Evening star., 1907-11-09
TWAS BUT A DREAM
<<Y FAD a rosy, hasheeshish kind of
n dream last uight." said the griz-
l. l. zled government clerk with the

| you see, I'd been reading a lot OF stun
| about strikes First I'd absorbed from
the Stah-yeah-pape a lot of information
| about that strike of railway servants lr
| England-ssy. can you imagine any bunc.
| of organized labor people in the United
| States naming 'emselves servants ?-anc
| then I'd waded through a heap of thai
Linksteff ns kind of s,uff about strikes
| out in San Francisco in the pages of one
| of the tenpenny magazines
We'll, to top this off when I went tc
bed and pulled the covers up. l fell te
| thinking. as l often do of how I'd man
| age to pull through the approaching cole
| weather on my meager little pay-didn'l
use to seem so meager before they boos e
| the prices of everything away out o1
sight, but it sure seems trifing and in
| consequential money now all rgh,
| enough.
| Thing that had me guessing as l lay
there in bed before going to sleep was
how l was going to stake my two boys
to overcoats Boys aren't of the working
| age yet. They're going to school, and
so they need overcoats, and it's up to m
If L can make ito buy overcoats for
them. They're grow ng boys. like all
| boys are and they're about two sizes too
| big now for the overcoats that they had
| last winter. and that were pretty well
| worn then. tried to lop off dollar here
| and a dollar there on other items to fix
| up some way OF getting the boys over
| coats. but it was screwsome work. Then
| too, the fact that the wife sure had to
| have a winter hat caused me to toss some
before going to sleep. Y'See, a woman
| can't go on wearing a straw hat all win
ter, even If the straw is black. Othe-
| women get next to the black straw hat
| II it's worn in the winter and they knock,
| and make spiteful cracks. and all like
| that. The little wife does the best she
| can with her top pieces-makes 'em over
| from year to year, using the same Old
| feathers and such like junk; but all of h =
making over gear is worn to a frazzle
now, and of course she can't do the i'm
possible, and, dO5gone 1t, shee entitled
to new hat, anyhow. and I'd like to buy
her half dozen hats II / could. And so
there was that tem-the w.fe's hat-to
bother me, too. 1t ud be all right If Il
didn't take just about all of my pay.
| these high-priced days. to lay just my
house rent and food and fuel bills But
the margin left after l dispose of these
absolutely necessary items-we've got to
have shelter and we've got to have food
and we've got to keep from freezing.
haven't we?-:s SO blamed small that T.
certainly keeps me worked up, with no
promotion imminent or even remotely in
sight, to piece things out.
We'll. l fell asleep, and the first thing
l knew-although it was all so realistic
that 1t didn't seem like a dream-I found
myself involved in one immense con-
spiracy. Not conspiracy to do anybody
any harm. but just conspiracy looking
to the uplift of a good many tens OF
thousands of people.
1T was, In brief. a secret and thor
oughly organized scheme on the part of
all of the federal employees Of the United
States to go on strike at given signal
The queer old dream had sort of a
prelude. l had it doped out. In the
dream. that all of the federal employees,
from bureau chieSs in Washington down
to letter carriers in the most remote cities
and towns, had formed strong and Co
hesive organization, known as the AS
sociation Of American Civil Service En-
ployes. Every man and woman and
boy and girl in the federal employ, from
ocean to ocean, and from lakes to guilt.
was a member of this association Off
GERS, all reliable men occupying impor-
tant federal positions. had been elected. a
convention had been held, and. without
any brag or trumpet Furnishing, 1t had
been resolved that the federal employees
were going to do something to better
themselves and particularly to get their
pay raised in proportion to the immense
increase In the cost of living, just as the
pay of men working outside the federal
pale had been raised almost universally.
well. the thing worked out on creased
skids. like, in that queer little old dream
Of mine.
THE great day Of the strike came. All
o. us employees here In the DEPARTMENTS
and other institutions of Washington got
the walk-out word simultaneously, and
we just got up from our desks or trudgc d
away from our presses or tagged what
ever task we happened to be engaged
upon, and washed our hands. and put
on our hats and coats. and just walked
out The word had been spontaneously
flashed to every city and town and ham
let and crossroads in the United States
where there were government employees
to quit their jobs at the same instant as
we knocked off here in Washington.
We'll sir. so vivid was that dream
that, right now 1 can see the front page
Of the Stah-yeah-pape extra that was
selling on the streets ten minutes after
the employees In Washington had walked
out The secret of the projected strike
had been Loyalty and perfectly kept and
the walkout from one end of the land to
the other was the most startling thing
that had ever happened in America. Not
paper had been tipped off. and the coun-
try was stunned by the news.
THE strike affected the entire coun
try most pronouncedy, and at once. Every
one of the tens of thousands of post
offices was instantly tied up, for example
because all of the post office employees
walked out on the minute agreed upon.
Imme diately the mail sacks began to ac-
cumulate at the railroad stations, with
nobody to handle them-even the drivers
Of the post Office wagons were on strike
The cities and towns and hamlets had
to appoint committees of citizens to guard
the mails, for the railroads didn't have
enough men to watch the tremendous
heaps of valuable mail lying around in
the sacks.
The collection of federal taxes instant
ly stopped. involving most dire and per-
picking and expensive confusion. This
was particularly the case with reference
to the customs All of the customs en-
ployes, everywhere in the land knocked
off duty at the given signal. The pas
sengers on the liners arriving at Ameri-
can ports had to remain on board the
steamers because there were no customs
men to look over their dunnage. No
ships could clear, because there were no
customs people around to help clear them.
All imports had to stop instantly. Busi-
ness men became savage over the loss in
volved in all this sort Of thing, and they
importuned and beseeched the general
government in Washington to lend ear
to the proper demands of the underpad
federal employees. to the end of getting
the employees back to work and starting
the wheels of commerce again. Riots
broke out in the big ports over the bull
headed stand of the general government
that the demands of the federal employees
people demanded the right to handle their
goods themselves. if there were no fed
eral employees around to handle the stuff
and the municipal police of all the port
cities had to interfere.
THE federal business in Washington,
coming to a sudden standstill. got into
worse and worse shape with the passing