In the meantime the company had been active in preparing its barns for the reception and care of imported men. This was discovered by the members of Division No. 15 and impressed them that Mr. Payne had asked for time in which to consider the propositions really to gain time to prepare for a lockout to destroy the organization.

A report of the company's reply was made to a meeting of the employes, and the committee was instructed to return to seek further concessions and particularly relative to the wage proposition. The president of the local endeavored to secure an appointment with Mr. Payne while the meeting was yet in session, but that gentleman was elusive and, while engaged in an endeavor to secure this appointment, several imports were placed in the Farewell avenue barn, where active arrangements were in progress to feed and lodge strikebreakers.

It was evident that delay only contribated to the purpose of the company in preparing for a lockout.

President W. D. Mahon was in attendance at the meeting at the time the strike vote was taken. Before the vote was taken, however, President Flint of the division was dispatched to get in communication with the superintendent for the purpose of holding an immediate conference looking to some adjustment that would provide peace. The superintendent refused all overtures, and President Flint so reported to meeting.

the

In his report President Flint laid before the men in detail what the company was doing. He told his hearers that there was no longer cause to wait and that the committee would place before the meeting a resolution to desist from further work until the differences between the union and the company were settled. President Mahon was presiding at this time and put the resolution as recommended by the committee before the meeting. It was unanimously adopted, and thus the strike went into effect.

While the company was well prepared for the lockout, the strike was well planned and advisedly entered on the part of the association. President Mahon submitted a statement which fully acquainted the people of Milwaukee with the perfidy of the management of the company in the deceptive tactics it had practiced upon its employes in leading them to believe that it was honorably considering the propositions submitted, and considering them in a spirit of conciliation and fairness, when really they were preparing to lock out every union man in their employ. Activities at the beginning of the strike are shown by the fact that a call was made for a special meeting of the Federated Trades Council on the night of May 4. The meeting was held and indorsed the position of the carmen in its entirety. The second day of the strike the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers entered on a sympathetic strike, which destroyed the possibility of operation of cars by imported men, and on the evening of that day, May 5, an immense mas meeting of citizens was held and was addressed by President Mahon,

Organizer Frank Weber and others of Milwaukee. Resolutions were adopted by the people urging the company to refrain from its unAmerican, coercive policy of employment.

But popular resolutions were not consistent with the financial object of the promoters of a street railway monopoly in Milwaukee. They necessarily went unheeded. The company spent thousands of dollars in remanning and resuming service, and the fight became one depending for ultimate results upon endurance.

There was no defense fund in those days from which to draw to sustain a thousand men on strike. Even the great American Federation of Labor was not what it is today.

At the end of the first week of the strike Mayor Rauchenberger invoked the intercession of the State Board of Arbitration. International President Mahon, Local President James Flint and Secretary R. K. Curtis, on behalf of Division No. 15, consented to such a proposition. The company management was hopeful of some appearance of weakness in the ranks of the men. They were yet firm as at the beginning, and the citizens of Milwaukee were conducting a vigorous and complete boycott. Among those who were assisting in the conduct of the mass meetings were Frank Webber, Victor Berger, Robert Schilling, C. G. Brandt, W. Beimdecke, Dr. J. M. Magoon, J. T. Kelly and Ole Hansen. 'Bus lines were running. Police were riding the cars.

At the end of the second week police had been taken from the cars on several lines. However, with the exception of a few riding upon three lines, the boycott was firm.

At the end of the third week came President Samuel Gompers. He is quoted as saying: "Short as is the time I have been here I have seen enough to convince me that, had the company understood the extent of the feeling against it, it would have given more respectful and serious attention to the first demands of the men. This strike in its incidental conditions is, I believe, without parallel in the history of the labor world."

The company made a proposition to take back 300 men at once, and put 750 men on a waiting list to be assigned as convenience would permit. This was voted down by the men. Funds to sustain the strikers were being raised by picnics and otherwise. During the fourth week, however, this memorable strike began to weaken. Evidently it passed the point where any favorable compromise could be expected from the company. The management was clearly aware of the fact, and so, evidently, was President Mahon.

It had been a gallant fight and had cost the company more than a cool million of dollars. The company realized that it was only the strong personality of the International President that was supportting a continuance of the effort. However, he was the last to retire from the field, and then only to be forced by exhaustion of resources. The strike, more or less in effect, finally wore itself out, and in natural consequence

those of the strikers who did not get better jobs drifted back to work upon the cars.

The Milwaukee strike and its vigorous prosecution served as a magnet to the future of the Association. It served as the first clear-cut testimonial to the dignity to which an organization of street railway men could elevate the craft. It also served to advertise the methods of capitalization of street railway syndicates. A heavily bonded company that could afford to lose one and a half millions of dollars rather than risk the exposures liable to be discovered through the arbitration of a wage rate, and that, too, when it had just passed from a receivership, aroused a suspicion against methods of financing that has reflected seriously to the disadvantage of public utility corporations.

The leader of the Milwaukee strike and his associates were led by the persistency of the company to exploit municipal ownership, and the seed sown during the conduct of that strike did not fall upon barren ground. It has grown to a progressive change of economic conditions in Milwaukee that is not without its influence in other industrial centers.

Taken from the report of President W. D. Mahon, delivered in May, 1897, to the Convention of the Association assembled at Dayton, Ohio, are references made by him to the Milwaukee strike, as follows:

"That our association was right in the position it took is proven by the support that was given us by the public, who, for six long weeks. walked and refused to patronize the railways, many people having to walk many miles to and from their work. This strike, so far as our organization is concerned, is still on.”

