GURDON W. WATTLES
 
 A Crime Against Labor 
 
 A brief history of the Omaha & 
 
 Council Bluffs Street 
 
 Railway Strike 
 
 1909 
 
 By GURDON W. WATTLES
 
 Contents. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 I. Advent of the Union 5 
 
 II. Second Visit of the Agitator 8 
 
 III. Third Demand for " Recognition" 15 
 
 IV. The Final Conference 19 
 
 V. Endorsement of Company's Position 51 
 
 VI. Stampeding the Men 57 
 
 VII. The Strike 63 
 
 VIII. Intervention of Public Officials 73 
 
 IX. Terms of Re-employment Submitted Ill 
 
 X. Labor Commissioner's Investigation 117 
 
 XI. The Business Men's Association 122 
 
 XII. Efforts to Settle the Strike 125 
 
 XIII. Attempts to Punish by Legislation 130 
 
 XIV. The Strike-maker 134 
 
 XV. Strike-breakers 141 
 
 XVI. Loyalty Rewarded Views of the Men 153 
 
 XVII. Lessons of the Strike. . . 162 
 
 Illustrations. 
 
 Opposite 
 Page 
 
 Frontispiece Gurdon W. Wattles 
 
 Leaders of the Union 28 
 
 Parade of the Strikers 48 
 
 Rioting on Farnam Street 68 
 
 Ames Avenue Car Barn 80 
 
 The Outside Agitators 106 
 
 Strike-Breaking Contractors 142 
 
 Scene of Vinton Street Riot . . 150
 
 Introductory. 
 
 It is the purpose of this narrative to preserve in comprehensive 
 form the history of the industrial crime that, in September, 1909, 
 shook the city of Omaha and adjoining municipalities to their 
 outermost environs; paralyzed for some days the business and 
 social interests of 250,000 people; temporarily withdrew from 500 
 men and their families the means of livelihood; and ultimately left 
 150 of them to search elsewhere for new occupation. It is the 
 story of the strike of the union operating carmen in the employ 
 of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company, the serv- 
 ice corporation operating the traction systems of the cities of 
 Omaha, South Omaha, Council Bluffs, and the suburbs of Benson, 
 Florence and Dundee. 
 
 .The facts herein presented are taken from authentic records. 
 A large portion, relating to conferences held, first with a view of 
 preventing a strike, and later with a view of settling the strike, 
 is reprinted from the transcript of the court reporter who made a 
 stenographic report of the proceedings at the time of their 
 occurrence. A portion is reproduced from the editorial and news 
 columns of the daily newspapers, while statements of some of 
 the public officials and most prominent business men of the city, 
 as well as of several of the striking and non-union employes of the 
 company, are presented in order that the facts may be truthfully 
 set forth without undue prejudice or color. 
 
 It has been the effort of the historian to present the case on 
 its attendant merits and demerits, chronicling the things that 
 actually occurred and arranging them in chronological order, that 
 the reader may be informed as to all the phases of the situation 
 that dereloped, and reach the understanding that comes of accu- 
 rate knowledge. Such knowledge is a prerequisite, if the blame 
 or responsibility for what occurred is to be unerringly fixed. 
 
 That a grave responsibility rests somewhere is evident, but 
 it is for the future to call it to account, either at the bar of public 
 opinion or to those misguided men who were most grievously 
 wronged. 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 ADVENT OF THE UNION 
 
 In August, 1902, an international union officer by the name 
 of Wilson appeared in Omaha, and started the organization of a 
 street railway union among the employes of the Omaha Street 
 Railway Company. About fifteen men joined the union. They 
 were promptly suspended by the General Superintendent of the 
 company, but soon after they asked for a hearing before the Board 
 of Directors, which was granted. 
 
 At this meeting they requested that Mr. Wilson, the inter- 
 national organizer, be allowed to explain to the board the objects 
 and purposes of the union they sought to organize. He was ad- 
 mitted, and in his statement said that in many cities of the country 
 unions existed among the street railway employes, but that in no 
 case did the union attempt to enforce a closed shop; that union 
 men and non-union men worked together on street railways in 
 perfect harmony; that the purpose of the organization in Omaha 
 was for the mutual benefit and advantage of the men who should 
 join the union; that the company would not be asked to treat them 
 in any different manner than it treated its non-union employes, 
 and that no special contract with the union men would be asked or 
 required either at this time or in the future. 
 
 On the strength of this statement, which was taken down, the 
 officers of the Street Railway Company withdrew their objections 
 to the organization of the union, and reinstated the men who had 
 been suspended on account of joining it. 
 
 For some time thereafter comparatively few of the employes 
 of the Street Railway Company joined the union. The policy of 
 the company and its officers had always been to treat its employes 
 in a liberal and fair manner. For many years the Omaha Street 
 Railway Company had paid a flat wage of twenty cents per hour. 
 All during the panic and depression from 1893 to 1900 the wages 
 of its employes had never been reduced, although the company 
 paid but one dividend to its stockholders during that period. The
 
 6 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 story is told that during the darkest days of depression, when it 
 seemed hardly possible to keep the company out of the hands of 
 a receiver, the suggestion was made at a meeting of the Board of 
 Directors that the wages of the men be decreased, but that Mr. 
 Frank Murphy, then president of the company, stated emphat- 
 ically that even though the company should go into bankruptcy 
 he would not favor a decrease of wages to its employes. So the 
 wages were not decreased, although the Kansas City street railway 
 company was then paying its conductors and motormen fifteen 
 cents per hour, and the street railway company of Minneapolis and 
 St. Paul was paying sixteen cents per hour. 
 
 On January 1, 1903, the wages of conductors and motormen 
 were increased as follows: First year 20 cents per hour, second 
 year 21 cents, thereafter 22 cents. 
 
 On May 1, 1906, another increase was granted, and the follow- 
 ing scale of wages was put in force: First year 20 cents per 
 hour, second year 21 cents, third year 22 cents, fourth, fifth and 
 sixth years 23 cents, seventh to tenth years inclusive 24 cents, 
 thereafter 25 cents per hour. 
 
 On May 1, 1907, another increase was made and the following 
 scale of wages was adopted: First year 21 cents per hour, second 
 year 22 cents, third year 23 cents, fourth year 24 cents, fifth to 
 ninth years 25 cents per hour, thereafter 26 cents per hour. 
 
 From the date of the organization of the union until the strike 
 was called on September 18, 1909, at no time did a majority of the 
 conductors and motormen of the street railway system belong to 
 the union. 
 
 Soon after its organization, a large delegation of the old em- 
 ployes of the company, some of whom had been in the service for 
 twenty years or more, called on the officers of the company and 
 stated that members of the union were urging them to join, and had 
 said that unless they did so they were liable to lose their posi- 
 tions. These old employes stated that they were well satisfied 
 with their treatment; that they had no complaints against the 
 company or its officers ; and that they did not wish to belong to a 
 union, for fear that at some future time they might be compelled 
 to lose their positions through a strike or otherwise, if they became 
 members of this organization. 
 
 These men were told, as were many others who later inquired, 
 that the company would not at any time jeopardize their interests
 
 ADVENT OF THE UNION 7 
 
 by entering into any contract or agreement with the union, and 
 that an agreement had been made when the union was organized 
 that no contract would be required, and that the company would 
 not be asked to treat its union employes in any different or more 
 favorable manner than it did its non-union men. 
 
