The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-15
HARDING TAKES
fContinned from Page one.l

Continued from Page One.l
brotherhood of Maintenance of Way
EMPLOYEES and Shop LaboreEs union
have voted to strike, ]. C. Smock, vice
president, announced today SHaock
said he would announce tomorrow
night whether the strike will be car
ried out. =
The vote was taken Independently
of the big four brotherhoods federated
shop crafts and switehmen's- union
which have already announced strike
When the officials of the sixteen
leading rail unions went into confer
ence this morning, Warren Stone,
grand chief of the Brotherhood OF Lo-
connective Engineers, and w. G. Lee,
president of the Brotherhood OF RAN
way Trainmen, announced they would
leave tonight for their headquarters
at Cleveland. The announcement in
dicated a. definite decision by the
unions today as to whether the strike
shall be ordered.
Union leaders who had been hopeful
of averting a strike, some of whom
had even opposed it. declared today
that the action of the railroad execu-
tives yesterday in deciding on further
wage reductions has destroyed the last
hope of peace.
the list of ten roads on which the
strike will be effective the first day.
the same union official said. 1t is un-
derstood that strikes VIII be ordered
on additional units of ten ROADS every
fortv-eight hours until the roads either
give in or the walkOut becomes nation
1--WE are going out on the greatest
railroad strike the country has ever
known; nothing in the world can avert
it now declared w. G. Lee, president
Of the brotherhood of Railroad Train
men. as 500 general chairmen of the
various halfway brOtherhoodS con-
vened to discuss their action with re-
gard to the railroad executives oe-
fiance of their threat to strike against
wage reductions.
1.-THE proposal of the railway exeeu-
tives for an immediate 10 per cent
reduction in wages is responsible for
the crisis" Lee said
ut is a fight to the finish for the
life or death of our organization, SAID
Lee. Perhaps it is a fight to our
death, for we are not going into 1t
blindly."
Orders for Calling Strike.
"The leaders of the workers will
leave Chicago today with sealed orders
calling for a strike. As for the date
it already has been published, and the
beginning, as has been indicated, Will
be by groups-first one line ana then
another going out .e.-..,
confirmation of the report that Oc-
tober 80 has been fixed as the date
for the strike.
THE executives, as usual, are pull
ing the wool over the eyes of the peo-
ple.' Lee said.
the various unions of railway workers,
representing a membership of 2,Od0.-
600, met here today to consider the
challenge flung down by the Assocla-
ton of American Railway Executives
which late yesterday announced IL
would ask the United States railway
labor board for immediate further re-
auctions in the wages of railroad en-
ployes.
from a position already empha1cally
taken, there appeared to be no alter
native than to proceed with plans al
ready drawn from a progressive"
nationwide strike. ~-
Union Chiefs Dazed.
80 Union chiefs today were still some
what dazed by the sudden challenge
of the railway executives. Armed
with an almost unanimous strike vote
of their memberships, the brotherhood
heads believed they held a club which
would be effective in forcing from the
railroads an agreement that would
prevent further wage cuts. The union
heads were unwilling in advance of
today's meeting. to- comment upon
their probable course of action.
The railroad executives made it en-
phaticalIy~ clear that they were ready
now to fight out to a finish the issue
of lower wages Many of the eXeeu-
tives who met here yesterday frankly
asserted that lower wages We're the
only thing that could bring about low
er freight rates demanded by shippers
without bringing bankruptcy to scores
of railroads. The executives lost no
time in deciding to go before the la
Dor board and petition for immediate
wage reductions.
Plan 10 Per Cent Wage Cut.
1t was reported today that the roads
were planning to put into effect of
their own volition a 10 per cent wage
reduction without waiting for the Ia
Dor board to act. This cut is to go
into effect, it is reported, as soon as
the payrolls of the various roads can
be adjusted. The railway labor board,
it is pointed out, will be without juris-
diction until the issue has been
brought before it thru tests of the
various unions.
No official announcement OF this in
tention to put into effect an immedi-
ate blanket reduction was made before
the executives adjourned their meet
ing, but it was unofficially reported
that a tacit understanding to this end
had been reached. ...
The curtness of the rebuff given the
unions was emphasized by the early
adjournment of the executives A con-
ference tasting many days, with fire.
quent interchanges between the rail-
way heads and the union chiefs, had
been expected. After deciding to ask
for wage reductions and appointing a
committee of five to confer with the
union leaders, the main conference ad-
journed without awaiting so much as
a report from the com mittee appointed
to confer with the brotherhood lead
ers.
Many r. r. Officials Attend.
c. H. Markham, president of the
Illinois Central railroad; W. w. At
terbury. vice president of the Pennsyl-
vania lines; ]. E. German, president
of the Rock Island; Carl R. Gary,
president of the Union Pacific, and
Ralph Budd, president of the Great
Northern, were members of the exc
cutives' committee.