals and on Saturday
night, April 10, the strike came.
The public was not expecting it and
between o'clock and midnight every
car stopped and thetmotorman and CON
ductor left their car in the street. A strik-
ing committee of three visited each car
as it came down Market street to the
ferries and before Sunday came not a
car whe,l Owned by the Baltimore sym
dictate was turning. AS the cars We e
taken into he barns by the strikers their
windows were broken by the excited
crowd, but no damage was done by any
Of the employees. From start to finish
only peaceabe methods were employed
and herein lay one OF the great secrets of
the unions ultimate success.
Sunday morning Mr.. Vining found it
impossible to run car though he offered
men SIS a day. Whenever a car was
started the striking committee boarde d
it, paid their fare to an uniformed con-
ductor, and then interviewed the motor
man and conductor. In every case but
one throug hout the first days of the
strike the raw recruits at once left heir
cars to join the union. The striking COM
mittee would then run the car back to
the barn and start out for new converts.
The only cars running on Sunday, except
on the California line, were run by a de.
teCtive, who naturally could not be
influenced to Join the union, or by Man
ager Vnirg himself A rather exciting
incident occurred On one of the cars Mr.
Vinirg was running, when man boarded
it and called the new mot ormana "scab. y
The marager ltndei him one blow be
tween the eyes and 1T b m on the street
where some union men afterwards found
him and laughed at his mistake in trying
to stop car which they allowed Mr.
Vlnlng to run. In fact, it should be
explained right here that the strikers
allowed The management to run all the
mail cars and one passenger car each day
to hold their charter. But so strong was
the sympathy for the employees that not
a paSseng rode in any car that | saw
The attitude of the San Francisco
press was unanimous and every morning
ard evening paper sided with the strikers
ana urged them to keep up their peace
tul methods until their demands were
granted. The car.oonists devoted all
Their energies to Mr.. Vining and he knew
what the public thought of him, if be
never knew before, The mayor, utior