Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-19
WIRES ALL CLEAR AND
STRIKERS ARE HAPPY

1--WE are all clear to all points" said
Night Chief Operator William Kane at
the Western Union last night. There Is
a better feeling all around and less inter-
ference with wires than formerly. So far
as the Western Union is concerned the
strike is at an end. We have full force
of fine operators and we are well con-
tent with the situation"
"There is no interference with our wires
and there has been none,' said Night
Chief Merrill at the Postal Telegraph Of
flee. 1--WE are clear and our force is
adequate to handle all the telegrams
now being fled"
The striking telegraphers held pic
mic at Eastlake park yesterday. They
appeared to be enjoying themselves and
were not particularly anxious to discuss
the strike. A member of the publicity
committee consented to make statement
as follows
''Why should we worry? We are WIN
ming this strike hands down. All over
the United States and Canada workers
are Joining in our movement for indus
trial freedom. The boast of yetty chiefs
who re-echo, parrot like, Clowrys state
ment that the strike is at an end, Is
puerle. The strike has just begun. They
fill chairs with senile men and women,
with broken down officials whose capacity
equal to a fourth rater of the modern
day; with the riffraff of the profession
and then point to this conglomeratton as
lot of fine operators.
1--WE worked previous to the strike,
night and day, full force full speed to
keep from being buried under mass
of business filed by prosperous public.
Now with 95 per cent of the force gone.
they claim the strike is at an end. If
IieI, .eyh tn mol
their yarn then the public will lose
1--WE know how many days it takes to
get a message to Chicago We also know
the number of hours the mail takes.
cIIow many million dollars are the
stockholders of those companies to lose?
How long will they be content to allow
the situation to continue when there is
not per cent of the former income?
'"The companies refused US even the
slightest consideration, and now they are
paying out the stockholders money in
vast amounts to incompetents whom they
will ruthlessly throw aside when we win
this struggle.
always when dividends are threat
ened the Wall street powers raise shout
to protect the widows and orphans who
hold stock Hetty Green is the widow
and George Gould the orphan. George
will not be able to buy more than a
thousand polo ponies this year or spend
over three millions on new steam yacht.
Sad. isn't 1t?
1--WE have in our local treasury over
thousand dollars more than we had
when the strike began. Not one call has
been made for assistance.
Three months would not force us to
the starvation point the understrappers
of the master class are praying for.
when they tell you that they are
clear of messages depend on it they are
near to the truth. In times of peace
we were always clear, after storm held
wires down a few days. when the suit
case method was invoked. That's a good
way to clear the wires.
IF they have no volume of business
it's easy to see how they can handle 1t,
even with their nondescript force.
when this trouble is settled every
telegrapher who has retained his self
respect by remaining loyal to his class
will work for government ownership of
the telegraph. And we will exert pow
erful influence in that direction"