Waterbury Democrat., 1902-08-06


 New Haven, Aug 6..-The Fair Ha ven and Westville Railroad Co, oper- ating and controlling all trolley traffic local and suburban, within a radius of ten miles of this city, found it's entire system practically tied up this morning as a result of strike of its 400 con. ductors and motormen. The strike which has been expected for some days, came at 4:15 o'clock this morning, and the earliest stages of the trouble were not without their sinister aspects.
 The men demand changes and re- forms in methods of administration: The officials of the company have thus far refused to yield. Both sides insist that it is a fight to the bitter end.
 The action of the striking employees is mainly due to the refusal of the com pany's officials to reinstate twenty seven discharged employees, whose dis missal, the men say was solely be cause of their Identification with the work of organization. Coupled with this demand for reinstatement of dis charged help is another demand which insists upon less arbitrary treatment and reforms of abuses which are claimed to be intolerable.
 Yesterday, by the direction of new ly formed union of trolley men, a com .nittee of men undertook to present to the company these demands in formal shape. They were not recognized, and the situation became cloudy. At 2:30 o'clock this morning the 400 members of the union held another meeting, at which the committee reported. It was decided by the men to make one more effort to obtain recognition and the committee was sent again to the ex- ecutive othces. There they met with another curt refusal and the commit tee reported back to the union.
 The situation was discussed for an other hour and at 4:15 a. m. it was voted to strike without delay. Messen- gers were sent from the meeting to mo- tify the men on the two fowl" (all- night cars. The crews on one of these fowls" proceeded immediately to the car barns and left their ear. The crew of the other refused to join the move ment and continued to run. The meet ing then broke up and the members went quietly to their homes The vote to strike was almost unanimous. and the lack of complete unanimity was due to the disinclination of the more conservative members to precipitate a death struggle. as they called it.
 Meanwhile the officials of the trolley company and the police had been made aware of the situation and there was much activity about the company's car . barns on Grand avenue, where at 5 a. m. under normal conditions the day schedule of traffic is started. There was no disorder at , o'clock, but oS the usual eighty-fve cars started between and $ o'clock there were just twelve moved. Three conductors and twenty one motormen consented to work. The dozen cars were manned and nine of The motormen were installed as con- ductors. They were given a bunch of transfers, but none of them carried change. They were instructed to take on passengers and if they could not make change to let passengers ride free An official of the company in- structed the little band of twenty-four 10 stick to their posts, adding: "We are ready for the strike, and it will be broken within thirty-six hours, All Of the twelve cars left the barn with out demonstration. Just before ' o'clock it began to rain and New Ha- yen's workingmen by several thousands found themselves obliged to get tO their work as best they could.
 Here and there in the city ssinde- pendent stage 1ines' were established and they were Hberallv patronized. but traffic was pretty well paralyzed.
 At 8 o'clock the streets began to fill with the usual crowds of business men but almost none of the outlying dis fricts had been afforded trolley ser vice. Now and then a single car would make it's way through the cen ter of the city carrying few passen- gers. It was learned that early in the day movement had been inaugur- ated looking toward a boycott of the ears and at S:15 the strikers through their leaders announced that the line would surely be boycotfed
 Shortly after o'clock a crowd of over 200 men and boys gathered at the corner of Church and Chapel streets in the heart of the city and howled at the crews of the struggling cars. Now and then a truckman placed his ye- hicle on the track and on occasions things looked ugly. The police, how ever. coolly kept the crowd moving and as the rain fell more heavily the crowd melted away. At S:30 the streets of the city were as quiet as those of country village.
 At 9 o'clock the tie-up of the system became complete. Of the 12 cars started between 5 and o'clock five were run back to the barns at S:30, their crews having been induced to join the strikers. The attention of the strikers was then concentrated on the crews of the remaining seven. The fourteen men were labored with by representatives of those who had gone out and one by one the cars rolled back to Grand avenue and into the barns. In one or two cases a motorman ex- hibited a disposition to remain at his lever at all hazards and he was forth with jostled from his platform or else forced to run his car in. 1t was almost exactly o'clock when the last wheel turned and it was joyfully her aided by the strikers that traffic had ceased
 Already. it is stated, -fhe tradesmen