New-York tribune., 1920-02-06
Snow Shovelers Strike
by Hundreds and Police
Are Called Out to Keep
Agitators from Workers
All Surface Lines
Stalled by Drifts
IL" Trains Far Behind
Schedules; Scores of
Accidents; ; Labor Scarce

Northeast winds blowing into .
low glass" condition over the metro.
politan district have buried New
York under nearly eight inches of
hard, dry snow, and this, combined
with ice that has accumulated in the
streets since January 16, paralyzed
street traffic yesterday in an almost
record breaking degree. Nearly
every surface car line in the city was
stalled from dawn till far into tho
night, and even 81" trains moved
spasmodically.
Last night two red lights glowed
on top of the Whitehall Building.
overlooking the harbor, a govern
ment warning to mariners that the
northeast storm was still menacinp
navigation. The wind, sweeping
down from beyond Block Island and
Nantucket, added power to the in
ward flow of a tide laboring under
the greatest moon influence of the
year.
The result was the highest tide
recorded in the city's history, har-
Dor so choked with ice that public
officials and railroad executives de-
SPARED of bringing from Perth AM
boy coal that means light and heat
and transportation for the millions
of persons crowded in Manhattan
and Brooklyn.
In Manhattan, the Bronx and Brook
lyn the Street Cleaning Department
was faced with a situation that Harry
Hart, for eighteen years superintendent
of the Snow Removal Bureau, declared
was the most serious in his experience.
With schedule calling for $4,000
emergency men on each of three shifts
the department was pecking feebly at
the thousands of tons of ice and snow
IN the streets with total emergency
force of about 5000 men. In addition.
OF course, there were working the reeu-
lar employees of the department, in
cludlng $500 sweepers $500 are lid
and 1,500 drivers.
Agitators Cause Strikes
The labor shortage was complicated
yesterday by the activities of a fock
Of agltators who persuaded emergency
men in three of the most important
sections Of tho department to strike
tor more pay. In the district between
Nincty-ninth and 106th street and Fifth
Avenue and East River 131 men turned
IN their shovels and announced that
they would not do any more work until
the city advanced the race of payment
from the present figure Of 50 cents an
hour to 81 an hour with s1.5o an hour
for every hour over eight.
Other large groups strucl in Tie
section bounded by Sixth Avenue, the
North River, Tortysecond ard Forty
ninth streets, and in that bounded by
Ninetieth, Ninety ninth streets, Fifth
Avenue and the East River. 49,. :.
The uperintendents O. +he sections.
acting under instructions from Com
missioner MacStay, asked for police
details last night from the captains of
the precincts in which are situated
their headquarters. The policemen
were under orders to prevent agitators
from interfering with the work Of
paying The emergency street cleaners.
The men are paid every fourth day.
Last night was nay day.
Not all the striking was done by
owners who have rented their vehicles
to the city for years refused yester-
day to continue on q basis Of $25 .
day. On Wednesday there were sixty
five trucks working for the department.
IN Brooklyn. There were only five
working yesterday. In the afternoon
Commissioner MacStay went before the
Sinking Fund Commission and re-
Quested authority to pay the truck
owners $50 a day. Permission was
granted
The next step likely will be to pay
more for shovelers. Commissioner
McStay said yesterday that he did not
see how it could be avoided He said,
however, that the public could be Of
great service if every householder
would clean the sidewalk and. above
all, keep the cutters open.
Mr.. McStay also said:
"The New York Railways has not
lived up to its agreement with the city
to remove snow in certain streeS5 in
which it has tracks.
tratcd at the start on the main traffic
arteries-Fourth, Fifth, Sixth. Seventh,
Eighth avenues and Broadway. Our
men shaved on those streets all night
There will be as many men as we can
hire working again all through this
night"
Labor Shortage Great
Harry Hart. the snow removal su-
perintendent, said:
This is the worst storm Of my ex-
perience. In the first place the snow
fall is heavy and on top of that It
drifted far more than usual. In plaeeA
the drifts are reported to be five feet
deep. Then, too, we are in a very bad
fix for labor. Our schedule calls fog
$4,000 men on each eight-hcur shift
and we have ali told only about 1000
emergency men.
eve will put anybody to work. man
or woman, who can wield, q shovel.s
BY way Of showing what the Street
Cleaning Department has been up
against, Mr.. Hart said that it has
either rained or showed in New York
in almost every Neutrality-suspicious. period
since January is. when 1.9 inches 81
snow fell. Thereafter it fell in thas5
quantities: January II, &c: Iauuaf
10, 2.6; January 2l< l<oglazA s-Nrn,. I3x