 For some time after the union was formed but few of the 
 employes joined it, but from time to time outside officers of the 
 national organization came among the men. At such times fre- 
 quent meetings of the union were held, and men were urged and 
 solicited to join it. During these periods there was always more 
 or less friction between the union and non-union men. Heated 
 arguments were frequently held where the men congregated about 
 the barns. Men who would not join were sometimes called " scabs", 
 and in some cases friendships and good feeling of long standing 
 between the men who had worked together were broken up. In 
 one case a conductor and motorman had been partners and good 
 friends for years. When the conductor joined the union he urged 
 his motorman to do the same, and when he declined, the friend- 
 ship between them became strained, until finally each at different 
 times came to his superior officer with complaints against the other. 
 
 There was a continual strife between the two factions. A 
 union conductor would seek in every manner to annoy and harass 
 his motorman. On the other hand the non-union men sought to 
 violate rules of the company and be excused because of the fact 
 that they did not belong to the union. Union men were jealous 
 of their rights, and often complained that they were not as well 
 treated as those who did not belong to their order. 
 
 Meanwhile the officers of the company had announced their 
 policy to treat all employes in the same manner, and that they 
 would not discriminate for or against those who belonged to the 
 union. 
 
 When the outside agitators had left the city, peace would be 
 again restored. Converts who had j oined the union would pay a 
 few months' dues and then drop out. The membership would 
 continue to decrease, until the next agitator came along to revive it.
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 SECOND VISIT OF THE AGITATOR 
 
 In February, 1907, an international officer by the name of 
 A. J. Behner, of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Elec- 
 tric Railway Employes of America, came to Omaha and commenced 
 a revival of the union. Frequent meetings were held, and finally 
 at a public meeting he announced his plans to be to force the Street 
 Railway Company to enter into a signed contract with the union, 
 granting its members certain privileges they did not then enjoy, 
 and stated that unless the Street Railway Company entered into 
 such an agreement, it was his purpose to call a strike and "stop 
 the wheels of progress in the communities which the Street Rail- 
 way Company served. " 
 
 He succeeded in securing quite a large addition to the member- 
 ship of the union, and finally stated his plans publicly in the news- 
 papers. To these statements the then Vice-President of the Street 
 Railway Company made answer in a published statement, which 
 appeared in the newspapers of this city on February 17, 1907, 
 as follows: 
 
 " From what has been said I now take it for granted that there 
 will be a strike. The company's position in the matter is 
 thoroughly known to the union men as well as to our employes who 
 are not members of the union. We shall refuse to recognize the 
 union in any way, and shall refuse to recognize any difference in 
 our employes because of membership or non-membership in any 
 union. 
 
 " Inasmuch as false and misleading statements have been given 
 publicity by an outside agitator, regarding the attitude of the 
 Street Railway Company and of its employes, and as there seems 
 to be a fixed determination to make trouble with a view to bringing 
 about a strike, I would like to have the people of Omaha fully 
 acquainted with all the facts in the case. 
 
 (8)
 
 SECOND VISIT OF THE AGITATOR 9 
 
 " It should be understood at the outset that there is absolutely 
 no conflict of views between the company and the majority of the 
 men who run its cars. This disturbance is not being stirred up 
 by the men who make their living running cars, but by those who 
 make a living off the men who do run the cars. Fully two-thirds 
 of our men do not want to belong to any union. They are satisfied 
 with their treatment by the company, and they do not want to be 
 compelled to pay over a part of their earnings as dues to support 
 a pretended guardian for whom they have no use. Our men have 
 been in repeatedly to see us, and to ask if it was necessary for them 
 to join the union in order to avoid any discrimination against them. 
 We have invariably told them that it was not. That has all along 
 been our policy, and it will continue to be. We shall keep our 
 word to them in letter and in spirit. 
 
 "We would prefer to see no union organization among the 
 men, and we have not hesitated to frankly say so to them. It 
 causes factionalism among them, and brings about a condition 
 where we sometimes have a motorman and conductor on the same 
 car who will not speak to each other, because one belongs to the 
 union and the other does not. It requires no elaboration of argu- 
 ment to make it plain that such a condition does not tend to the 
 betterment of the service, or to the safety or convenience of the 
 traveling public. With such a feeling of antagonism there is in- 
 creased danger to the lives of the passengers and to the property of 
 the company, as it shows a desire to get the other man into trouble 
 sufficiently to lose his job. We do not want such a feeling among 
 our men. We want the utmost harmony of purpose and of interest, 
 and it is likewise to the interest of every person who rides upon the 
 street cars to have it so. 
 
 "It has always been and will continue to be our policy to pay 
 the best wages paid by any street car company in any city of this 
 size in the country. Twice within the past five years we have 
 voluntarily increased our wage scale. We have refused to turn 
 the conduct of our business over to the union, and we shall rigidly 
 adhere to that conclusion. They have demanded that we make 
 a flat scale of 23 cents an hour for all men, regardless of their 
 time of service. We have refused and shall continue to refuse it. 
 We have promised our men a graded scale, based on their length 
 of service, and that promise will continue to be made good. It 
 may suit the union to demand that a new man shall be considered
 
 10 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 as efficient and as valuable to the company as a thoroughly expe- 
 rienced and more carefully trained man, but we do not so regard 
 it. We desire to offer an inducement to the competent, capable 
 man, who attends conscientiously to his duty and remains faith- 
 fully in the service, and we are confident that in this view we will 
 have the cordial support of every thoughtful person of sound 
 judgment. 
 
 "In the public prints, this imported representative of the 
 union is quoted as saying that the company made a pretense of 
 paying 25 cents per hour, but that it was based on ten years' serv- 
 ice, and that under the present system a man is not retained in 
 the service that long. I have taken pains to look up the figures, 
 and the secretary of the company has just handed me a compilation 
 showing that over 20 per cent of our men are drawing 25 cents an 
 hour. The number is steadily increasing, and it will continue to 
 increase. 
 
 " This same imported authority is quoted as saying that the 
 company has discharged men who attended union meetings. The 
 inference is that men were discharged because they attended union 
 meetings. Such a statement is wholly without foundation, and 
 I so stated to that individual when he called on me. I challenged 
 him to produce one man who had been discharged for such a cause, 
 and he produced two discharged motormen. Their cases were 
 investigated, and it developed that one was discharged because 
 he ran his car across the Belt line track just ahead of a rapidly 
 moving train and narrowly missed being run down. 
 
 "There are enough accidents that are not due to carelessness 
 without continuing the employment of a man who will thus invite 
 the destruction of the lives of the passengers and the property of 
 v the company. The investigation showed further that this man 
 offered to withdraw from the union if permitted to hold his job. 
 He was told that union membership had no bearing on the case 
 in any way whatever, and would not be considered. I am informed 
 that he later claimed that he could have held his job if he would 
 withdraw from the union. The other discharged man was allowed 
 to go because he carelessly ran his car into another on the Q Street 
 curve in South Omaha, where the work of the motorman on the 
 other car was all that prevented a more serious accident. 
 
 " Another false statement that has been given publicity is that 
 I had stated to Mayor Dahlman that we wished to crush out the
 
 SECOND VISIT OF THE AGITATOR 11 
 
 union. The most complete refutation of that is the statement of 
 Mayor Dahlman, that I did not make any such statement, but 
 that I did say that we had made no discrimination whatever 
 between union and non-union men, and that we do not intend to 
 recognize any rules that would make a discrimination in favor of 
 or against any of our men. 
 
