Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-09-06
ON WIRE STRIKE
Many Incidents of the Struggle
Which TEEN With Human
Interest Recorded.
ALL DUE TO APETTY QUARREL
If Los Angeles Operators Had Not Dis
puted With Woman in Oakland
Peace Might Have Reigned.

Probably in no other line of human
en6eavor is there n more picturesque
and varied assortment Of men than in
the ranks of the telegraph operators.
1t is not surprising, then, that a gen
eral strike Of the guild throughout the
United States should be productive Of
Incidents teeming with human interest,
says a Chicago special dispatch to the
New York Herald.
Men who had grown old in the Serv.
Ice of the Western Union or had grad
uated from the office boy or check boy
staff to the key in the Postal reluc-
family obeyed the signal and walked
out with the younger ''bOys"-reluc-
family, for when a man has worked
thirty-lve years for one concern and is
in fair way to be pensiOned off in his
old age it takes something of Il tug to
break the tie.
So it was with David Duey, chief
operator of the Chicago office of the
Associated Press and for twenty-five
years an employee Of the office. When
the Good night, RS" signal had been
given Monday evening, Aug. -, at
7:30 o'clock by the operators in reply to
General Manager Stones request that
he be allowed to put up their plea to
the directors in September. Duey CON
, tlnued to sit idly at his desk. Two
hours later, as business was resuming,
Duey approached his chief.
They are my boys" Duey said, ''and
they've quit. l don't belong to the
| union. am not an advocate of most
of their theories, but-the boys have
gone out, and l suppose I'd better
quit" And, despite the entreatfeS of
his comrades and the officials of the
Office. the aged wire chief announced
| his resignation.
"Why couldn't the fellows tell Duey
he wasn't expected 10 Quit?' exclaimed
one employee, almost brokcnly. Why.
Duey taught them telegraphy and made
| them what they are"
| Mrs. Mary Hansen. the first woman
| operator il the country and now sew
| enty-fve years old, according to those
well posted. refused to desert her key
in the main office of the Western
| Union. For two generations with her
nimble fingers she has transmitted
| messages, and a strike seems TO her
the utmost folly. With Mrs. Hansen
| remained Jere Meremess, Tom Babb,
| sam Ingram and &. NJ. Reynolds. all
| of whom turned deaf ears to the whis-
| tie which summoned their. colleagues
to rebellion All are over sixty.
| Tom Babb, who has been in the
same office for thirty-seyen years. was
one of those who stuck by the com
pany in the famous strike of 1888
and with him Ingram, siXty-tiye years
old, and Reynolds, seventy-two, stuck
also. Babb long, long ago was re-
| garded as the spcediest and most &C
curate telegrapher in the country. and
at the height of his career he occupied
the post of chief operator. He has al
most lost the use of his arms through
Operators cramp," Il form of paraly-
sis common among the men of the
key.
Frank Crittenden, old and bent and
for forty years an operator, went out
with the strikers. TwoscOre of his
years have been spent in the service
of the Western Union. He stuck by
the company when others deserted
their keys in 1870. Again in 1888 he
stayed by the company as manager OF
the Denver office, and it was the only
Office that did not go out. This time
although he has large family to sup