Republican farmer., 1920-04-09
Workers DefyiiIlg
 Unions
Switch1nen on Buffalo Railroads Have Gone
 Out.

Chicago, April 7-Represen- tatives of $500 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen em- ployed in the Chicago switch ing district today had defied their union officials and vot- ed to join the unauthorized sWitchmen's strike called near ly a week ago.
 Freight traffic through the expan- sive Chicago district already was re- stricted seriously and strike leaders and railroad officials were agreed that if the force of strikers was amgrn ented such traffic would be brought virtually to a standstill.
 The vote of the engineers and fire men came in the face of predictions of grand officers of the Brotherhood of Railway Train1nen and the Switch mems Union of North America, with which the striking switchmen are af- fihated that by Saturday the strike would be broken by loyal union men ! rushed from other cities. The engineers and firemen declared 1 they would not work with 'fscaibs'' as 1 they termed the loyal union men, and also demanded an increased wage 1 Engineers are paid $5.75 a day and they demanded s1-5O an hour; the fire ! men paid from $4.16 to $4.2S a. day, de- 1 manded $1 an hour.
 Passenger trains would not be in 1 terfered with, the strikers said Rail | road officials said, however, thai 1 such traffic was certain to suffer il | work in the yards was restricted fur. | ther.
 1 Meanwhile it was reported sup. plies of certain foods and fuel were 1 beginning to run low in Chicago and
 nearly 10000 employees had beer l thrown out of work at the stock yard: | by the stoppage of receipts of cattle I It was stated that unless receipts O. l livestock was resumed shortly approx
 imately 5O,000 men would be mad 1 idle.
 The pens at the stock yards virtu ally were empty yesterday.
 Buffalo, N. Y, April 7.---Ffve hun dred switchmen on the night shifts O all railroads entering Buffalo with tn exception of the Erie and PennsyIva nia lines, went on a strike last nigh and this morning, practically tieins up freight in and out of the city. | Up to 1O:3O o'clock this morning tn
 day shifts had not reported and it i
 believed the strike will be general. F. J. Sheehan, president of tn Switchmen's Union, said the strik
 was unauthorized and that he has been unable to secure any definite in
 formation as to why the men wen
 out Railroad officials expressed tn
 belief that the movement was in sym lpathy with the Chicago strike.
 The strike movement is said t
 have started in the yards of the Dela
 ware, Lackawanna and Western rail road last night when several switch men for no apparent reason, left thei
 jobs.
 The Lackawanna strikers went t the Buffalo Creek railroad, an i'm
 portant switching line along the wa
 terfront, and induced the switchme
 there to quit. Later the strike sprea
 to the other yards
 Superintendent Louis S. Emery (
 the New York Central said the strih
 CTS refused to meet with commission
 and no one appeared able to explai
 why the strike was called, or Wha the men were striking for.
 | Representatives from the Switch
 mems Union visited all the yards tn morning in an attempt to keep the !! men on the job and to get striker back to work.