Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1904-05-02
SANTA FE
STRIKE
The Places Of the Dissastified
Men Are Being Rapidly Filled
by Competent Mechanics.
ONLY A FEW WENT OUT
The UnreasonabIiness Of the Demands
Of the International Association of
machinistS.

large number of machinists and
boiler makers have been passing Lamy
lately to take the places of the strik
ers in the machine shops on the Santa
Fe system at Albuquerque and west.
The railroad company has no difficulty
in filling the places of strikers With
competent men as the strike is unau-
thorized by the International Associa-
tion OF Machinists thus far and is with
out just cause. The Santa Fe has
maintained the open shop system. not
discriminating for or against skilled
wOrkmen who are not members of a
union. The men who went out on a
strike object to this and desire to die
tate the policy that is to govern the
company in the hiring and discharge
Of its employees in the mechanical de-
partment and in various other matters
which by right and equity are within
the province Of the employer and not
the employed. 1t Is we'll known, that
the Santa Fe Company pays higher
wages than does the Southern Pacific,
the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company,
and other large corporations. In Texas
it pays it's machinists higher wages
than any other railroad and in
Colorado, New Mexico. Arizona and
California, the rates of wages it pays
are in excess of those paid by compet-
ing lines. The company has been very
fair and liberal with it's men and most
of these recognize this. The machin-
lists at the Topeka shops have refused
to join the strikers and at other points,
many of the men have remained loyal
to the company, knowing that the de
fnandS of the dissatisfied men are al
surd.
AS a demonstration of the unreas-
| onableness of the turbulent class of
union machinists, the strike at Gle
burne. Texas, may be instanced. II
was called without authority from the
International Union because a man
named Hess demanded that he be al
lowed to run planer and the COM
pany assigned the planer to another
man for Hess was irregular in his work
and absent a great deal of the time.
Hess however, was given other work
but refused to take it and called out
his co-laborers on strike. Thus at La
1m, = Colorado, the men went out be-
cause 81 the non-arriv,sas, # pay checks
with the train on which they ne VI oeen
expected. The checks had left T. .pe
ka on time, but had been delayed a
few hours in transit by the express
company. The present strike has as
little justification as the two strikes
above mentioned. One of the organiz-
ers of the union, in speech at Pueblo,
recently said: 81 have pumped and
clubbed strike into their heads,' thus
showing that strike had been de-
termined upon. grievance, or no griev
ance. He said that at the time of the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company strike
he had put fifteen men into the shops
to destroy machinery, etc. He also
stated that he had three men in the
shops for this purpose and that one of
his plans was to try and create trouble
among the Denver & Rio Grande me-
chanics; that they never were in a
good real strike, and strike would
put a little ginger in them and make
them better men," He said in the
course of speech. that in the event
of trouble he could bring men to the
road who would soon cripple the en-
gines. as had happened on the Union
Pacific Railway" by putting quicksil-
yer and soap into the boilers
- L.,
who have gone out. are the victims of
professional agtators whose means of
livelihood seem to lie in fomenting
trouble. Of course under the circum-
stances, there is absolutely no public
sympathy with the strikers. The only
where shops are located at which men
have gone out. although there will be
little difficulty in filling the strikers
places.
Third Vice President J. w. Kendrick
of the Santa Fe system has analyzed
the rules of the International Associa-
ton of Machinists and which, if the
company assents to the closed shop
policy, will supersede the rules of the
company. The result is published in
pamphlet form, and the machinists'
demands. unreasonably and unjust on
their face, appear even more so. after
reading the careful and just analysis.
The rules provide in brief. that the
company must turn over its shops to
the International Association of Ma
chinists, which will fix the hours of
work, the rate of wages, hire, discharge
and promote the men, regulate the
number of apprentices. in fact. attend
to everything except the payment of
the wages, which prerogative is kindly
left to the company. which must also
find the means with which to put up
and maintain the ShanS