New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-09-09
$50 More Joined Strikers
Yesterday, Higgins
Claims.
STRIKE CALL ON
THIRD AVE. DENIED
progress Is Satisfactory
Fitzgerald Declares
After Meeting.

81 am satisfied that is the only
statement ! will give out declared
William r. Fitzgerald last night at the
Continental Hotel after the Public Ser
vice Commission hearing. ave agreed
that Mr.. Straus and the Mayor should
do all the talking. II anything IS to
be said it must come from them"
will there be strike on the Third
Avenue Railroad" he was asked.
mo. and make that emphatic. There
will be no strike on the Third Avenue
line unless the company forces one.
I do not think that it will do that.
No. have not heard from Mr.. Whit
ridge to-day"
A letter to the Third Avenue com
pany asking if it purposed institutlng
tho master and servant" contracts
which precipitated the trouble on the
Interborough and allied lines was sent
Yesterday by the union heads. On the
authority of one of the organizers 1t
was a request for information and not
an ultmatum.
Leaders Look Pleased.
P. J. Shea. VI. J. Higgins, John Nc
Grath and other Amalgamated leaders
were about to leave the hotel for din
ner when Mr.. Fitzgerald, with James H.
Valley and Louis B. Fridiger counsel
tor the men. and P. J. O'Brien, vice
president of the Amalgamated, ar
rived. The reader was smiling, almost
chipper, the phlegmatic Nahey oeamed
in benevolent sort Of way through
Eie immense horn-rmmed spectacles
and Fridiger plainly was pleased.
Higgins after a whispered word re-
heated statement he was making
when the party arrived
This strike is in Is per cent, yes
100 per cent better shape than the
Koston strike four years ago was at
the beginning" he declared. nen
that strike was called the Boston i
actually increased its service, ana away
with things the people had been KICK
irg against for years and gave the
town the best service t had ever MAD
That strike lasted nine weeks, ana we
won" .,
Have you gained men to-day ?
yes. we have. Ask Shea-he knows,
he was there mean with the inter-
borough people"
Gains Claimed.
ave certainly have gained" inter
posed Shea. 1--WE took $50 more men
off the lnterboroug. to-day. Many oil
them are motormeH and switchmen'
Shonts says but four motormen quit
| had more than fifty up on the plat
form at one time. The switchmen are
not switchmen in the commonly ac-
cepted sense they are the men who
actually drive the trains about the
wards and in and out of the terminals,
work the ordinary motorman cannot
do. not knowing signals or the yards.
"Thcre has been a slight gain on
the green cars, some Of those VINO
STAYED behind coming out. Altogether
at least 1850 marlborough men are
out. On the green cars the number is
roughly 1000"
P. j, O'Brien declared shat Shea's
figures were under rather than over
in so far as the Interborough is con-
cerned.
The leaders then went into confer
ence. Hugh Frayne, organizer Of the
American Federation OF Labor, being
present. Before entertaing he said
that the situation was absolutely sat
isfactory.'
This thing has only begun" he said:
1--WE are not az all worried or at all
disappointed. This is the real begin
ming of the unionization of New York
COnners's Pledges Aid.
william Corners. international pres
ident Of the Longshoremen's Union,
which has $4,000 members in and about
greater New York, pledged any aid his
men might give.
ALREADY the tidewater men have
pledged their assistance he declared.
They are the men, you know, who
handle the lighters that supply coal TO
the power houses
"Will they strike?'
az they get the word If it is neces-
sary to help these men along"
During the day there were meetings
in the Lyceum, where the lnterborough
strikers gather, and in Plaza Hall,
headquarters for the green car men.
At the latter place a reading Of the Of
fer OF the company 10 take strikers
back was jeered. At both organizers
thanked the men for preserving order
and urged them 10 continue to keep
out of saloons and gangs.