 " As to the implied threat of a strike that 'would tie up traffic 
 and paralyze Omaha industries,' if such a strike is to be precipi- 
 tated, I want the citizens of Omaha to understand the situation. 
 It is demanded that the company 'recognize the union.' Before 
 I became familiar with just what that meant, I used to think there 
 was no excuse for refusing such an innocent-sounding demand. I 
 supposed that it meant speaking to them and hearing whatever 
 they might have to say. It really means allowing them to run 
 our business for us, and dictating to us whom we shall employ or 
 not employ and whom we shall discharge or not discharge, and be 
 continually embroiled in some kind of controversy. There has 
 never been a time when we have refused to hear any complaints 
 that our men might wish to make, and union men have had the 
 same courtesy and consideration as the non-union men. 
 
 " It is from this source that a demand is made for vestibules 
 for the rear end of our cars. I will venture the opinion that nine 
 out of ten people who ride on the cars do not want anything of the 
 kind. The majority of those who ride on the platform do so be- 
 cause they want to be out in the open air, as they are cooped up in 
 shops or offices all day. Many of them want to smoke and spit. 
 A closed vestibule would make an ill-smelling place for passengers 
 to pass through in getting on or off the cars. I do not believe a 
 woman in the city would want it so, and hardly any of the men. 
 That agitation is based wholly on fictitious sentiment as a humane 
 move in behalf of the conductors. As a matter of fact the con- 
 ductors are inside the car more or less, and it is a wholly different 
 situation from the motormen on the front end. The conductors 
 do not have to undergo severe exposure. The public may not 
 know it, but our rules were modified some time ago so as to allow 
 conductors to remain inside the cars in severe weather, instead 
 of requiring them to stay on the platform except when col- 
 lecting fares. The union is pushing this measure to make a 
 showing of what it can do with the company, rather than to accom- 
 plish some real benefit either to the employes or to the public.
 
 12 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 It is a fair illustration of the moves that the paid agitators are 
 constantly making in order to make some kind of a showing, in 
 return for the money that they are taking from the men who really 
 do the work. 
 
 "We have been ready and willing at all times to give full 
 hearing and impartial consideration to the just claims of our men, 
 and we do not intend to deviate from that policy in any particular. 
 We insist that each man shall stand on his own merit, and treat 
 with him accordingly. So far as this company is concerned there 
 is no necessity of any organization to back him up or for him to 
 hide behind. If he is derelict, we do not intend that he shall be 
 bolstered up by any organization to keep him in a position where 
 he can be a menace to either life or property. There is altogether 
 too much at stake, and it is not merely a matter of dollars and cents. 
 
 "The public is concerned in this situation and will want the 
 course pursued that will insure the safest and most efficient service. 
 We have for years been making this business a study, and have 
 become firmly convinced that the placing of individual responsi- 
 bility, and with it a proper recognition of long-continued and faith- 
 ful service, is the surest guaranty of faithful, careful attention 
 to duty. 
 
 "This company aims to treat the public fairly and to deal 
 fairly and squarely with the men in its employ. We want their 
 best service, and we propose to treat them in the surest way to get 
 it and to have it continue. We believe that we can keep closer to 
 the men, and have more kindly feeling and results that will be more 
 satisfactory to us mutually, by dealing directly with them than by 
 handing the situation over to a third interest that has been quite 
 as often disposed to promote trouble as it has been to promote 
 peace. For these reasons the demand for such 'recognition of the 
 union' has been declined, and the decision is final. " 
 
 "(Signed) G. W. WATTLES, Vice-President. " 
 
 In due time a committee from the union waited on the Board 
 of Directors of the Street Railway Company, and presented a 
 contract between the union and the company and demanded execu- 
 tion thereof. This contract contained the following provisions: 
 
 "Section 3. All motormen or conductors who are now or 
 may hereafter become members of the association shall remain 
 in good standing in the association as long as they remain in the 
 service of the company, providing that such continuance of mem-
 
 SECOND VISIT OP THE AGITATOR 13 
 
 bership shall not conflict with the laws of the association. All 
 new motormen and conductors hired in the future shall receive 
 their necessary instructions upon the car at the hands of the mem- 
 bers of the association, and upon making application for member- 
 ship in the association, and their membership shall be governed 
 by the same rules as that stated above in regard to present members 
 of the association. The company further agrees that in case the 
 association expels a member for the violation of its laws, that they 
 will dismiss such employe from the service of the company upon 
 receipt of the proof of such violation from the association. 
 
 "Section 5. All members of the association in the employ 
 of the company shall be given free transportation over all lines 
 owned or operated by the company. 
 
 "Section 7. Any member of the association elected or 
 appointed to office in this division, o'r in the International Associa- 
 tion, shall be given such leave of absence as may be required for 
 him to fulfill his duties in said office, and upon his retirement from 
 said office or appointment, he shall be placed in his former position 
 in the employ of the company. 
 
 "Section 10. Motormen and conductors shall be paid a flat 
 scale of 25 cents per hour." 
 
 It contained other provisions for reinstatement of men who 
 had been or might be discharged by the company, and was to be 
 in force until June 1, 1907, at which time either this contract or 
 another was to be entered into for the ensuing year. 
 
 The officers of the Street Railway Company absolutely refused 
 to enter into this contract, and a meeting of the employes was called 
 to vote on the question of a strike. The officers of the union ap- 
 pealed to the leading representatives of other labor unions in 
 the city for sympathy and assistance. Before taking decided action 
 on this appeal, it was proposed that the then president of the Cen- 
 tral Labor Union and the last two ex-presidents of that body 
 should hear a statement of the grievances from the Street Railway 
 Union representatives, and the vice-president of the Street Rail- 
 way Company was asked to appear before these labor representa- 
 tives and state the side of the company. 
 
 This invitation was accepted, and on March 7, 1907, the hear- 
 ing was held. At this meeting the evidence was produced as to 
 the original agreement between the Street Railway Company and 
 the officers of the union, when it was organized, that no contract
 
 14 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 should be asked or required of the Street Railway Company, and 
 other evidence on the questions involved. After a full investiga- 
 tion of these matters this committee, composed of Mr. Charles 
 McDonald, Mr. Louis V. Guye and Mr. John Polian, made certain 
 findings, one of which was as follows: 
 
 " FIFTH In the matter of a written contract demanded on the 
 part of your organization, we find that inasmuch as an agreement 
 was entered into at the time of the formation of your local union 
 to the effect that the company would not be required to sign such 
 contract, we therefore recommend that said contract be with- 
 drawn and that grievances therein contained be presented as 
 such." 
 
 At the end of their report they found that no cause for a 
 strike existed, and recommended against it. Mr. Behner left the 
 city, and peace again reigned.
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 THIRD DEMAND FOR "RECOGNITION" 
 
 No further conferences were asked or held between the officers 
 of the Street Railway Company and the representatives of the 
 union for nearly two and a half years. The membership of the 
 union gradually decreased until in August, 1909, there appeared 
 on the scene Mr. Ben Commons, another officer of the Amalga- 
 mated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes of 
 America. A little later Mr. C. O. Pratt, Chairman of the General 
 Executive Board of said association, came to assist Mr. Commons 
 in the revival of the union which he was conducting among the 
 street railway men. Mr. Pratt stated at a meeting before the 
 Executive Committee of the Business Men's Association, at a later 
 date, that only twelve men belonged to the union when Mr. Com- 
 mons came to Omaha; that both he and Mr. Commons had come 
 at the request of the men; that they came for peaceful purposes, 
 and that they did not seek nor desire a strike. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the number that belonged to the union 
 when Mr. Commons came to Omaha in August, 1909, was about 
 forty. Whether or not their mission was one of peace and good 
 will may be better understood by the reader after a recital of events 
 which followed their advent. 
 
