Omaha daily bee., 1902-09-08
TRAVEL FREE FROM BOSTON
Eastern Men Come West at Expense Of
Union Pacific Company.
THEN REFUSE TO WORK IN THE SHOPS
B~ostonian says Members of His Party
All Knew strike WINS On In
Omaha and Signed Con-
tracts Accordingly.

From the story told by Thomas johnson.
one Of forty-nine men who arrived In
Omaha Saturday from Boston at the ex-
pense Of the Union Pacific Railroad com
| pany, ostensibly to work in the company's
shops, the Union Pacific is being adroitly
and systematically worked" by men look
ing for a chance to get west without work
or pay.
81 hired to the company's agents in Bos-
ton because l wanted to get away from the
east and land out here in the west said
Johnson. II never had the least idea Of
going to work in the shops here, and there
were ten others in this gang that l know
Of who were working the same scheme. l
am a c~onsumptive. The doctors told me
long ago l would have to leave the east or
die, so l determined to come west. While
l am a machinist by trade and a union man
at that 1 did not intend when l hired to
the Union Pacific to go to work on reach
ing Omaha, and l didn't, either, for l left
the shops this morning"
Johnson ~justifes his desertion on the
grounds that he. did not bind himself to
work and live on premises which had to be
guarded by armed men, nor did he expect
to eat and sleep on the company's grounds.
He thought he would enjoy the freedom
ana SAFETY Oh CHOOSING MS OWN pidS6 "
abode and says he objected to the neces-
sity Of being the object of police p%rotec-
ton. johnson was accompanied by one Of
his Bostonian friends when he left the
shops. The strikers believe many others
Of this number will come out.
johnson says 1t cost him Just 81 to make
the trip from the Hub to Omaha. He in
directly bestows a substantial compliment
upon the Union Pacifc's treatment Of the
men while enroute by saying that they
came all the way in Pullman ~sleepers.
Johnson's object is to seek to regain his
health and to this end he expects to go to
Denver or some other mountain town.
Knew n Strike Existed.
This man from the east turns a damper
upon some of the reports which have been
made by imported shopmen. He declares
that so far as the Union Pacihc's agents
in Boston are concerned they are not prac-
ticing deception with the men they en-
ploy regarding the existence Of a strike.
He expresses himself in these forcible
terms upon this subject:
ANY man from Boston who says he did
not know a strike was in progress on the
Union Pacific is a liar. The first thing we
are shown after we agree to go to work for
the company is a contract. clearly stipulat-
ing that there is a strike on and that II
the man employed comes out he comes with
the understanding that he is to take the
place of a striker. So none of this gang
with which I came ran truthfully say that
he was ignorant OF the existence of a strike
or had been lured away from his home on
false pretenses."
Men from Chicago who have been imported
to Omaha by the Union Pacific during
this strike, have made similar statements
and an oficial Of the Union Pacific once dis
closed a copy Of the contract of two news
paper men. Notwithstanding the fact that
these contracts are entered into in Chicago
and Boston, the officials themselves admit
that in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and some
other cities where men are being hired, no
such contracts and no such conditions are
disclosed.
Strikers have been advised from Chicago
that another carload OF men will arrive in
Omaha today to go into the shops.
AS the Fire and Police board prohibited
the police from carrying out their agree
ment to play a game Of ball with the bar
tenders, the machinists on q strike have
taken the places of the policemen and the
game will be played tomorrow afternoon at
Vinton street park. the proceeds to go to the
strike benefit fund.