Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1911-10-04
SA0PMEN IN HARTMAN LINES STRIKE,
Traffic Not Interrupted, GsnsraI Manager
SAYS Strike is Uacalled For.

Chicago, Sept. 3O.-Th'
threatened strike of the shop
men on the Hartman lines tt
enforce recognition Of thei,
newly-organized federation
became a reality today. The
number Of men who quit il
the fifteen States affected was
estimated at between 10000
and 10000 by the union men,
although Julius Kruttschnitt
vice president Of the Harri-
man lines, in a statement to.
night, said the number was
much smaller.
Reports from most of the
points indicated that the men
walked out without demon
stration and no rioting was
reported.
Traffic was continued with
out interruption and the rail-
road heads say that the shop
mems strike, even if extend>
ed, would not interfere with
transportation.
The strike order was general
throughout the middle West
and in the South. The men
had received notices from the
international presidents o,
the five crafts directly involv>.
ed and when the hour ca oe
they laid down their tools.
At New Orleans, where the
strike already had extended
from a strike Of the Illinois
Central clerks and the men
had been out several days,
two men received Jail sem
tences for violation of Federal
injunctions restraining them
from interfering with the
company's property.
In the far West it was said
by the six roads a small per-
centage of workers responded
to the strike call. Vice
President Kruttschnitt issued
the following statement:
CAT many of the inter-
mediate points on the Union
and Northern Pacific lines,
shop forces we're laid off to
reduce working time and ef>
feet reduction of expenses.
At other points no men at all
went out and at some points
only one or two.
"Train schedules on all
lines are normal and the
maintenance of regular sche~
dulles will in no manner be
interrupted"
The men involved are divid.
ed into the following groups,
according to the union men:
Machinists 10000; boiler
makers 1000; blacksmiths 81
900; car men 11,000; clerks
1000; miscellaneous workers
1000.
w. L. Markham, vice presi>
dent and general manager Of
the Illinois Central, issued a
circular to employees of the
road tonight characterizing
the demands of the men as
radical, relating the history
of the negotiations and charg.
ing that the contracts be-
tween the men and the unions
had not been abrogated by
the necessary thirty days
notice. Concluding, he said:
1T is well known that the
international officers of at
least some of the crafts sup>
ported our positions and Bit
terly opposed violating their
contracts by consenting to
call a strike on the Illinois
Central. The conservatives
seemed to be in the minority,
however, and the result is one
of the most uncalled for walk
outs of labor in the history
of this country.
The Illinois Central has not
sought this controversy and
has no quarrel with organic
ed labor as such, but it will
use all the resources at it's
command to retain such con-
troll of the management as
will enable it to continue the
exercise of public functions
for which it was created, and
which subsequent events have
shown it could not have con-
tinued to exercise, had the
management consented to
enter negotiations with the
organization which is primar'
lily responsible for this
trouble. "