Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-22
MORE AQUEDUCT
MEN TO STRIKE
ENTIRE LINE MAY BE TIED UP
IN A FEW DAYS
COMMITTEE SAYS 800 EMPLOYEES
HAVE QUIT WORK
Discomfort Over Mess Conditions
Threatens to Stop Progress on
Owens River ProJect-ony
One Grievance

BY the end of this week the entire
line of the aqueduct may be tied up
with strike, if the plans of the work.
men on the Saugus and South Portal
divisions meet with the success they
anticipate. A committee from the
southern end of the aqueduct zine mas
started up the aqueduct calling on all
the men at ali the camps to come out
on strike, and last night 1t was re-
ported they were meeting with. a falr
degree of success.
Although aqueduct officials in Los
Angeles steadily have maintained there
were only from forty to fifty men on
strike on the Saugus division, and that
the places of the strikers were being
RAPIDLY filed, a committee of strikers
from the Saugus and South Portal
divisions visited Los Angeles yester-
day and positively asserted that yes
terday morning 800 men, practically all
who are employed on these two diVi-
sions, were out and would continue out
until their grievances are settled,
There is only one grievance on which
the strikers are united This is the
mess as 1t comes to the table. |. G.
Johnson and J. w. buchanan, members
of the finance committee of the strik-
ers' organization, were in Los Angeles
Yesterday and told about the mess
grievance.
1.-THE food that reaches the camps
from Los Angeles and other points is
all right" said Mr.. Johnson yesterday
ut would be a good deal better for us
if we could eat it raw. But it is worse
than spoiled before it reaches the tables
in the mess rooms. Thi- is largely due
to drunkenness and incompetency on
the part of the cooks. flunkeys and
clerks. We realize that Desmond has
hard work to secure proper cooks for
some of the camps, but this does not
make the food any better for us, and
we simply cannot eat it. 1t is not fit
for dog to eat
Meat Served Until Consumed
"If by chance good meat does reach
the table it is served over and over
again until long after it has spoiled.
This was the case during July. We
were served with fresh pork July a.
and this pork was served back to us
in some form every day, although after
the first day or two it was positively
rotten"
The chief trouble is the arbitrary or
der compelling all men to pay for three
meals a day at the Desmond camps
whether or not they eat the meals.
Lost spring much complaint was
made about the food served by D. j.
Desmond. who has the messing con-
tract for the entire aoueduct. But the
men did not strike. Some of them set
up bachelor quarters and cooked their
own food. Others obtained board with
married men, who had their families on
the aqueduct.
outside boarding became so much
the general rule that in despair the
wholesale merchants who are behind
Desmond in his contract appealed to
the board of public works for an ar
b!trary command. The board decreed
that the men could eat where they
wanted, but that Sc a week would be
deducted from the pay Of every man on
the aqueduct pay roll, with the excep-
ton of some of the married men who
had their families on the ground
This So a week was to go to Desmond.
Very few of the men were drawing
salaries that permitted them to pay
b 1rd to Desmond and a private board
ing house at one and the same time.
Some of them do it. but the majority
vent to the Desmond camps. But they
say the condition of the food as 1t
reaches the tables has not improved.
Il this started the strike that is like
" to prove serious.