The Elk Mountain pilot., 1921-06-09

Luckily, ~. fpunl1 Fred 1lay seiil q
his dssk~ and he; wAs promptly elAmped
to the telephone and told to get busy,
spreading the hurry call, In half nm
hour every relief operator we had In
Portal City was In the. wire-room. and
the back-breaking job Of preparing
thousand miles Of railroad for sud
den tie-up was In full swing. Mr.
Perkins. as division superintendent.
was In touch with the local labor
leaders. Persuading and insisting by
turns. Mr.. Norcross fought out the.
necessary compromises with the.
unions. All ordinary trafic would be
suspended at midnight, but passenger
trains en- route were to be run through
to our connecting line terminals east
and west. live stock trains. were to be
laid out only where there were feed
ing corrals and perishable freight was
to be taken to its destination wher-
ever that might be. "
The strikers agreed to allow the
mail trains to run without Interrupt
tion. with our promise that they would
not carry passengers. Hoskins and
AAAS ~OhAAhAttCC Du(hCQ q A1tllC at tul6t
but got down when they were shown
that they could not afford to risk
clash with the Government. This ex-
ception admitted, another followed, as
matter of course. II the mail trains
were to be run. some of the telegraph
operators would have to remain on
duty. at least to the extent of ham
ding train orders.
With these generalities out of the
way. we got down to details. "Fire-
alarm" wires were sent to the various
cities and towns on the lines asking
for immediate information regarding
food and fuel supplies. and the strike
leaders were notified that. for sheer
humanity's sake they would have to
permit the handling of provision
trains In cases where they were alb
solutely needed.
BY eleven o'clock the tangle was
getting itself pretty well Strengthened
out. Some of the trains had already
been abandoned, and the others were
moving along to the agreed-upon des-
tinations. Kirgan had taken hold In
the Portal City yard. and by putting
on extra crews was getting the needful
shifting and car sorting into shape,
and the Portal City employees. acting
upon their own initiative. were picket
ing the yard and company buildings to
protect them from lOoters or fire-set-
ters. Mr.. Van Britt's special, so the
wires told us, was at Lesterburg. and
1t was likely to stay there; and Mr..
Van Britt, himself. couldn't be reached.
1t was at half-past eleven that we
got the first real yelp from somebody
who was getting pinched. 1t came In
the shape of wire from the Strath-
coma night operator. A party of men
"mine owners" the operator called
them-had Just heard of the impend.
ing railroad tie-up. They had been
night train, but that had been aban-
doned. So now they were offering
all kinds Of money for special to
bring them to Portal City. It was
represented that there were millions
at stake. Couldn't. we do somethingi
Mr.. Norcross had kept Hoskins and
a few of the other local strike lead
ers where he could get hold Of them.
and he put the request up to them as
hands. Would they allow him to run
a one-car special from the gold camp
to Portal City after midnight? 1t was
for them to say.
Hoskins and his accomplices went
of to talk 1t over with some Of the
other men. When the big freight con-
ductor came hack he was alone and
was grinning good-naturedly.
1--WE amt aimin' to make the COM
pany lose any good money that comes
a-rolling down the hill at 1t. Mister
Norcross." he said. "CInch these here
Strathcona hurry-boys fr all you can
get out O. them. and If you'll lend us
the loan Of the wires. we'll pass the
word to let the special come on
through"
1t was sure the funniest strike l
ever saw or heard of, and guess the
boss thought so. too-with all this
good-natured bargaining back and
forth; but there was nothing more
said, and carried the word to Mr.. !
Perkins, directing him to have arrange
ments made for the running of one
car special from Strathcona for the
hurry folks.
Past that, things rocked along until
the hands of the big standard-time
clock in the dispatcher's room pointed
to midnight. Norris, who was hold
ing down the commercial wire, came
over to the counter railing just then
with New York message. 1 saw the
boss eyes flash and the little bunchy
muscle-swellings of anger come and
go on the edge of his jaw as he read
1t, and then he handed 1t to me.
''You may indorse that No Answer
and file 1t when you go back TO the