The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-23
MACHINISTS GIVE
 OUT A STATEMENT
EXPLAIN THEIR SIDE OF RAIL WAY STRIkE-REPLY TO GEN. ERAL MANAeER-cLAIM TO BE POORLY PAID,

The following statement has been issued by the press committee representing the
 machinists of the Southern railway shops,
 now out on strike:
 Birmingham, October %, 1906.
 To the Public:
 1 We see from this mornings paper a
 very lengthy letter from MT. Spencer of
 the Southern railway system, giving the
 company's side of the machinists' strike,
 now on the Southern railway system We desire to give to the public the strikers i side of the question from a local stand point. The machinist trade Is one of the
 most skilled of the various trades and an apprentice has to serve term of four years to learn the trade at a very small wage, and at the expiration of his trade
 he must be competent to place and fit to-
 gether the different parts of the various i lines of machinery. We give the above to
 show we are the most underpaid class of
 mechanics who are striving for existence. In Birmingham the rate of pay for ma chnists in the Southern railway shops Is | 321a cents per hour, and as the shop is
 running on the appropriation plan, a 1 certain amount Is set aside a monthly l-pay roll for the mechanics If this amount l is insufficient for the month, the time of | tiio iiiatiliiiiotS iHhol Oo INudISd utbit tiio amount appropriated is sufficient to last
 until the remainder of the month, there | by reducing the monthly pay of machin- | ists to a great extent.
 | The demand of the striking machinlsts | is a very small one in the Birmingham | district, compared to the cost of living 1 and the amount received per day by the l other trades. The bricklayers get for their | labor 55 and 60 cents per hour. Plumbers, | Si bO Tor eight lOurS. Printers A cents | per hour. Plasterers, 45 cents per hour. | Carpenters, 40 cents per hour. And we | are only demanding the sum of 35 cents l per hour Now we would like for the | public to answer this question:: Do they l think we are asking for anything un- reasonable of the Southern railway? In regard to MT. Spencer saying that | the company has always voluntarily in-
 creased the pay of the machinists, we are ! unable to find where the company has
 ever voluntarily increased their pay of l machinists without request of the com mittee from the machinists. It is not the | desire of the machinist to enter into any
 newspaper controversy with the manage ment of the Southern railway but as they have appeared throughout the press in a | statement, that if allowed to go unan- swered, it would leave false impression
 on the minds of the public, who are unfa-
 miliar with the demands of the ma- chinists.
 The agreement with the Southern rail-
 way and the machinists expires the 1st
 of September of each year. Three or four
 weeks prior to the agreement expiring
 the committee goes to Washington with | the view of renewing the agreement with l the railway for the next year. This was | done last August, when the committee
 remained in Washington for six weeks,
 using every effort possible to get an
 agreement and an increase of 26 cents per hour. The officials would not listen l to @ general increase until at the last moment the offer was made as was out
 lined in MT. Spencer's letter to The Age | Herald. Had the company made an offer | of compromise through arbitration or | other fair means the strike of the machin- | ists would not have occurred. This propo-
 stion of arbitration of the general in- crease was not made until the men had | been out ten days. and we feel that we have nothing to arbitrate. as we are only
 asking for a sum sufficient to meet the l expenses of living. This strike of the ma | chinists along the lines of the Southern
 railway, and especially Birmingham, will ' be conducted in a business-like and peace- 1 able manner, as the majority of the ma-
 chinists are old residents of Birmingham | and are looking to the best interests of | their craft and the laws of the state | After the machinists had been out five | days the company made the following ! proposition to the machinists now on strike: That they return to work and the company would meet a committee the
 next week assuring them of an honorable | settlement. This proposition was rejected | by the men, as the above proposition
 was the basis of a settlement of the last strike, May, 1901, on the Southern rail- way, and 1t took about eighteen months | to get conditions agreeable to our organ l ization, and we do not care to settle on
 a basis of this kind at the present time. We Nave asked for an increase of 2h | cents per hour, and we have yet to be | shown where the demand is unjust, sd we
 are out until we receive this amount Re-
 spectfully.
 JAS. B. DRAKE, s. E. TOMLINSON, c. w. FAREWELL, 1 Praas CnmmIttea