The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-30

heading. and explained to Won that 20,
economical reasons it could not afford "a
do so.
your grand officers added as f,,r+bar
reason for their request, that in confer
ence with the managers of roads entarin o
st. Louis they had agreed not to make
settlements with any lines unless siroiIa r
clauses in reference to double bea din
were agreed to as were agreed to hv the
said managers of ST Louis lines. 1 con-
TESS that 90 not feel under obligations
of st. Louis lines, promises made bv VoI1r
grand officers in regard to matters on our
line. particularly il view of the fact that
No Bearing oh Most EMPLOYEES. :.
1.-THE question. therefore. resolves itself
who are not Affected ia any wa tol d LiJIi,
to disagree with the COMPANY ana STRIKE
for the enforcement of a demand for the
that has no bearing whatever on their
own wages or conditions of service Such
a strike would be sympathetic strike
the sympathy being extended In men IN
distant parts of the country who do not
ask for nor need any sympathy having
secured from the officers of their own
roads a satisfactory settlement of their
difficulties.
Il have too much confidence in the
good sense OF our men to believe they
will take any radica! action in this mat
the ACCESSIBILITY of polling our men at
an early date, so they can get the benefit
Of increased pay without further unneces-
sary delay.
eff you are without authority from, our
men to settle with Inc without such a
vote, ! again urge upon you the advisa-
btity OF taking such vote at an early date.
Cannot concede Right.
VIII t add further for the sake of again
putting the matter more clearly before
you, some of the reasons why / consider
your request concerning double headers to
be unreasonable.
Great Northern does not follow the prac-
t1ce of ble-heading is in nv opinion
a sufficient reason for the dropping of
the subject. But, in order that il may
be permanently settled, | will add that
the company cannot concede to its en-
pioyes the right to specify the particular
manner in which it shall handle its bust
ness. If we should admit it to be within
your province to say that not more than
one engine shall be used on any train we
could not consistently refuse to consider
proposition requiring US to abandon the
use Of engines over certain size, or the
running of trains or cars over certain
size or weight, or the running of trains
over specified rates of speed or between
certain hours; in other Words, your prop
osition involves the transfer from the
companyS officers to Its trainmen of the
service. Such transfer will not meet with
my approval.
This brings us back to your original
request that double time be paid for
grant this request Would be to give train
men something for hotfsina. To illustrate:
Under my proposition on train of sixty
cars handled 100 miIes in ten hours by
one engine the conductor would be paid
$3.5o If we were shortsef engines of suf-
ficient size to haul these cars in one train,
and used two smaller gines, the con-
ductor would under your proposition re-
ceive 81 instead off $3.50. The conductor
in each case would handle the same cars,
he would have the. same number of
wheels, journals and couplers to watch;
he would have the same switching at
either end of the run. the same switches
to turn at both terminal and intermediate
stations, and the same bills to handle, the
same reports to make and in every detail
his work would be exactly the same in
each case. Yet in one. case you are salts
fled with $3.50 and In the other claim
81. You make a distinction where no diff
ference exists, you ask for something and
give nothing in return ! cannot grant
your request.
address all further communications on
this subject to Messrs Garretson and
Newman. Yours truly,
F. e. Ward General Manager"
The Conference Held.
The conference was held April "a In
Mr.. Wards office. There were pres
ent for. the men Messrs. Garretson,
Newman and the committeeman from
the conductors and trainmen's organi-
cations.
The following extracts, as bearing
most directly on the question involved,
are taken from the stenographic re-
port, which to laymen unfamiliar with
railroading in the concrete is as inter-
esting as novel;
States Thg.r Position.
'fMr. Ward: I weIld like to have some
more fnfornla ton. / have never been able
to get from you, either in conversation or
by letter, any statement of reasons why
you should ask either one of the two
propositions, except those that were stat
ed in my letter of few days ago to
the committee
Mr.. Garretson: The simple position
that we take in regard to the double
header is this: When you take into
consideration the fact that all over the
country there is the tendency that there
has been to increase the power of loco
motives, there has likewise been a de-
sire to utilize the lighter powr-and
lighter becomes comparative as you look
at it from the present time back to the
inception of the movement. When dou-
ble-headers first came into use in a level
country, the average engine was what
was known as the standard. eight wheel
engine. 1t was light engine which was
equal to the pulling of the cars of that
day on the basis of about a load to the
inch. When the mogW engine, which was
virtually the first departure after adding
some weight on the eight-wheeler. came
into use it handled possibly one-halt
or more than what the prior engine had
handled. Then came the practice of dou-
bling the lighter lengines to handle as
much tonnage or more tonnage as the
heavier mill would get away with e =
The Root of Controversy.
Now. I might just as well come to
the root of tie matter, because the real
root is that while he recognizes the right
of the company to limit the number OF
crews by large engines, in other words
the transporting ability of a given crew
if they get power large enough, he does
not recognize the right of the company
to limit the number of crews by making
one crew handle two or more engines
''Mr. Ward: In other words, the plea is
for train of reduced size as a means
for making it necessary to employ more
crews?
''Mr. Garretson: NO, not for trains OF