 During the month of August, 1909, frequent meetings of the 
 Street Railway union were held at Labor Temple and addressed 
 by Mr. Commons and others. The men were urged to secure 
 additional members to the union, and by their diligent proselyting 
 a large number of the first-year men in the service of the company 
 joined the union. The sympathies of some men older in the service 
 were aroused, and some of them were induced to join for the pur- 
 pose of bettering, if possible, the conditions of these younger em- 
 ployes. Grievances real and imaginary were recited in detail, 
 and promises were freely made by Mr. Commons that the company 
 would be forced to enter into a contract with the union whereby 
 
 (15)
 
 16 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 all grievances would be adjusted by a board of arbitration, and 
 that the wages of the men would be immediately increased. 
 
 The revival went on and the proselyting continued, until 
 many non-union men made complaint to the officers of the company 
 that they were being harassed and abused, and even called "scabs" 
 because they would not join the union. These complaints became 
 so numerous that a committee of non-union men asked for a hearing 
 before the Board of Directors. 
 
 At about the same time a committee from the union asked for 
 a hearing, and the date for both committees was fixed by the Board 
 of Directors for the same hour, ten o'clock A. M., September 2nd, 
 1909. When these two committees appeared before the Board, 
 there was much hesitation as to whether or not the union commit- 
 tee would remain in the same room with the non-union employes. 
 Their objection was finally overcome, and complaints from both 
 sides were heard by the Board of Directors. The union committee 
 had, on September 8, presented to the President of the Company 
 a contract with the union, which they desired to have executed. 
 This contract is quoted in full as follows: | 
 
 " THIS AGREEMENT made and entered into by and between 
 THE OMAHA & COUNCIL BLUFFS STREET RAILWAY 
 COMPANY, hereinafter called the 'Company', and DIVISION No. 
 288, of Omaha, of THE AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION OF 
 STREET AND ELECTRIC RAILWAY EMPLOYES OF AMER- 
 ICA, hereinafter called the 'Association,' 
 
 " WITNESSETH, That the Company hereby agrees to and 
 with the Association, to treat with the Association on all differ- 
 ences arising between the members of the Association and the 
 Company, in the operation of the street railway lines owneol by 
 the Company. 
 
 "That all such differences shall be reported directly to the 
 officers of the Company and to the properly accredited officers or 
 authorized committees of the Association, for adjudication. 
 
 "Whenever a member of the Association is suspended or 
 discharged by the Company, such member shall have the right to 
 appeal to the Association from said order of suspension or discharge 
 issued by the Company, and if the decision of the Association on 
 such suspension or discharge shall differ from, or be antagonistic 
 to the said order of the Company, then both parties hereto shall 
 submit the question of such suspension or discharge to a board of
 
 THIRD DEMAND FOR "RECOGNITION" 17 
 
 arbitration consisting of three disinterested persons, onetobechosen 
 by the Company, another to be chosen by the Association, and the 
 two persons so chosen, to select a third; and a finding by a majority 
 of such board shall be final and binding on both parties hereto. 
 
 " A failure of either party to this agreement to name its arbi- 
 trator within three days after having received written notice that 
 such arbitration is desired, shall be construed as an admission 
 against such party and shall be deemed equal to an adverse decision 
 by such board of arbitration on the question in dispute. 
 
 "Each and every member of the Association suspended or 
 discharged by the Company, shall be reinstated by the Company 
 to the position theretofore held by him, in the event the decision 
 of the board of arbitration is in his favor, and full wages shall be 
 paid such member by the Company for the time he was so sus- 
 pended or discharged. 
 
 " All motormen and conductors shall have the right to select 
 their runs; such right shall be based upon the time of continued 
 service with the Company, seniority in such service to prevail 
 in said selections. 
 
 "The wages and hours for all motormen, conductors, shop 
 and shed men shall be as follows: 
 
 "Wages for motormen and conductors to cover first year's 
 service twenty-six (26) cents per hour. 
 
 " For second year's service twenty-seven (27) cents per hour. 
 
 "For the third year's service and thereafter, twenty-eight 
 (28) cents per hour. 
 
 " Time and one-half shall be allowed to all motormen and con- 
 ductors for the actual time employed over the regular runs; nine 
 and ten hours shall constitute a day's work, to be completed in 
 twelve consecutive hours, as near as practicable. 
 
 "Extra motormen and conductors when called upon to per- 
 form work, or take out trippers, shall be paid from the time they are 
 ordered to report for duty by the barn foreman and do report for 
 duty, up to and until the time that they are relieved; pay for such 
 services shall be at the rate hereinbefore mentioned. The same 
 proportionate increase in wages heretofore mentioned and set 
 forth shall apply to all shop and shed men who are members of 
 the Association. 
 
 " Whenever any of the officers or members of the Executive 
 Board of the Association desire to be relieved of duty in order to
 
 18 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 perform any service or services for the Association, their request 
 in that behalf shall have precedence over that of all other employes. 
 
 " Any member of the Association who may be expelled by the 
 Association for a violation of any of the rules or laws of the Associa- 
 tion, or of the rules or regulations of the Company, shall be dis- 
 charged by the Company on written request of the Association. 
 
 " The Company shall provide each barn with a sufficient num- 
 ber of extra men to permit those having regular duties or regular 
 runs to take a lay-off at least four days in each and every month. 
 
 " The Company shall in no manner interfere with or attempt 
 to prevent any of its old or new employes from becoming members 
 of the Association. 
 
 ;"4? "This agreement shall be binding on the parties hereto and 
 shall remain in full force and effect for a period of two years from 
 and after the 1st day of September, 1909. 
 
 "IN WITNESS WHEREOF said parties have by their re- 
 spective officers hereto set their hands this day of 
 
 August, 1909. 
 
 " In presence of 
 
 At this meeting the union committee was plainly told that 
 the company would not enter into this or any other contract, and 
 the reasons therefor were given. The numerous matters con- 
 tained in the contract were fully and freely discussed, however, 
 and assurances were given that if any just cause existed for com- 
 plaint against the company, such matters would be investigated 
 and immediately corrected. 
 
 Both committees were assured that the policy of the company, 
 to treat all of its employes well and in the same manner, would be 
 continued; that, notwithstandingthe fact that the company was now 
 paying the highest wages of any city in the country where similar 
 conditions prevail, an increase of pay would be made as soon as the 
 financial condition of the company would justify; that if any 
 changes in the schedules of runs could be made, which would im- 
 prove the hours or conditions of the men without impairing the serv- 
 ice to the public, such changes would be adopted. Many other mat- 
 ters were fully and freely discussed by all of the parties in conference, 
 and the meeting came to an end, after a four hours' session, with 
 apparent good feeling and satisfaction on the part of all concerned.
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 
 
 On September 14, 1909, the following letter was received by 
 the President of the Street Railway Company: 
 
 "DIVISION 288 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION OF STREET AND ELEC- 
 TRIC RAILWAY EMPLOYES OF AMERICA. 
 
