The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-02-20
There is Nothing Like McCUSKER ( SCHROEDER'S BEST COAL FOR CASH.
 $7.00 Per Ton. 26 Church st. $ Railroad Ave.
26 Church St.

end the dispute have extended through eight months. In the opinion of the management if 1t had taken any other stand In the dispute than a decision based on majority rule. the result
 would be splitting up of it's em- ployes of one class into various organ
 izations. The disadvantages of this are obvious.
 The company dees not deal with it's employees as members of labor organi- zations. but as employees of various
 classes. It has. however, no objection to labor organizations, and Is absolute 1 ly indifferent as to whether an employe
 belongs to a labor organization or not
 The employees of different classes meet the officers of the company fer purposes
 of making agreements, settling dis putes. etc, thruogh committees select ed by them from among their own mum Der. Thus there exists an engineers l adjustment committee. Naturally, if | the members of the Brotherhood of To- | comotive Engineers are in the majority among the engineers the adjustment committee is likely to be composed of l Brotherhood men, If the non-union en- gineers (of whom the road employs l about 150) were in the majority they
 would presumably control the commit l tee, and if most of the engineers be- longed to the Firemen's Brotherhood 1 it would be probable that the commit tee would be composed of men of that Brotherhood. This, however, is an in ternal matter, with which the company has nothing to do, as it regards and has always regarded its engineers, not as l members of organizations, but simply as engineers, and keeps to this rule in all classes of employees.
 1 It has been customary for employees who have been disciplined, in their opinion too severely, when taking an
 appeal from the decision of the officer
 applying the discipline, to a higher of
 ficer. to lay their cases before the ad-
 justment committee of the class of la
 bor to which they belong and ask the
 adjustment committee to act as their
 advocates before the higher officer. In
 this manner the engineers adjustment
 committee has been in the hahi< of
 placing the cases of engineers who have been disciplined before the higher off, 'cers of the company.
 The present trouble began in June,
 1904, when the flnemen's general ad-
 justment comn1ittse, of which 4. P.
 Kelley is chalrman, at conference
 with the general manager. asserted
 that the engineers adjustment commit
 tee was not taking up With the man
 agement cases of engineers who de-
 sired to appeal, unless those engineers were members Of the HroSiserheod of Locomotive Engineers. CT that the en- I gineers committee was neglecting the l cases of engineers who were members 1 of the Brotherhood of Locomqtive
 Firemen (of whom there are several l hundred employed by the road), and of l nen-union men. Thepefore, the firemen's $ committee claimed that it should be permitted to represent before the off, ! cers of the road the engineers who were ] members of the firemen's brotherhood.
 The firemsn's committee asserted fur
 ther that this privilege had been granted by former President Hall, in March, 1903, and had been in practice
 for eighteen months following that 1 date.
 | The claims of the firen1en's commit | tee were defYfed by the general man ager, and the committee brought an appeal before the first vice president on l June 28 last. The first vice president, 1 on investigation, was not only positive
 ly assured by the engineers general
 committee of adjustment that 1t had
 and would in the future take up before 1 the officers the cases of all engineers,
 irrespective of their union affiliations,
 if the cases were proper, and also pro duced evidence to show that all proper l cases had so been taken up. The first ] vice president, furthermore, communi-
 cated with former President Hall, who
 stated that in March, 1903, at the ur-
 gent request of the f1remen, he had
 heard their committee in an individual
 case, that. of Engineer Fox, but denied
 emphatically that he had made any 1 such agreement for the future or
 in any other case On this evidence
 the first vice president also denied the
 claims of the firenen's committee.
 The firemen's committee then took
 an appeal to the president, who, after earnest consideration, confirmed the
 decision of the general manager and
 the first vice president, pointing out however, that should the Brotherhood of Locomotive Bremen at any time
 have in it's organization a majority of
 the engineers employed by the com
 pany, the question would undoubtedly settle itself.
 The ffremen then called in MT. Han-
 nahan, grand master of the Brother hood of Locomotive Bremen, who, with
 MT. Kelly. had a conference with the
 president. As a result of this confer
 ence the president again went over the