Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-16
N|CCARDLINESS.' y.
That's the Term Used Tn To-
 Days Statement.
THE STRIKE IS IS WEEKS OLD.

< The Statement Reviews the Case from
 the Start-It Asks Why the Com
 pany is Willing to Spend Thousands
 of Dollars in Trying to Crush It's
 Former Employes-It Intimates that
 Jay Woods is Sick of His Job AL
 ready.
 The strikers executive committee is- sued the following statement this af- ternoon:
 Eighteen weeks ago tonight the local trolleymen met and voted to go out on strike for what they then thought, and still think, was for their rights as good workmen. The com pany since claimed that we acted too hastily at that time, that We did not give the company time enough to con- slder our requests for better wages, etc. and yet, as we have often stated before, after deciding to go out we sent a committee to wake up the gen eral manager and ask him if he could give Us any encouragement if we de- cided not to go out just then. His reply that he was put out at being awakened is now part of the strike history. When the Bridgeport men made their requests the general man. ager held us up to ridicule here, stat- ing that in Bridgeport the men were sensible enough to give reasonable time to the company, that they were gentlemen down there, and that hs would wager there would be no strike. What is the result? There now is A strike on in both Waterbury and Bridgeport. The company found out that nice, oily conversation didn't buy bread. nor hoodwink modern workmen. The Bridgeport trolleymen were evil dently dead on from the start, and in stead of the company pulling the wool over their eyes they seem to have the company ton the hip this time
 We think local paper expressed it right in commenting on the two strikes when referring to the company, that there must be something rotten in Denmark The company knows what the matter is and we submit that if it were on our side, would they ob- ject so strenuously to arbitration2 We cannot but feel that it is a terrible sit- uation in a grand country like the United States that company com posed of men such as the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Go is made up of should be willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars wastefully rather than give a few cents per day increase to the men employed as faith fu1 servants by them. Their excuse for so doing is that they are fighting for principle. Is it principle to spend a thousand dollars slbduing one man rather than give that man an increase, which, if he worked for fifty years, would not foot up that amount? Is it not such niggardliness that makes thieving come so easy to mankind, where, if a man handling lots of money is refused fair days wages, the temptation to take what he has been refused surely must be great? We wonder if company like the Connecti- cut Railway and Lighting Go looks at things from this standpoint. On the other hand, where union men have been recognized, even by Mark Han na's road, the company and the men are working together shoulder to shoulder. There is no kicking from the men and the company is satisfied with their work. We have already, and can further if necessary, find out nu- merous conditions of peace and har- mony such as exists on the road con- trolled by Millionaire Mark Hanna we understand that Jay Woods, who left us to go to work for the troll ley company. which he said used to abuse him so greatly, has made up his mind to give up strike breaking We understand he is going on the road selling a spavin cure for horses, and that horsefesh instead of electricity will be his hobby in the future. Per haps he has decided to do so, as he stated once at our meeting, never to work for the company again if he had to pick rags to exist or has Superin- tendent Wales's apologies wiped out the past?'