 OMAHA, SOUTH OMAHA, COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
 
 Omaha, Neb., Sept. 14, 1909. 
 "MR. GURDON W. WATTLES, President, 
 O. & C. B. St. Ry. Co., 
 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 DEAR SIR: 
 
 At a special meeting of your employes held yesterday after- 
 noon and evening we were instructed by unanimous vote to seek 
 an immediate conference with you for the purpose of securing a 
 definite understanding in regard to certain matters that are of 
 mutual concernment. In accordance therewith we ask that you 
 meet our committee and representatives prior to Wednesday even- 
 ing. You can designate the hour and place for meeting. Await- 
 ing an early reply we are, 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 (Signed) CHAS. H. LEAR, Pres., 
 H. P. NELSON, 
 W. H. PONCELOW, 
 M. J. KENNEY, 
 W. GILLAN, 
 WM. S. BOIEN, 
 P. J. LENAHAN, Sec., 
 
 4023 N. 25th;~Ave."
 
 20 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 The date of the conference was fixed for two o'clock P. M., 
 Sept. 15, 1909. Inasmuch as this conference was to be held 
 between several members of the Street Railway Union on the one 
 side and one representative of the Company on the other side, it 
 was deemed proper by the President of the Company to secure the 
 services of a court reporter, in order that what was said on both 
 sides might be taken down. The services of Mr. Frank J. Sutcliffe, 
 a court reporter, were secured for this purpose. He was the same 
 reporter who had been employed by the union committee, two and 
 a half years previous, to take down the proceedings of the meeting 
 before the three labor union leaders. 
 
 Some objections to having the proceedings taken down were 
 raised by members of the committee when they called, but these 
 were overruled, and what was said at the meeting was transcribed 
 by the stenographer and at a later date was published in the lead- 
 ing newspapers of Omaha and Council Bluffs, as follows: 
 
 Report of meeting between a committee of seven of the 
 union employes of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway 
 Company and Gurdon W. Wattles, president of said company, 
 held at the office of Mr. Wattles in the United States National 
 Bank building, on Wednesday afternoon, September 15, 1909. 
 
 Committee : 
 
 W. GILLAN, 
 W. S. BOIEN. 
 P. J. LENAHAN, 
 W. H. PONCELOW, 
 
 M. J. KlNNEY, 
 
 H. P. NELSON, 
 C. H. LEAR. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You have presented an agreement here 
 which you desire to have signed by the street railway company 
 with the union. 
 
 "It is not the first time that a similar agreement has been 
 presented to the officers of the company to be signed by them with 
 this union, so that this is not a new question. It has been threshed 
 out several times before, but it seems necessary to thresh it out 
 again and to let you know exactly what the company proposes 
 to do in regard to this or any other agreement with the union em- 
 ployes of this company. 
 
 " When the union was first organized in this city, about ten 
 years ago, among the street railroad men, I don't know as any of 
 you were present, but I think some of you were. The men who 
 joined the union, about fifteen in number, were discharged or were 
 suspended by the company. They asked for a hearing before the
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 21 
 
 board of directors, which was granted, and when they came before 
 the board of directors Mr. Murphy was then president of the 
 company they asked that the national organizer, Mr. Wilson I 
 believe his name was, who was here organizing the union, should 
 be admitted to the room and should be allowed to speak on the 
 subject of the union, as the men at that time did not feel fully 
 competent to describe exactly what the union was going to do in 
 connection with the street railroad employes. 
 
 " Mr. Wilson came before the board and what he said was taken 
 down and made a matter of record. 
 
 " He said that the purpose of organizing the union among the 
 street railroad men in Omaha was not to stir up any strife or con- 
 flict either among the employes of the company or with the officers 
 of the company; that they sought to organize a union among the 
 employes of this company for the betterment of the conditions of 
 the employes and for their mutual uplifting; that all over the 
 country, in many of the principal cities, in nearly all of the prin- 
 cipal cities where unions existed among the street railway employes, 
 the non-union men and union men worked side by side in perfect 
 harmony; that there was no conflict between union men and non- 
 union men in all these cities where unions existed; that they asked 
 no different treatment of the union men who should join the union 
 it was the Omaha Street railway at that time than the other 
 employes received; that they would ask no contract with this com- 
 pany that would require the company in any manner to treat with 
 the union employes in a different or other manner than they treated 
 with all of their employes. 
 
 " With that understanding and agreement with the national 
 organizer, Mr. Wilson, the opposition of the company to the 
 organization of the union was withdrawn, and the men who had 
 been discharged or suspended were reinstated and sent back to 
 work, and the union went on with its organization, securing quite 
 a number of men to join it. 
 
 " At that time, we were waited on by a large number of our 
 old employes who had been solicited to join the union but who did 
 not desire to do so, and we were asked the question, point blank, 
 as to what the policy of this company was going to be regarding 
 its non-union employes whether or not we were going to sign a 
 contract with the union; whether or not we were going to treat 
 with the union employes in a different manner than we did with 
 them; whether or not they would ever be placed in jeopardy of 
 losing their positions or losing any of their rights as workmen for 
 this company if they did not join the union. 
 
 " We said to these men very frankly that this company had 
 an agreement with the organizer, who was a national officer of the 
 association, that no contract would be required or asked of this 
 company. "
 
 22 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " Mr. Wattles, that is not one of the questions 
 that the committee have come up here to discuss with you. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " If you will let me get through, Mr. Lenahan, 
 we can get this in better form. I will soon be through with this 
 statement. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " We have a new contract and you are going 
 to these original questions. We have a new contract that we want 
 to discuss." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " I will get through with this pretty soon and 
 we will come right down to the present time, so that there will not be 
 any misunderstanding about it. 
 
 " We can do better if one talks at a time, and I will give you 
 all ample time and full opportunity to talk on any part of this 
 subject you want before we are through. But as you have raised 
 the question yourselves about whether this company was going 
 to sign a contract with the union, why, I want to answer that 
 question, and I am answering it." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "That was the instruction we had when we 
 came here, not to go into past history, but to talk on the present 
 troubles. We are not here to discuss old agreements." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " Yes. I am here to tell you whether or not 
 we are going to sign a contract with the union, and in telling you 
 that I am stating some of the past history in order that you may 
 understand the position we take. 
 
 " Now, as I was saying, our old employes asked us what op- 
 position was going to be and we stated to them what our agreement 
 was with the union, and they were promised that we would never 
 place ourselves in a position where they would not receive exactly 
 the same treatment as any other employes, or where they would be 
 put in jeopardy of losing their positions. Our promise was given 
 them on the strength of the agreement that we had. 
 
 " Now, this matter came up, as you know, two years ago last 
 spring and was threshed out. At that time a contract, similar 
 to the one that is now presented, was presented to us a little 
 different in form, but similar in substance and the company 
 refused to sign it upon the same grounds that I have stated here, 
 and the question of whether or not the union street railway men 
 were justified in calling a strike at that time was raised, and we 
 were asked to appear before a body of union men and state our 
 case, with the understanding that these union men were going to 
 say, after they had heard the evidence, whether or not the position 
 of the men was justified, or whether or not they were justified in 
 striking at that time. 
 
