The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-07-30
EFFORT TO
END STRIKE
CONTINUED from page IL

/ CONTINUED from page ID
an hour for the usual fifteen-minute
! trip.
Natty youths, brushed and creased, |
panamaed and white-fanned, found .
| themselves riding to work atop the
| tenders. Cinders rained upon them, |
! coal dust ground into white shoes
and flannel trousers. They crawled
( from their perches looking like coal
beavers.
Trucks and ancient flivvers were
minis for their owners. Twenty-Five
and fifty-cent pieces showered upon
them for trips of from three to ten
miles.
Observers would not have been
surprised to hear some of the truck
I ers" burst out into Seeing Nellie
Home" They looked like oldtime hay
wagon rides.
One huge truck could have quail !
( fled for a prairie schooner, excep-
/ that its motive power exceeded the
/ old OK team by hundred or more
/ OK. 1t was rugged with old-ime
bows covered with canvas. The div-
yer flirt was there. sliding along
( the curb until he picked one with
flivyerer offered his services. Some
times he was successful and the
damsel mounting the gasoline pal
frey made home in speed. while sis
/ tiers less easy to look upon waited
mournfully for a sea-going hack.
| II was hot in Chicago. Sweat
poured from the faces of honest
youths acting as volunteer traffic
cops. Dust rose in clouds and set
I tied upon bewildered thousands, all
asking where they might find some
thing TO take them home.
I Flivvers and trucks generally car
ried signs. Some bore factious pia-
cards, ribald comments on the strike
and the joys OF motoring.
| Sideshow barkers were out-classed
! by the leather lungs that shouted
| from these trucks for business. Each
/ truck carried stepladder. Other
/ accommodations included wooden
| planks arranged along the interior
| of the truck Sometimes palatial
vehicle had the seats padded with
blankets and quilts, flannel, frayed,
crazy and otherwise, but none that
a housewife would care to preserve.
J Department stores carried their
/ efficiency to the emergency. Routes
were planned for their trucks, which
gathered employees in the morning
and scattered them at night Each
truck bore the number of the route.
u Moving vans with side doors
opened revealed passengers stand
ing, damned as closely together as
human frameworks would stand.
Some institutions rented trucks
for their employees and made regular
trips Others gave employees travel.
ing allowances of twenty-five or fifty
cents per day to meet increased
charges.
!! stenographers and office girls
rode down in a truck marked pro
duce, chickens and other poultry"
Not a Wheel Turning.
CHICAGO, July 30-Coatless and
collarless, William D. Mahon, interna-
tional president OF the Garments union,
. took up the strike situation here. His
. optimism and the manner in which 10
cal union leaders responded to his
, efforts led city and state officials TO
. predict a speedy return to normal
, transportation for Chicago.
Today not wheel was turning on
ether elevated or surface Inca All
|, Chicago walked or exercised lLS LII
genuity in finding other ways to get to
work.
Mahon's first effort was to call local
union leaders 70 conference regard
ling submission Of proposed strike set
Element to a referendum. The propose
twas booted down when presented verb
ally Monday night.
Following the conference Mahor
was to meet Barney Cohen, state la
bor director, delegated as Governor
Lowden's personal Representative
. Machinery for a referendum is ready
and the vote should be concluded
within twelve hours from the start
union officials said. They believed
/ service might be resumed Friday
morning.
President l.. A Busby, Of the surface
lines informally expressed hope tina
: service might be resumed tomorrow
o morning, the men working while th'
vote was taken. Labor leaders salt
nothing to bear him out.
g Leaders among car men OF boil
j, roads said radicals among them over
rode the others and that the compro
mise settlement, providing wages o
:, 65-S7 cents per hour would be approx
: ed in a referendum.