The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-02-15
ENGINEERS AND FIREMEN
ENGINEERS WILL CONTINUE
 PRESENT ARRANGEMENT.

Will Take Up Case of Any Engineer
 Whether Member of Organization or
 NOt-Granting of Firemen's Request
 Would Mean Violation of Agreement
 Between Engineers and Company
 What the Bremen Say.
 The committee appointed by the board of directors of the New York, New Ha- ven and Hartford railroad last Satur- day to confer with committee from Ithe Brotherhood of Locomotive Bremen of the road regarding dissensions be- tween the latter organization and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers met the firemen's committee at the Grand Central station, New York, yes- lterday. The conference was over by early afternoon, but at it's conclusion the firemen would only say that they had made their position plain to the directors; that the latter had it under consideration, and that it was possible that no further meetings would be nec- essary.
 J. Pierpont Morgan was present and spoke at considerable length, but the firemen would not disclose his attitude towards their contention. After the fire men departed the directors remained in discussion.
 When the meeting had adjourned President Mellen said that the situation ereated by the demands of the firemen's Organization had been given careful consideration. He did not indicate that any decision had been reached, but said that the company might have state ment to give out on Friday or Satur- day. J. Pierpont Morgan, who was present at the conference with the fire mems committee earlier in the day, re- mained with the directors until nearly l3 o'clock.
 The engineers of the New Haven rail- road yesterday gave out statement as their explanation Of the way in which they stand in this affair. Their state tment reads:
 Referring to the question raised by the committee representing the firemen employed on the New York, New Ha- tven and Hartford railroad, that the firemen's committee should be granted the privilege to take up cases of engi- neers who may have been disciplined and who belonged to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Bremen, instead of hav- ling these cases handled by the regular engineers committee representing all of the engineers employed on this road:
 On January 31, 1902, the committee of engineers and firemen. of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad ac- cepted and signed with President John M. Hall a schedule of pay and general conditions relating to engineers and firemen for the entire New Haven sys- tenn. F. A. &.,.... ..>--. ,t- ] l This was the first schedule that cov- fered the entire rail lines of the com pany.
 From that time up to the present the engineers committee have taken up with the management the grievances lof all engineers, provided the cases have merit, and we will continue to do 1 this regardless of whether the engineer belongs to any organization or to no organization.
 The regular engineers committee rep resents a large majority of engineers Iemployed by the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, and our actions in the past are the best guarantee for the future. *'.. I
 If the request of the firemen's com mittee should be granted it would mean the violation of the agreement between the engineers and the company under which we are now working. It would mean that the officers of the road would l have three committees to deal with first, the regular engineers committee; 1 second, the committee representing the engineers who belong to the firemen; third, engineers who do not belong to ] any organization. We feel that this i would be placing an unnecessary bur- den on the officials of the road, inas- much as it cannot be shown that we have at any time neglected to take up 1 the case of an engineer, provided the case had merit. # 1 We gladly accepted First Vice-Presi- dent Todd's suggestion to refer this question to arbitration for settlement, and still believe such a course would be the proper one to follow. This, however was refused by the firemen.
 Regular Committee of Engineers, New l York, New Haven and Hartford Rail-
 road. >
 The firemen's side of the question may be summed up as follows: 1 What the firemen want is the right to represent engineers who are members of the firemen's organization and who have grievances to settle. The firemen claim that for year or more they have had this right, and that it is only re- gently that it was taken from them. As there are some four hundred engf- f fneers on the New Haven road who are members of the firemen's order, it will be seen that the fight is a matter of considerable importance to many men. These men do not want to join the En- gineers' brotherhood. They claim that they will, by so doing, lose all the ben- efits of the firemen's association which they have been paying for during many years.
 l In the words of the firemen, the com- mittee proposed by them, to be con- posed entirely of engineers, members of the Firemen's brotherhood, will act, 'in lieu of the present engineers con- mittee," only in cases where engineers who are members of the Brotherhood 1 Locomotive Bremen are the aggriev- ed persons. There is no desire on the part of the firemen to represent the en-