 " My answer to Mr. Yeiser, who came to me with this propo- 
 sition, was this: That when I knew I was right I had no fear of 
 appearing before any man and stating what my position was, and 
 that I would appear before any body of men and would go before 
 the union itself and state what my position was. And the result
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 23 
 
 was that these men came here to this very room, and sat here and 
 heard the evidence that was introduced at that time, and one of 
 their findings, when they announced it in writing, reads as follows: 
 
 " 'Five In the matter of the written contract demanded 
 on the part of your organization we find that inasmuch as an agree- 
 ment was entered into at the time of the formation of your local 
 union to the effect that the company would not be required to 
 sign such contract, we therefore recommend that said contract 
 be withdrawn and that the grievances therein contained be pre- 
 sented as such.' 
 
 "Signed by McDonald and Guye and Polian. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Can I say a word now?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " No, not yet; not just yet. 
 
 "The verdict of your own union men is that this company 
 has an agreement with the national officers of this association that 
 you represent that they shall not sign a contract. Yet you are 
 asking us and reasking us not only to violate that agreement, but 
 to violate our solemn obligation and word with our non-union men. 
 Now, I am here to say, first, last and forever, and you can take it 
 back and say to your men as emphatically as I say it, that we are 
 not going to sign this or any other contract with the local union 
 existing among our employes. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "May I have a word now?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "I am not quite through yet, sir. I will be 
 through in a moment, and then will hear you one at a time. 
 
 " So much for the contract part of it. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " We are glad you have stated your position. ' ' 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Now, regarding the affairs of the men, some 
 of which are touched on in this proposed contract here: I have 
 said to our men, individually and collectively, at all times, and I 
 repeat it to you here now: There is no matter that is so small 
 nor any matter that is so large that concerns the employes of this 
 street railway company of which I am president, that I will not 
 at any and all times talk with you about and consider with you 
 and advise with you; and not only that, but I will do as I have 
 done in the past I will not only advise with the men in our 
 employ, regardless of whether they are union men or not, but when 
 I find that a just and fair grievance exists of any sort or kind, 
 against this company, if it is within my power I will correct it. 
 Now, that goes to every man in the employ of this company. 
 You men are here today, a committee of you. Some of you have 
 been here as individuals. I have not seen as much of you as I 
 would like to have seen, nor of the other employes of this company. 
 They have come in here and have said to me this, or that, or the 
 other thing, and they have never gone out without a courteous 
 reply and without fair treatment, no matter what their complaint 
 was, whether it was one personal to themselves or whether it 
 was something that pertained to the whole management of this
 
 24 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 property it has always had fair and honest and open treatment 
 from me and they will always get it, and they have always left 
 here satisfied. And the surprising thing to me, gentlemen, about 
 this whole revival that is going on here, in which the officers of 
 this company are held up to you as bad men, as men who are not 
 inclined to be fair and right, the surprising thing to me is that some 
 of you men who sit and hear that talk do not resent it to tha limit. 
 
 "I could tell you men of things that have happened in this 
 very room, not only with union men but non-union men, and more 
 union men than non-union men, that would make you blush for 
 shame that you had men in your association who would hear the 
 officers of this company maligned in any way and not stand up and 
 defend them. 
 
 "They have come here in their personal troubles and they 
 never went away empty handed not one of them. They have 
 come to ask favors of all and every kind. Every one of them was 
 granted with pleasure. Why? Because I have been a laboring 
 man myself. I have been a poor man myself. I know every step 
 of the ladder from absolute and abject poverty right all the way 
 up along the line. I have worked by the day. I have worked 
 for smaller pay than you men are getting today. I have done 
 everything that you have done. I have saved and economized 
 and worked Sundays and nights and all the time to better my con- 
 dition as I have gone through life, and so when you come and I hear 
 the stories of your troubles, they appeal to me; they put me back 
 to the time when I used to go out and have to dig and work along 
 as you men are working, and I sympathize with every one of you; 
 and if you have never tested it if you have never tested that sym- 
 pathy, come and test it is my invitation. Instead of holding meet- 
 ings down here plotting against your employers, trying to see if you 
 can disrupt our relations, you ought to be passing resolutions 
 commending the institution that you are working for. 
 
 " Now, I have wandered from the subject a little bit, but I 
 have opened the gate here to you men to talk. I have said to you 
 and I repeat, if there is anything written down here that you want 
 to talk to me about and want to know what the position of the 
 company is going to be regarding it, I am here to tell you; I am here 
 to meet you fairly and honestly and discuss with you as men. I 
 want to know if you have any real troubles among your men, and 
 if you have, to help you adjust them. Now, if you want to meet 
 me on that basis the meeting is open for you to talk as long and 
 as much as you want to." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Mr. Wattles, you have covered one point 
 clearly, and the words that you have used show that you are very 
 obstinate in regard to signing any contract. 
 
 "The words that you yourself have used clearly show that. 
 Now, inasmuch as you do not desire to sign a contract such as the 
 employes of this company have asked of you, are you willing to
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 25 
 
 arbitrate the whole of the grievances before three disinterested 
 persons, the company naming one, the organization which we 
 represent naming the other, and the two thus selected naming the 
 third. Are you willing to do that? Is that not fair?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Are you through?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "I will answer that question. There are 
 some things in this world that you cannot arbitrate. One of them 
 is, you cannot arbitrate whether you are going to keep your word 
 or not. You cannot arbitrate whether you are going to wipe 
 yourselves out of existence or not. That is another thing that you 
 cannot arbitrate. There are questions that are involved in the 
 whole controversy as you call it, that we cannot and will not under 
 any circumstances arbitrate. Why? Because our solemn word 
 and agreement has been given to certain of our employes; for in- 
 stance, regarding the signing of a contract, or the execution of 
 a contract, or entering into a contract. Are we going to arbitrate 
 the question of whether or not we will keep our word with these 
 men? Never. There are other questions involved in this con- 
 tract that we cannot arbitrate. The question of the wages that 
 you propose is raised here. Would it be in your interest supposing 
 a board of arbitration should say that we should pay you men wages 
 that would bankrupt this company? Would it be proper and right 
 for the officers of this company to permit that sort of a condition 
 to come up here? You would destroy the very power to pay you 
 wages at all. And that is a question that we cannot arbitrate. 
 There is no question here that any arbitration is required con- 
 cerning. 
 
 "Let me ask you, Mr. Lenahan, a question." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Are you willing to arbitrate the question 
 of whether or not the union should exist in the city of Omaha 
 among your men?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Yes, sir. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " You are? " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " Yes, sir. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You are willing to submit that to arbitra- 
 tion?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Yes, sir, if you are willing to submit the 
 other questions, we are willing to submit that question to the 
 arbitration committee." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "As to whether the union shall disband?' 1 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "That is a question probably over which we 
 would have no control. This committee could not determine 
 what these six hundred men might desire in regard to the union. 
 We have not got the right to say that they would do this. It 
 would be a matter that we would have to bring up before the men. 
 But we have got their ideas and their vote in regard to these griev-
 
 26 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 ances, but we have not the right to say that we will arbitrate the 
 matter of existence of the trade union; that is too broad a question 
 for this committee to take up." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " While we are getting things stirred up here, 
 let us have cigars." 
 
