The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-07
RAILROAD NEWS.
Rio Grande ShOpmen Threaten
ing to Strike Again Soon.
Charge That Officials Are Not
Living Up to Agreement.
FEAR NON UNIONISTS
Claimed That Road Is Import
ing Scabs' and Japs.
Other Items of Interest in
Railway Circles.

Denver, Col, April 7.-Again there is
unrest and dissatisfaction all over the
Denver & Rio Grande system among
the shopmen and the officers of the
three shop organizations have been in
Denver for several weeks trying to
straighten out the trouble, but with
little or no success. The charge is
made that the officials have double
crossed" the leaders of the three big
unions and that the men are working
under highly unsatisfactory conditions.
1t is claimed that the Rio Grande Of
hcers have not fulfilled their part of
the settlement of the long and bitter
strike OF the men employed in the
shops. and leaders of the men declare
that they can give half a hundred
specific instances where the agreement
has been violated both in letter and
spirit by the company.
Will Strike Later.
None of the leaders would even in
innate that a strike at present Is
among the possibilities. but it is
thought that when conditions grow
for employment elsewhere they will
demand that the company abide by its
agreements or suffer the consequences
| of another strike of shopmen.
The first grievance of the men is that
they were given to understand on the
quiet that the "scabs'' who came here
! to take their places when the strike
was called year ago this month
would be gradually let out and all of
older men replaced. This has not been
done, they claim. and only about 10
per cent of the shopmen. taking the
whole system into consideration, are
union men and old employees
1t is charged that when the agree
ment was made the ''scabs" were let
go but for some unknown reason they
were kept hanging around the
premises. After a few weeks, it is
said, that they were put back to work
alongside the old men, and that they
still predominant in the shops and are
the source of constant friction.
The old men also claim that the COM
rany has indicated by its action that
some day they are all to be replaced
by Japs. and that in furtherance of
this plan the Rio Grande is gradually
putting the little brown men at work
as apprentices where they can learn
rapidly the business of making, as well
as repairing, machinery.
There is strong prejudice against Jap
|anese labor in Colorado among most of
the union labor organizations and the
shopmen have announced that they will
not stand for the incursion of the for
|eigners into their field without a pro-
test that will reach in Wall street.
Veterans Left i'm Cold
Many of the men who have been left
out in the cold by this new policy saw
the first spike driven in the construc-
ton of the road and have grown up
with it from the time it was a COW
path. They bemoan their present fate
from a sentimental as well as a prac-
teal standpoint, as many of them hop
ed to spend their old age in honest en-
ployment with the company. just as
they had given the best days of their
young manhood to build it substantial
y.
Some had been compelled to leave
the city and had been brought back to
their old places when the strike was
settled, feeling that they would spend
the remainder of their days in quiet
employment Now. many are out and
those remaining are chaf1ng under the
necessity of working with nonunion
men and JaDs.
They say they can hardly blame the
management locally. as they are
simply carrying out the orders to pro-
duce dividends, even though it saps
the life blood of labor and jeopardizes
the lives of countless passengers.