Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1921-06-17
The WreCkerS
Blu FRANCIS / YNDE
Copyright By Charles Sc5i;I.eys Sons.

cut. jump the job"
At that the boss took fresh brace
righting his swing chair VITA a snap.
You know very little about me,
Upton. If you think I'm going to throw
up my hands now, when the real pinch
has come. have scheme-if 1t
could only be worked. But 1t can't be
worked OIL ii rising market BY some
trick or other. the nunton people are
| three points yesterday"
Mr.. Van Britt grinned. They're
discounting the effect of this little po-
litical deal-which will at least rope
your reform scheme down, If it doesn't
do anything else. What you need is
a good. old-fashioned cataclysm of
some sort; something that would fair
ly knock the tar out of p. S. l.. secur-
tiles and send them Suffering down
the tObOggan slide in spite of anything
Uncle Breckenridge could do to stop
them; down to where they could be
safely and profitably picked up by the
dear public Unfortunately. those
things don't happen outside Of the
story books. If they did, If the earth
quake should happen along our way
Just now, don't know but I'd be dis
loyal enough to get out and help 1t
shake things up bit"
After Mr.. Van Britt had gone, the
boss put In the remainder of the day
like .workingman, skipping the noon
luncheon as he sometimes did when
the work drive was extra heavy. Mean
whileS as you'd suppose, rumor was
plentifully busy, on the railroad, and
also In town.
BY noon 1t was we'll understood that
there had been radical change in
the management Of G. S. & W., and
that there was going to be general
strike In answer to the slashing cut in
wages. slipped uptown to get
bite. and I heard some of the talk
1t was pretty straight. most Of it
which shows how useless It is to try
to keep any business secrets. nova
days.
For example: the three men at my
table in the Billiard grill.room-they
didn't know me or who I was-knew
that council Of war had been called
In the railroad headquarters, and that
Ripley had been pulled In by wire
from Lesterburg, and that we were
rushing along hurriedly to provide
storage room for the wheat shippers
In case Of tie-up. and that we were
arranging to distribute railroad COM
pany coal in case the tIe-up should
bring on fuel famine-knew all these
Things and talked about them.
They were facts, as far as they
Oent-these things. The boss hadn't
been idle during the forenoon, and he
kept up the drive straight through to
quitting time Word was brought In
during the afternoon by Tarbell that
the Hatch people were wiring the
Kansas City and Omaha employment
agencies and placing hurry orders for
strike-breakers. The boss answer to
this was a peremptory wire to our
passenger agents at both points to
make no rate concessions whatever of
any kind, for the transportation of
laborers under contract. 1t was
shrewd little knock. Labor of thai
kind is mighty hard to move unless
It can get free transportation or low
rate Of fare. and could see that Mr..
Norcross was hoping to keep the strike
breakers away.
When six O'Clock came; the boss
asked May to stay and keep the Office
open while could 60 downstairs and
get my dinner in the station restaurant,
and he went of up-town-to the club,
suppose. After I'd had my bite. l
let May 60. Everything was moving
! all right. so far as anybody could see.
/ We had five extra fuel trains loading
nj the conpany's chutes at COalville,
and the dispatcher was instructed to
work them out on the line during the
night, distributing them to the towns
that had reported shortages. They
were not to be turned over to the reg
ular coal yards; they were to be side
tracked and held for emergencies.
Mr.. NOrcrOss came back about eight
o'clock, and l gave him my report of
how things were going on the line.
| A little later Mr. Cantrell dropped in,
and there was a quiet talk about the
situation. and what 1t was likely to
! develop. The Mountaineer editor was
| given all the facts, except the one
big one about Hatch's death-grip on
us, and In turn Mr.. Cantrell promised
the help OF his paper to the last ditch
though, of course. he had no idea Of
! how deep that last ditch was going to
i be. had a lot of filing and indexing
to do, and kept at work while they
were talking wondering all the time
II the boss would venture to tell the
editor about the depth Of that 'last
ditch" He didn't. l guess he thought
he wouldn't until he had to.
1t was pretty nearly nine o'clock
when the editor went away, and Mr..
Norcross was just saying to me that
he guessed we'd better knock off for
! the night. when we both heard a step
| in Mays room. A second later the
+ door was pushed open and a man
came In. making for the nearest chair
and fiinging himself into 1t as II he'd