 MR. LEAR: "I would like to ask a question. You stated 
 that this agreement was signed by Mr. Wilson. That ageement 
 has been violated time and time again in this city. Not by you, 
 I don't say, but by your other officers. It has been violated right 
 today. You agreed that you would not interfere with this union 
 in any way; that you would not put anything in the way of your 
 men organizing. Right the other night you had men down there 
 standing and watching the men and intimidating the men from 
 going up to that meeting; standing there for the purpose of intimi- 
 dation and nothing else; just to intimidate the men and keep them 
 from attending that meeting of the organization. Now another 
 case: Is there a man that goes down to your office and inquires 
 for a job that is not told that he should not join the union? Is 
 there a man that goes down there to apply for a job that is not 
 told that? Is he not told that? Doesn't he say, 'Well, remember, 
 we have no use for you if you join the union/ or words to that effect? 
 Your job is no good to you if you join the union. He intimidates 
 every man that goes to that place every time. And the man that 
 does that is an understudy of yours." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Now, let me answer that before we go 
 further. That brings up a real question here. I have said, and 
 repeated time and again, that there should not be any intimidation 
 on the part of the officers of this company toward any of its em- 
 ployes, regarding whether they belonged to the union or not, or 
 whether they were going to join. I have said, however, that you 
 must not deny to the officers of the company the same privileges 
 that you claim for yourselves; that is, an officer of this company 
 has a perfect right to say to an employe of the company, 'I would 
 prefer that you do not join the union,' but at the same time he 
 should say, 'If you do join the union there will be no discrimina- 
 tion against you.' Now, Mr. Lear, you say that officers of our 
 company " 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Have intimidated the men?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " I call for the names of the men. " 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Right there is a communication." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " Here is a statement from a young man that 
 was called down to the office yesterday or the day before and mat- 
 ters of this kind only help to make things still worse. Here is 
 what they said to him at the office, that they would not recognize 
 the union and that every man in case of a strike would be out of a 
 job, that I was an agitator and that the next time I was called
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 27 
 
 down to the office I would get my time; that I was agitating around 
 the barns." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Agitating around the barns?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "What is that man's name?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "His name is Sheean. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "What is his first name?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "M. J. Sheean." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Who said this to him?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " It was said to him down in the office of the 
 superintendent of transportation." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " Was it the superintendent of transportation 
 who was talking with him?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " To the best of my knowledge I presume it 
 was either one of the superintendents. I am not in a position to 
 know. I just got this statement that he was called in there." 
 
 A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE: "Mr. Nash." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "And I believe he was sworn at, too." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Did he say he was sworn at?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "He didn't say." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "I will call in Mr. Sheean tomorrow. I will 
 go to the bottom of this matter. There is no excuse for any such 
 thing. And if you find, Mr. Lenahan, that this man was mistaken, 
 and that he has told an untruth in some way about this matter, 
 you would say there was no ground for the complaint, wouldn't 
 you?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "I want the man to tell the truth. I don't 
 care who it hurts." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " That is right. That is what I want to get 
 at. The instructions of this company to all of the superintendents 
 and to all of its officers are that no discrimination must be made 
 or shall be made between men in our employ as to whether they 
 are union or not, and if any discrimination is made we will investi- 
 gate it and stop it. 
 
 " Now, regarding the statement that men have been stationed 
 down here in front of the Labor Temple of the union to intimidate 
 the men. What are the names of the men who stood down there? " 
 
 MR. LEAR: " It was your road officers. There was a meeting 
 last Monday afternoon, and there was a man named Kelly stood 
 on one corner and Mr. Sheetz stood on the other corner. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "There was one man stood on Fourteenth 
 street corner and another on Thirteenth street." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "What were they saying to the men?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Nothing." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Then they were not intimidating them, were 
 they?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "I suppose not. But they were there. The 
 men would come along on their way to the meeting and see these
 
 28 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 two men there and they didn't know whether they would go up 
 to the meeting or not, because they were afraid that it would be 
 reported that they had been to the union meeting. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Did they say anything to these men?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: " Not that I know of. I spoke to Mr. Sheetz, and 
 said 'How are you, Mr. Sheetz, are you going to come up?' " 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Do you object to the officers of the company 
 seeing the men that go to the union meetings?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "No, but we would rather that they came up 
 there. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Would you object if I would come down 
 there and attend your meetings at the Labor Temple?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "We would be glad to have you come." 
 
 MR. BOIEN : " But this idea of your men being placed there 
 was with the idea that the men would be afraid to go up there. 
 That is the way I look at it. And I know lots of the men were 
 afraid to come up there because they were afraid somebody was 
 watching them." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "There is no purpose or intention on the 
 part of any of the officers of the company to keep these men from 
 going there, or to intimidate or prevent any man from going up 
 there. No such purpose at all." 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "How is that, Mr. Wattles?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " I say there is no intention on the part of 
 the officers of this company to intimidate the men in any way from 
 joining the Methodist church, or the union, or the Baptist church. " 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "You mean there was no intention on the 
 part of the men down on the corners there to intimidate the men 
 from coming up to the meeting?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " I had quite an experience myself a year ago 
 last August. I had a little accident at Sixteenth and Harney. 
 I was going east. I had one of the little open cars. I was going 
 east and a Park car was going north, and there was a construction 
 car a work train ahead of the Park passenger car, and the work 
 train was pretty close to it; and the work train stopped to back in 
 around the curb at Sixteenth and Harney, and the Park car came 
 right upon the crossing, you know. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Yes, sir. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "And they had on it a couple of loads of this 
 base that they put in asphalt put in under the asphalt tar and 
 cement and broken stone and it was right there, and they had 
 dropped some of it on the rail, and it was just like grease on the 
 broken rail, and they come right up the track with the two loads, 
 and I could not stop my car because I had no sand or anything, and 
 I just barely slid, and I put on the reverse and my fender struck 
 the other trucks. He stopped kind of short right on the crossing, 
 on account of the other train. Well, my car backed right away
 
 f = 
 
 o o 
 
 x 2 = s 
 
 S 2 
 22 
 
 i. O 
 
 a 01 -
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 29 
 
 from it, but it bent the fender up and I was suspended that next 
 day and the next day and I lost two days, and the other man was 
 suspended and lost one day, and I was absolutely not to blame; 
 couldn't be possibly to blame, no way." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "When did this happen?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "It happened in August." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Last August?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "A year ago?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "I think it was a year ago this August." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Did you bring your matter up to me?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "No, I did not." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Did you take it up with Mr. Smith, the 
 general manager?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "No, I did not take it up with anybody." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " You cannot expect to have your grievances 
 corrected if you do not state them. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " And furthermore, when I went up there before 
 this superintendent of transportation, he says, 'I know you and I 
 have heard the talk that you have been putting up to these men 
 to join the union.' That is the remark that he made. Well, I 
 told him that I always had been a union man and I was not ashamed 
 of it. And so that is all there was to it. The first day after the 
 accident he had me down there and the other man wasn't there, 
 and the next day he had him down there. He talked it over and 
 that is all there was to it, and he let me go back to work, but I 
 lost two days and the other man lost one, and it was an accident 
 that it was impossible for me to avoid. There was no possible 
 way for me to have saved that car from that accident. I had no 
 sand, you know. It was one of those little light open cars and it 
 was a sudden accident and it could not possibly be avoided and 
 there was no way to stop it. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Now, taking your statement of the facts 
 to be true, just as you have related them; taking that for granted, 
 let me ask you a question : Do you think that if you had come up 
 to me and made that statement, that you would have lost any 
 time or that you would have been inconvenienced in any way?" 
 
