Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1913-07-18
.1RA|NMEN MAY QUIT
OVER $4,000 EMPLOYEES OF EAST
ERN RAILROADS ARE DlSsAT-
lsFIED WITH THEIR PAY.
UP TO BOSSES TO CONE THROUGH
They Have Refused TO Arbitrate DIFF
Acknowledgements Asked to
Amend Erdman Act-Presl-
dent Wilson Takes a Hand.

New York.-Whether a strike of up
wards of $4,000 conductors and train
men on As eastern railroads shall be
declared this week depends upon
whether the railroads recede from
their present position and withdraw
from their refusal to arbitrate the
wage and other differences between
the companies and the men.
This declaration was made in state
ments by the mems representatives
after the grievance committees from
the various roads gathered here in con
ference had ratified the strike vote of
the men recently taken, and had au-
thorized A. Il. Garretson, president OF
the Brotherhood of Railway Conduc-
tors, and w. G. Lee, president of the
brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, to
issue the formal strike order to their
respective organizations.
Peace prospects center upon the at
t1tute of the roads, the men declared,
When amendments to the Erdman law,
under which previous disputes be-
WI bh0 lOoQb Lu6lI I16u nave
been arbitrated, will be considered
with a view of pressing their speedy
passage upon congress.
The general committee of the two or
CARNATIONS authorized Messrs. Garrett
son and Lee to delay the strike order
long enough to permit them to attend
the Washington conference between
President Wilson, representatives of
the railroads and their employees and
prominent public men.
The Issue.
Conductors and trainmen employed
on railroads east of the Mississippi and
north of the Potomac demand 20 per
cent increases in wages, which would
aggregate $17,000,000 annually.
Referendum Vote.
Total number voting, 1858; affirm
alive, 72,473; negative, 4210.
Men Involved.
Conductors and trainmen, 100000;
other employees who would be affected
by the strike, $4,000
Railroads involved.
Forty-one trunk lines controlling
$4,000 miles of trackage, upon which
100000 persons depend for transpor-
tation facilities.
Congress to Help.
Washington - Representatives of
the $4,000 onductors and trainmen of
eastern railways, who have voted to
strike for higher wages, and managing
officers of the railroads agreed at the
White House to submit their differ
ences to arbitration under the provi-
sions of the Newlands- Clayton act,
which President Wilson and congress
sional leaders promised to make law
Immediately. In the meantime no
strike will be declared, officials of the
employees brotherhoods agreeing to an
armistice.
Railroads Have Grievances.
With the passage Tuesday by con-
gress of the Newlands bill to provide
an arbitration medium for settling the
wage differences between the eastern
railroads and their 10000 conductors
and trainmen a new phase of the con-
troversy has developed through an
nouncement by the railroads that they
would ask the board which considers
the demands of the employees to take
up also the grievances of the roads
against the men. This view of the sit
uation oyershadows for the moment at
least even the determined stand taken
by the Erie system that it will not sub
NIT its cause to arbitration in any