The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-04-22
Locomotive Engineers May Order
Strike Which VIII Effect
Great Section Of
the East.
WANT WAGE RrAsr
Men Demand E'shsee 2 srcent More
Pay Which 5 osds
Say That ! ,st
Gra

United Press Leased Wire Service j /
NEW YORK, April 22-The eastern
portion of the United States was fac
ing today the most paralyzing strike /
in Its history. More than fifty thous
and locomotive engineers, the men
who handle the throttles of all OF the
railroads north of the Ohio river and
east of Chicago, were expecting orders
to quit.
Up at the Broadway Central hotel, |
a score of gray-haired, bronzed men
were in secret conference today. They
were the great chiefs of the Brother
hood OF Locomotive Engineers II the |
strike comes, and they admitted they
feared it was inevitable. they will
manage it and they showed by their
attitude that they realized the grave
/ responsibility, for the brotherhood
seldom strikes. Over in the Hudson
Terminal building was another group.
Its members were fully as earnest as
the engineers. This was the commit
tee of the general managers of the
railroads and they were getting ready
for anything that might come.
The armistice between the roads
and the men was due to expire at 80
this afternoon. Unless the roads rep
Il resentatives offered material conces-
sions before that hour. or appealed to
i the government for arbitration under
the Erdman act, the engineers said
:, negotiations would be broken Of.
Then the division chiefs of the broth
hood will rush to their stations and,
! within three hours after they get
|; there, which will probably be between
!, "a and &c hours, the strike order will
!, be issued.
;, 1T looks bad was all that Grand
! Chief Stone, who will be in charge,
would say today.
Other engineers said they did not
see how a strike could be averted un-
less the companies recede from their
: present position. The strike, If it
comes, will mean practical starvation
to the cities to which traffic of food
stuffs and milk and dairy products,
cannot be moved. The result must be
an inevitable infant mortality that
will shock the nation.
The railroads that will be affected
by the strike order are:s
Baltimore and Ohio: Bessemer and
Lake Erie; Boston and Albany: Bos-
ton and Maine; Buffalo, Rochester
and Pittsburgh; Buffalo and Susque-
henna; Central New England: Chica-
, go, Indianapolis and Louisville: Chi
cago, Terre Haute and South Eastern
Chicago, Indiana and Southern Gin.
, cinnati Northern; Cincinnati, Hamil-
ton and Dayton Cleveland Cincin.
natl, Chicago and st. Louis; Coal and
t Coke Terminal: Delaware and Hud
} son; Delaware, I.ackawanna and
| Western; Toledo and Croton: Dun
kirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh:
Erie: Grand Rapids and Indiana
Hooking Valley: Indiana Harbor Belt:
e Indianapolis Union; Kanawha and
4 Michigan; Lake Erie and Western
e Lake Erie. Alliance and Wheeling
Il Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
s Lehigh Valley; Long Island; Maine
a Central Michigan Central: New
$ York Central and Hudson River; New
e York, Chicago and st. Louis; New
e York, Philadelphia and Norfolk; New
t York Susauehanna and Western: New
Jersey and New York Penna Lines
east; Penna Lines west: Pere Mar
quette; Pittsburgh and Lake Erie
] Reading: Toledo and Ohio Central
n Toledo, st. Louis and Western: Van
8 dalia lines: Western Maryland
4 Wheeling and Lake Erie; West Sid
l. Belt line; Wabash, Pittsburgh Termi
e nal.
1t What the engineers demand:
t. Average wage increase of eighteel
@ per cent: Standardization of runs an,
G extra pay when held up at terminals
h with certain technical demands re
lating to work on certain lines.
Why the railroads refused
Not earning enough to warrant In
j creased wages in view Of public dc
= mand that tracks be doubled, inter
e locking switches and othe
is safeguards be installed an
le services generally improve
while interstate commerce con
mission refuse permission to increas
freight rates.
g Number of engineers affected :
n 10000.
Expiration of armistlce 30 thi
afternoon.