The above extract from the President's report indicates that the strike continued forcefully and effectively for six weeks. The President in that report continues:

"The only mistake made during that battle and the one which injured us most was that of supporting a new company which desired a franchise in the city, when the great majority of the citizens desired municipal control. Had the fight been continued along the lines of municipal control, I am of the opinion that our chance of winning would have been surer and greater. As it is, they have a contract with the new company to employ our members in the construction and operation of the new road when built and equipped."

In his final reference to the strike, the President said:

"No braver set of workmen ever went into battle than our members of Milwaukee. While they fought and, as it were, lost, they won the battle of the year for the railroad men of the country, and the benefits we have derived come through the noble fight made by them."

It would seem that the arrangements with the new company, to which the President refers as a mistake, never materialized in advantage to the employes who were led with some hope of maintaining the organization by encouragement from the promoters. It seems to have served in some measure to detract from support of the strikers and the strike, as tated by President Mahon, continued in

definitely until its apparent effects were buries in time.

The Milwaukee strike served a purpose in most forcefully introducing to the street and electric railway world the Amalgamated Association and its invincible champion. That strike proved a most expensive victory to those who hoped by it to stop the tide of progressive organization among street railway men.

HARDSCRABLE TRANSFORMED BY ADVENT OF TROLLEY President Silas Dorn, stimulated some by the subscriptions of Doyle, Carson and Fenton, and, perhaps some more by previous encouragement he had received from Josiah Rodney, and still very much more by his past experience in being "in" on the ground floor in such enterprises, subscribed for 1,500 shares in the new company. But he didn't take this step until after he elaborated to some length upon the public benefaction the new enterprise would prove to be, concluding by lamenting the the slight appreciation shown the benefactors who risk their hard earned dollars in such enterprises.

Ten thousand shares were now taken by the four lightweight directors. These 10,000 shares woudl bring an immediate working capital of $100,000.

Four-fifths of the five million dollars of stock yet remained in the hands of Messrs. Rodney, Veasy and Nicholi. They guaranteed its sale and accepted it as collateral upon which they advanced $400,000. Thus was the new line projected, capitalized at $5,000,000, with $500,000 paid in.

But five directors were named, consisting of Messrs. Fenton, Carson, Veasy, Doyle and Dorn, although it was agreed that the bylaws should embrace seven. For obvious reasons two vacancies upon the board were retained. Mr. J. M. Fenton and Mr. Byron Carson were chosen president and secretary, respectively. Mr. Veasy was selected as treasurer temporarily, and the new company was styled "The Rural Railway."

Senator Carson was allotted the work of securing the city franchise. Mr. J. M. Fenton's preliminary work was to secure the private and borough rights through the country. Further meetings of the directors of the new company were subject to the call of the president, who, with Veasy and Carson, constituted an executive committee.

That which was remarkable about this meeting of the board of directors of the Publicanus Railway & Light Co. was the fact that nothing of importance was done in the interest of that company. However, the expense of the meeting was charged against the Publicanus. That was at least a convenience. The record of the meeting also showed that Mr. Rodney reported upon information he had received relative to a movement among the employes to organize. Senator Carson expressed himself as not being able to see any reason why the em ployes should not be permitted to organize if they so desired.

Mr. Rodney explained that the wage question was an important one in the matter

of developing and maintaing stock values. "The stock of the Publicanus," he urged, "has depreciated to $18 per share. Its par value is $100 per share. If we permit the employes to organize, it means an interference with the economy of the company. We will be forced to pay more wages and withdraw certain exactions with which the employers are now compelled to comply, all of which will be added expense, and deduct from that which credits now to the stock value. As a matter of fact, you gentlemen know that it is now impossible to pay 6 per cent even upon $18, the maintained value of a share of stock, par value of which is $100. If we drop any lower, it will be more difficult to further load this company."

A resolution was adopted referring the matter back to Mr. Rodney with instructions to use such means as he might appropriate to maintain the employes in an unorganized state.

At the very hour of the meeting of the

directors, and while they were completing the organization of their new Rural Railway Company, there was being held, in the room of Jim Harding, a few blocks from the office in which the directors were assembled, another meeting. Attending the meeting in Jim Harding's room were five men. Four of them were employes of the Publicanus Company. One was an organizer. Conductor Harry Smith, Motorman Joe Hanley of the city lines and Conductor Jim Harding and Motorman Frank Howard of the River interurban route were the four employes; John Horgan was the organizer. Sheltered well within the shadow of a convenient building upon the opposite side of the street were two young men whose actions indicated that they were anxious that any who observed them should understand that they were "detectives" shrewdly endeavoring to conceal their identity. They were on the trail of John Horgan.

(To be continued.)

"Do you remember me buying a hair mattress from you the other day?" asked the lady. "Perfectly well, ma'am," was the reply of the dealer.

"Well, I've discovered that only about onequarter of the filling is hair,"

"Then you certainly do seem to have me where the hair is short, ma'am."-Yonkers Statesman.

A Mother's Appeal. Will you not help us to find this boy, Joseph E. Hubbard, of 32 Fowler St., Dorchester, Mass? He has always had an overwhelming desire to evangelize the Western Indian tribes, and he left Boston on July sixth, presumably for the West; since then nothing has been heard from him.

He is fifteen years of age, five feet five inches in height, weighs about 120 pounds; he has brown eyes, black hair and a full refined face.

When he left Boston he wore a knickerbocker suit of dark corduroy. This he may have changed on the way.

Will anybody who has seen the boy or held conversation with him kindly write. Any information on this matter should be sent to D: D. Driscoll, box C, Station A, Boston, Mass. MASS. S. F. OF L.

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