A STRIKE ON THE MISSOURI, KANSAS AND TEXAS RAILWAY.

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HE telegraphers and station agents employed on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway have found it necessary to go to the last resort in an effort to get their grievances adjusted and their rights established. For some years past there has been bad conditions on that road because the telegraphers and station agents were not treated fairly by the offcials.

In 1899 the committee waited on the management for the purpose of revising the existing schedule and wage scale and succeeded in getting a slight increase in pay for the telegraphers. After the committee retired, the company revised the wage scale again in such a manner that they took enough from the station agents income to meet the slight increase granted the telegraphers, thus causing much ill feeling among the station agents.

During all the prosperous times of recent years no increase in pay has been allowed the telegraphers and station agents although other organized classes have been liberally treated with. They did take from the station agents and add to the telegraphers but that is not counted as an increase.

The station agents and telegraphers have been treated as if they were of very little importance and all of their grievances were virtually ignored. With the object of obtaining better working conditions the General Committee representing the telegraphers and station agents convened at St. Louis, Mo., on November 23rd, 1903. The committee was subjected to the usual number of delays and stood off on various pretexts and failing to arrive at a satisfactory settlement the negotiations were turned over to the organization in the manner provided by our laws.

On March 8th, 1904, a long delay ensued, after this, partly on account of our chief

executive being engaged in other negotiations and the officials of the company being busy with conferences with other committees. Eventually the conference was resumed with President Perham taking part, and each article of the proposed revised schedule was argued in detail. A satisfactory settlement could not be reached as the officials seemed to be impervious to any argument that could be advanced. The officials were requested to give the matter further consideration and if they saw fit, to submit a counter proposition, which would be considered by the committee to be final. In lieu of a counter proposition the management officials wrote that after careful consideration of the differences between the telegraphers schedule presented by the company, and the subsequent and additional rules and requests for increase of salaries at various points, the company felt that the increase made by them last year and the further increases in salaries and changes in rules offered the committee in March, was all they could afford to do, in view of the present and prospective unfavorable financial conditions.

This letter was accepted as final and it was resolved to refer the entire matter back to the membership in order that their wishes might be consulted and followed out by the committee. A circular letter was issued showing the company's proposition and the committee's proposition word for word and figure for figure. No comments were made upon the situation and no attempts of any kind to influence the membership. It was clearly stated in the circular letter that if a majority of those voting vote in favor of accepting the company's proposition the committee and the chief executive of the organization would close up negotiations along those lines as soon as it was possible to do so. If a majority of those voting voted to sustain the committee and its proposition to the company that a strike would be called if necessary to put the committee's proposition or something similar to it into effect. A blank ballot was made a part of this circular. On July 28th, a majority of all the telegraphers and station agents employed on the system having voted to go out on a

strike rather than accept the company's proposition as set forth in the circular the telegraphers and station agents committee with President Perham endeavored to get into conference again with the officials, but meeting with the same kind of tactics that had been pursued in the past, some officials being absent from the city, others declining to meet the committee until the others returned, it was decided to put out the strike order to take effect at 4 p. m. Aug. 1st, and the officials were notified in regard to the pending strike in plenty of time for them to prevent it coming on if they had wanted to do so. They evidently desired a conflict and they were involved in one at the hour specified. About four hundred and fifty telegraphers and station agents were employed on the system, and with a solitary exception here and there they obeyed the strike order and walked out. The company immediately made their moves to offset the strike, and very soon after four o'clock every official or semi-official who could telegraph sat down to a key and became one of Prof. Elliott's heroes. Train-dispatchers' officers were disorganized and the trick-train-dispatchers sent along the line with train sheets as a sort of a blind and they did telegraphing and other duties besides train dispatching. It is understood that several dispatchers threw up their positions and quit the service of the company rather than do the kind of work assigned them. The names of these men and a correct account of the incident will be secured and published later, and those men will get due credit for their manly and straightforward action. The trick-train dispatchers, commercial agents, and others of the semi-official class, who did telegraph work during the strike will also have their names published in order that the Professor before mentioned may be able to send them medals for their bravery. The organized telegraphers will keep the list of "scabs" developed during this struggle for their own personal use for many years to come.

The company opened up employment agencies in many of the large cities and offered flattering inducements for telegraphers to accept employment. All the detective agencies of a certain calibre, as