The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-03-21
ARTICLE TX.
BY ROBERT MITCHELL

| international officers of the Il. Of l.,
L. and II Amalgamated and that
when th company saw the road
thus cloa Isl before it the next step
was to break the union.
First OF all, it began openly to dis
criminate against certain Of the men,
and when no charges could be made
against those particularly singled
out, some trumped-up excuses were
found for discharging them. In this
way a number Of motormen were
fired. The union protested in vain.
Provoked Strike.
At the time there were no auto
matte signals on the line. For years
the men had been agitating for these
signals, but the company neglected
its obligation even though it was
daily endangering the lives of people
and subjeeting its motormen to an
unnecessary strain. Naturally, acct
dents were more frequent and more
unavoidable than at present.
Accordingly, it happened that a
motorman crashed into another train
at the Worth St. station. The acct
dent was not serious and in ordinary
times would have resulted in nothing
more than a reprimand from the
company for the motoIman involved.
Inasmuch as the marlborough, how
ever had decided upon policy of
provoking a strike, this incident was
used as a further occasion to dis
charge the man.
Violated Agreement.
On top of this and numerous such
other incidents, the company intro
duced a new schedule which increased
the number of trains and eonse-
quently the work of the men without
increasing the pay. This step was
in direct violation of the existing
agreements.
Threaten Strike.
In addition the company was inn
porting strike breakers. The men
who saw the union-busting scheme
unfolding more clearly before them
every day at last carried their COM
plants to the point Of threatening a
strike. This was the end which the
marlborough had been seeking.
Immediately August Belmont, pres
ident of the company, got in touch
with the international officers of the
unions. The officers came on to
New York to discuss" the situation.
In their meetings with Jencks, Pin
ney and Pepper, the leaders of the
local unions, the full details were
explained to them. Instead, how
ever, of taking the side of the men,
they advised them to wait until their
agreements were up.
Officials Didn't Help.
I 1t became clear that no help would
come from that quarter. It also be-
came evident that irrespective of any
action on the part of the union of,
ficials, the company would continue
with its plans already well under way
Of breaking the union. On Sunday,
March 4th, three days before the ac-
tual walkout and when it was still
believed that strike would be aver
ted, a trainload of strike breakers
came in from Chicago. The 1000
men in this consignment were inn
mediately Augmented by an addi-
tional 700. The New York Timesp
carried the following headline:
ARMY OF MEN ON HAND TO
BREAK STRIKE" This army was
placed for safe keeping on a steam
boat and escorted by a squad of
thirty private detectives and gang
sters.
Small POx on The Trains.
Some of the strike breakers, it is
reliably reported, came down with
small pox. Complaint was made to
the city. The captain of the police,
sent TO investigate, conveniently
found the report doubtful" He did
not enter the boat to see for him
self! The strikebreakers, however,
entered the Interborough-small pox,
detectives and all!
Under the conditions which were
rapidly developing to break their
union, the men saw no other alterna-
tive but to declare a strike. The
sentiment of the workers was clearly
indicated from the fact that the
walkout on Tuesday March 7th, was
practically 100 per cent.
Stone, Strikebreaker.
Grand Chief Warren S. Stone, Of
the B. of l.. Il. had promised Aug
ust Belmont that there would be no
strike. This promise was not kept,
although he and w. d. Mahon, Presi-
dent of the Amalgamated, did every
thing in their power to do so. Stone
wired the local officers that he would
not sanction the strike. Also he sent
Vice Grand Master Hurley to New
York to make last effort to pre-
vent the tie-up. Hurley threatened
Jencks, the local president, with ex-'
pulsion. But Jencks, like Ed. LAWN
Of more recent fame, was not TO be
bull-dozed. Then Hurley offered to
take the responsibility Of calling off