The daily sentinel., 1909-01-12
LONG DRAWN RIO GRANDE
STRIKE IS ENDED
AT LAST
Continued from page IL

contracts with the members of these
respective organizations.
Early last March, while the shop-
men were working comparatively
we'll satisfied with their contracts
the railroad officials suddenly posted
notices in the shops in Grand June
tion, Salida, Salt Lake City, Pueblo,
Denver and other points abrogating
the old contracts, which had not ex-
pired. and declaring that in the fu-
ture the company would not treat
with the shopmen as members of Or
Sanizations. and would not in the fu-
ture recognize the machinsts'. black
smiths and boilermakers' organiza-
tions, and proposed a new wage and
time scale
After few days of delay, and
after the company positively refused
to arbitrate differences, the strike was
called, and about 1,20O machinists,
boilermakers, blacEsmiths and help
ers went out all along the system
Preparations were made by each side
for a stubborn fight, and through all
these months the fight has kept up.
The railroad company brought in
non-union shopmen as rapidly as pos
SSible and put them to work in it's
shops.
The strikers claim that the rail-
road company has suffered heavily in
its mechanical and rolling stock de-
partments as result of the work of
these non-union men. On the other
hand, the railroad company has
maintained that it has operated in a
fairly satisfactory manner with the
regular employees ont on a strike.
The strikers opened headquarters
al every division point, and these
headquarters have been maintained
mp until today. The striking en-
ployes have regularly and promptly
received their full strike benefits
from the general strike fund of the
national organizations of which they
are part. In spite of the fact that
several strikes We're causing heavy
drains on their funds, these national
organizations saw that every striker
got his benefit promptly and in full.
certainly the striking men stood to-
-sether loyalty. and there have been
comparatively few desertions from
their ranks by men who went back
10 work as non-union shopmen.
In Grand Junction the many strik-
ing shopmen have stood loyalty by
each other to man, not a desertion
from the local ranks being recorded
The Grand Junction strikers. near
ag all of whom are young men have
conducted themselves IN most de-
cent and respectable manner during
the long-drawn fight, and there have
been no disgraceful acts in the city
Tor which they can be blamed They
have fought their fight in a square
manner, behaved themselves, secured
employment of any kind that might
help pay their living expenses and
gave not imposed on their fellow la
<lorers in other parts of the country
by begging for help, but they have
ielred themselves as far as they
could and only accepted the regular
strike benefits.
Erom one end of the system to the
ether the strike has been unusually
free from disgraceful occurrences,
which speaks highly for the men who
were forced to undergo the unpleas-
ant features of strike for ten
months during one of the most seri-
GUS fnanciale edepressions and panics
the country has ever known.
Leaders of the local strikers de-
clare that they have won a great vic
tory in the settlement: that the odds
We're against them owing to the pan
ic and other unfavorable circumstan-
ces, and some of the strikers declare
that the strike has demonstrated that
1t is useless for a railroad company
90 try to crush out a labor organiza-
tion when that organization is a
worthy one.
The strikers headquarters in this
city was closed today, after being
open for ten months.
The struggle is over and everybody
is glad of it,
Tonight on No. 3 b. F. Perry. the
chairman of the general executive
board of the Denver & Rio Grande
strikers. will pass through the city
and will be greeted at the station by
many of the local strikers.