Arizona republican., 1903-10-13
Why the Wheels Are Slowing Down

steel mills are to be closed down at l once for an indefinite period, thereby | throwing more than 1000 men out of employment. In yesterdays Republi- can there was dispatch from New York to the effect that the Vanderbilt railway lines would at once lay off b per cent of their employees, thus mak- | ing a saving of S3,000 a day. In the same column there was also dispatch from San Francisco, saying that the l Southern Pacific company, in order to carry out a policy of retrenchment, would discharge more than 1000 men. While there is no reason whatever | within the near future. it is not a cheerful situation for men who sud- denly find themselves out of employ ment, and there can be no question that there is a perceptible slowing down of the wheels of industry. All lines of business have been operating under such high pressure for several years that there is, of course, nothing alarming at the news that this or that industry doec rot require as many men as formerly. But why should there be slower movement Of the wheels?
 The cause is not hidden. It is the Walking Delegate. During the last year Or two, the walking delegate has been doing his utmost to put an end to the prevailing prosperity. and in some places he has scored a brilliant tri- umph. Our leaders are familiar with the success of the labor agitators in New York in paralyzing the building trades and tying up more than one hundred millions of dollars which were ready to be exchanged for material and labor. They are familiar with the attempts of the walking delegates to tie up the mining industry in Arizona and with the failure of the attempt. They are familiar with the success of the walking delegates in placing blight on every mining camp in Colo rado, and their success in causing complete cessation Of mining at Rands burg, California. Other notable. sue cesses of the agitators have not been fully chronicled to western readers, however. One of these was the de- struction of the Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company. of Brooklyn.
 The Morse Iron Works and Dry Dock Company was a comparatively new concern. That is the business had been rapidly developed by men who had begun as laborers for themselves. Within few years, 2.200 men were employed. The company has gone out of business. MT. Morse, head of the esta ablishment, told the New York Sun how the walking delegates took his business away from him:
 ''Wa had little no account strikes almost from the time we opened these works" said MT. Nose. But business was rushing. We had contracts to execute and the demands were so trivial. at least we thought them so, that sooner than have the work in any department stop we acceded to the demands. In 1902, however, when we employed about 2,300 men and our pay roll was about s25OOO a week, the walking delegates became thicker around here than mosquitoes in Jersey in summer. They never came to see me, because they learned that I wouldn't see em. Had I done so, I wouldn't have been able to do any other business.
 "They used to go to our foreman and, in spite of the damage they have done, I have to smile some times at the triviality oi their complaints. A good deal of the work which we do is in connection with the repairing of oil tanks. These vessels are divided in compartments that are so dark that the men have to work by artificial light. Just after we would get nicely to work on one of these jobs, a walking delegate would come around, call one of our foremen aside and say:
 Look here. There's man at work on that ship that hasn't paid his dues in our union- He's got to quit, or I'll call out the men,
 Inquiry would be made and it would develop that the man in question had 8. very good excuse for not paying his dues. It often happened that there was illness in his family or something else that made unusual demands on him and he couldn't settle promptly.
 Our foreman would explain to the delegate, but that gentleman would take no excuses. The delinquent had to be discharged. Sometimes he would be good enough to postpone final ac- tion. and in the interval we were made to suffer. I tell you. These unions have what they call shop stewards It is the business of these men to sec to it that members of d union on a job do as little work as possible. For eX- ample:
 "We set a number Of boilermakers to work in the hold of an oil tank. No sooner do they go to work than they post shop steward on guard He takes his stand so that he can see everybody who approaches the ship. When one of our foremen would come along the shop steward would warn the men below and they would work like all possessed. After the foreman had made his inspection the man on guard would inform the men that he had passed on, and they would at once knock off and not do any more work until the foreman came around again.
 'In this way, about one days work in three would be done. I want to ex-