Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-01-27
PART THREE
STREET CAR men
FORCED 10 FIGHT

by the Amalgamated Association of
Street and Electric Railway En-
ployes was not as violent as those in
Jacksonville, Fla, Louisville, KY,
Chester, Pa. and other places where
the Association battled for better con-
ditoins. Yet the tactics of the corpo-
rations were everywhere identical.
The Amalgamated Association is COM
prised of practical men, oraganized in
nearly every city Of size in the
country boasting of street cars
electric, steam, 1cable or horse, and
has attained its present formidable
size only after a hard, bitter struggle
against obstacles Of all kinds and
shapes and degrees of obstinacy.
One of the obstacles is illustrated
by Denver, where the city authorities
are under the control of the traction
interests, where it is easy to blacklist
union man, and ewhere the only per-
missable unionism. is the Mutual
Benefit engineered by the corpor-
alton, which you are not compelled
to join" but which results, strangely
enough, in quite brief employment
for those who do not join.
The charge of a street car requires,
nowadays. a cool, clear head, a prac-
teal knowledge of a car, and some lit
tie knowledge of electrical conduits
and various electrical appliances that
are daily adding to the improvements
of the service. In the old days Gold,
judged by our rapid standard) a
street car was a simple thing-a
controller and hand brake was all
that car boosted, but now complica-
lions in the mechanism have grown
until an operator must be instructed
technically and practically, even as
an automobile. chauffeur.
| . The Strict Examination.
Today, under normal conditions
the applicant for employment must
pass a strict examination. AS a re-
suit, the company has always long
waiting list, men who have passed the
examination and are waiting for a
regular" run. They wait and while
they wait they are extras In Phil
adelphia the list will run almost into
the thousands. By this means the
company has the pick of the best the
unemployed market affords.
| TO begin with, the applicant is
weighed. Then he is examined, for all
1.-THE world like a committee of the
Live Stock Show examines cattle.
And, from the company's standpoint,
this is not an odious comparison, for
the running of cars is the only con-
sideration, and if cattle could do it
or monkeys, they would be used. But
they must have men, clean cut and
sober ,stong men, anti-nervous. It is
not good to overlook this, for therein
lie damage suits. And when the ap-
plicant passes the physical and mental
test and gets a badge and uniform,
and is assigned to barn, he is taken in
hand by an old hand to be taught the
rudiments. This is a probation per-
iod Of, usually, 10 to Is days, which
he serves without pay, and he then
graduates to the extras referred to
above, and watts, without pay. For
his actual work, however, he is paid,
and he makes all the way from $3.50
to the dizzy height of SIS per week.
It works thusly: Suppose that it is
the city of Pittsburgh and that a big
demonstration, a parade, convention.
or whatnot, that means the handling
| of larger crowd than usual. Extra
fears are run and the extra" army
which the company has maintained
at not a cents cost, is called out for,
say, one run at the beginning, the
first rush, and another run at the
finish. the second rush. The runs
may be an hour long, and many hours
apart, and thus the extra men are
paid for two hours work, receiving
nothing for the in-between hours,
though they are necessarily chained
to the barn or the switch in the in
terim. In. a $50 cent town" the ex-
Itra men would get about 81 cents an
hour. and SO you see the pay for the
day is 81 cents, and this may come
after days of idleness. There is ten
cent reduction from this if he lives
at distance, for he must pay his own
car fare when riding to and from
duty.
These conditions are of course
nonunion conditions The Amalga-
mated Associations long uphill fight
has been to remedy these conditions.
The conditions have been improved