Omaha daily bee., 1903-05-16
QUEER RESULT OF A STRIKE
Poems Take Two Days on
and Settle for Loss Than
offered.

"of course you have; the real thing in
strikes In this country" remarked Henry
Dale Of San Francisco at The Oxford hotel
In Denver recently, but I can tell a story
Of one strike that was the. strangest that
ever happened in the west. Usually the
strike is on account OF wages. That was
the case this time. but the adjustment was
far from the usual. In my business we lay
pipe lines In all parts OF the west, I have
to do with the carrying out OF many con-
tracts. It was while superintending one
Of these Jobs that l gained the novel strike
experience. I,haye never heard of it's equal
and no one / know ever heard of anything
like 1t in this country. Our arm had a
rush contract for the laying OF a pipe line
near the Mexican border, a short distance
from Nogaies, Ariz. / was sent out on the
Job. 1t was a case of dollars and cents to
us to get the work finished on time. This
was duly impressed upon me, and was
given liberal ieeway in the matter of ex-
penditures. SO g.
Down in that section the only class OF
labor that can be gotten is the Mexican
poems. I knew something Of their traits,
but had not had a great deal Of expert
enee with them. II was q case Of poems
or nothing. so / took the peonslI thought
I would get a little more out Of them by
paying them 81 e day. They were &C.
oustomed to receiving IS cents, That Is
where / made the mistake. With the gang
OF 100 men or more / got the work we'll
started. The lAborers seemed satisfied and
went along about their work for some time.
Then ! noticed that something was wrong.
Finally they sent one Of their number to
tell me about Il. This one could speak
English, and he explained that the men
had heard that in some parts OF the eoun-
try Isborers received f1.26 per day. They
thought they should have the same. That
stumped me. / explained that I was pay
ing above the regular scale, and could not
AFFORD TO pay more. The interpreter told
about this to the men. They remained
sullen, but finally they decided to quit
work. There was no need Of violence or
intimidation because II was not possible
to obtain other poems. I was lost. We did
not have any too much time, anyway. and
/ feared we would lose. e-
This condition OF Affairs continued two
days. II was getting monotonous on the
third day when a scraggiy little man smbled
into camp. He looked a peon. but his first
word to me indicated that he was OF
Hibernian ancestry. He came 10 the point
at once. His FIRST proposal was that he
/ could settle the strike. One hundred dol
lars was his price. and he agreed TO save
me more than that. The little fellow
went among the men and talked to them
IN their own lingo. He gesticulated Just as
they did. Probably his harsh exercise 81
the hands had something 70 do with It, for
he came back 70 me in q short time and
said that Il was all right, that the men
would go back At the rate OF rs cents q day.
And they did, too. That was two years
ago and I have been trying TO c~onyinee
myself ever since that the little fellow
with the merry eye aid not start that strike
on me and then collect his fee for settling
it"-Denver Republican .r.