River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-05-07
THE MEN AND THE RAILROAD.
A Calm Review of the Contention OF the
E,oolovos ,;.1 +na Great Northern

A Calm Review of the Contention or the
Employees with the Great Northern.
[From Grand Forks Daily Herald,
Wednesday morning April 29th, 1903,
editorial column.]
The Matter of Strikes.
To strike or not to strike seems to
be the question to be decided by the
Great Northern trainmen. 1t is con-
ceded that this is the matter on which
vote is now being taken all over the
system, and the result will be awaited
with not little interest throughout
the Northwest.
The particular matter of disagree
ment at this time is the compensation
to be paid trainmen for work on dou-
BILE header trains. After a long con-
ference, in which all the subjects i'll
controversy were thoroughly gone
over, agreement was reached on every
point except this, and on this both
the committees representing the en-
ployes and the general manager OF
the road remained firm. The con-
ference was therefore broken off, and
the men are now voting on whether
they will accept the situation as it
now is or not.
General Manager Ward has issued
pamphlet in which the proceedings
at the conference are reported, and
the summary of the contents of that
pamphlet so far as they apply to the
question at issue is given in another
column. Still more briefly stated the
controversy resolves itself into this:
The trainmen claim that the com
pany, by running trains with two en-
gines and only one train crew, is in
posing work on the single train crew
that would ordinarily be performed
by two, with a proportionate increase
of responsibility The idea seems to
be that any train too heavy for one
engine is too heavy for one train
crew. They demand, therefore, either
that the practice. Of double-heading
shall be discontinued or that the train
crews employed on this work Shall re-
ceive double pay.
The company claims that there is
practically no double-heading done on
the road except on the mountain di-
visions, where an additional engine is
sometimes employed to help heavy
trains over the steep grades, and that
the company is eXpending large sums
of money to avoid even this. Mr..
Ward admits that the men have
right TO voice in the decision of
questions affecting their comfort,
wages, and conditions of work, but
denies that any of these elements
enter into the question of double
heading on the Great Northern road.
He says that the company cannot per-
init the employees to DICTATE as to the
makeup of trains, as that is solely an
administrative matter.
AS in all questions of this kind,
there is a third party which is in
tensely interested in the question, the
general public. The public is inter-
ested primarily in the regular run
ming of trains, that business may be
carried on with the least possible de-
lay and inconvenience. For that rea-
son the public is always injured by a
strike. At the same time the public
is interested in the fair compensation
of all who serve it, whether as owners
of railroads or as employees thereon.
A strike is an act of war. War is
sometimes iustifiable. There are times
when it is the only means left for the
prevention of abuse or the accom-
plishment of reforms. But for Il war
to be justifable there must be an ade-
quate cause. 1t would be ineXcusable
for nations to appeal to force for the
settlement of a trivial question.
Similarly the precipitation of strike
without sufficient cause would not be
viewed patiently by the great ship
ping and travelling public which must
suffer the inconvenience and eventu-
ally pay the bills. In the present
case there does not appear to be any
thing of real value to either of the
parties involved in the controversy.
1t does not appear that the question
is of sufficient Importance to warrant
resort to extreme measures.