 A: "Why, I would not suppose so. I would not suppose 
 that I ought to have done that. They are the men we are sup- 
 posed to go before. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "If any injustice is done to you, you have 
 always the privilege of going to any officer of the company, all 
 the way up the line, to have it corrected." 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "I will remember that." 
 
 MR. LEAR : " That is very clear what you say, but you must 
 remember it is not very easy to catch you at all times, and we would 
 have to lose our time to do it; we would have to lay off; we would
 
 30 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 lose at least a day. If we came up here to see you we would have 
 to lose our time." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You are not working all the time?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "There is mighty little time that we are not 
 working. There was two months this summer when I could not 
 possibly have gotten off to see anybody." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "There must be quite a good deal of time 
 when you are not at work?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: " I work from a quarter past eleven to a quarter 
 past one and then I lay off for dinner and then I go on again a 
 little after five at night. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You can always get me between those 
 hours. " 
 
 MR. LEAR: " Well, now, you have to consider another thing: 
 If I came up here there would be at least two hours gone. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Let me tell you a better way." 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You can write, can't you? Why can't 
 you write me a letter?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Well, I might do that." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "If you come to me and state a case that 
 shows the company is in the wrong and that you are in the right 
 you will get just treatment; there would not be any question about 
 that. " 
 
 MR. LEAR : " And if you did not think the company was in 
 the wrong?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "As long as you did not state a just cause 
 of complaint then you would have no cause of complaint. " 
 
 MR. LEAR : " Well, sir, don't you know we never understood 
 it that way. I never understood that until we came up here a 
 few days ago. When we had any grievance I always supposed we 
 had to go to the superintendent, and that was as far as we were 
 able to go to have it corrected. My understanding has always 
 been that way; that what we got from the superintendent we had 
 to take whether it was right or wrong. We always have under- 
 stood that there was no use in carrying it up further. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "That is not the case." 
 
 MR. LEAR: "It may not be the case, but that has always 
 been the understanding of the men. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "It is a misunderstanding." 
 
 MR. LEAR: "I don't know whether it is a misunderstanding 
 or not. The other day a man was sent for from over in Iowa. I 
 don't know what his name is, I think his name is Albertson. This 
 friend of his went to the foreman; he knew they were short of men, 
 and he said he knew of a good, honest, sober young fellow living in 
 some little town here over in Iowa that he would like to get a 
 position for him, and Mr. Knapp says, 'Why send for him by all 
 means;' he says, 'We are short;' and he came here and went down to
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 31 
 
 Mr. Nash, I think it was, if I am not mistaken; and Mr. Knapp 
 telephoned the foreman that he was to put this man on and the 
 foreman went down with him and Mr. Nash says, 'No;' he says, 'I 
 don't want him at all; I don't want any of your kind; you are 
 nothing but a labor agitator.' I don't know as the man belonged 
 to a union at the time, and I don't know whether he was an agitator 
 or not. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " What is his name?" 
 MR. LEAR: " Albertson. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You don't know his first name?" 
 MR. LEAR: "No, sir; he works at Twenty-fourth and Vinton. " 
 MR. WATTLES : " Now, let me get these names down before 
 we go any further. Mr. Lenahan, you gave me the name of Mr. 
 Sheean?" 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Yes, sir." 
 MR. WATTLES: "What are his initials?" 
 MR. LENAHAN: "M. J." 
 MR. WATTLES: " And at what barn is he?" 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Twenty-fourth and Vinton." 
 MR. WATTLES: "And this other man is Mr. Albertson." 
 MR. LEAR: "Albertson." 
 MR. WATTLES: "Twenty-fourth and Vinton?" 
 MR. LEAR: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. BOIEN : " There is another case I want to bring up about 
 this Mr. Sisnick, who used to work for this company, and wants 
 to work for them again. He went down there and had been a few 
 years at work for the company. He belonged to the union before, 
 and was no agitator nor anything else. He is a man that attends 
 to his own business, and he wanted to get back and get a job. 
 Mr. Nash looked him up one side and down the other, and he says, 
 'Mr. Johnson will fix you out.' Mr. Johnson fixed him up, and when 
 he was walking put of there out of the room Mr. Nash patted 
 him on the back and said 'No more union for you.'" 
 MR. WATTLES: "Where is that?" 
 MR. BOIEN: "Twenty-fourth and Vinton." 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Mr. Wattles, we could recite so many of 
 these cases it would be surprising many other cases. But, really, 
 we are not here today for the purpose of discussing those matters. 
 Our instructions were to come up here and try and discuss the 
 grievances as we have presented them to you in writing, and as I 
 see that you have declined to arbitrate any of the grievances or to 
 concede any of the grievances as written to practically ignore 
 them all if we cannot change your mind, I presume that this 
 committee, according to their instructions, have pretty near ful- 
 filled the instructions from your employes; and we regret very 
 much that you cannot see the wisdom of taking hold of this thing 
 in what we conceive to be the proper light, and coming to a better 
 understanding with your employes, getting closer to them; and, as
 
 32 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 individuals, you can never get close to them, because, regardless 
 of what you may think in your own heart, and, really, I think that 
 you are a good, kind-hearted gentleman " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Thank you." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "But the subordinate official regardless 
 of what you think or what you may do has got the inspiration 
 in his heart to knock and tear and undermine to the very founda- 
 tion the man who is in any way connected with an organization 
 which is trying to help his fellow man. That has been the dispo- 
 sition, and we regret it very much; we regret to have to say to you 
 here this afternoon that we have proofs, and plenty of them, that 
 discriminations without number are being carried on against the 
 members of Division 288 of this city. Now, we regret that very 
 much. And if there was any way of bringing about a good under- 
 standing, I want to say this, that there is nobody would be more 
 desirous of doing so than this committee. But taking the position 
 that you have taken, and ignoring all the demands your men have 
 made that you cannot see your way clear to signing any state- 
 ment to them, and that you cannot grant an arbitration of any of 
 their demands, really this committee would be in no position to do 
 anything but go back and tell the true facts. 
 
 " And if there was any way that you could see your way clear 
 to arbitrate this matter, it would be to the benefit of the employes, 
 it would be to the benefit of the company, and it would be to the 
 benefit of the public at large. For I want to say to you, sir, that 
 this matter has got to a serious stage, and if diplomacy and good 
 judgment is not used, that it will throw us into a place where 
 probably we can never get to the same relations that we had. 
 Now, I regret that very much; but I see that it is the disposition, 
 taking it from the superintendent of transportation to the president 
 of the road, that it is the desire to ignore the organization com- 
 pletely. Well, it is the position of the men at this time that they 
 are going to insist upon recognition, and that they are not going to 
 be ignored. That is the position they take at this time, and I am 
 stating the true feelings of the men. 
 
 " In the vote taken on Friday or Monday evening it was the 
 unanimous consent that this committee must bring back something 
 substantial, and what results may follow our failure to do so God 
 only knows." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Now, Mr. Lenahan, you assume a lot of 
 things in your statement that are not true. Let me correct you. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: " Well, I would like to have you show me. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " You say that you came up here and I 
 refused to hear any of the grievances that you have to submit, and 
 that I refuse to say what the company will do in regard to any of 
 them. Now, that is not so." 
 
 "The matter, pertaining to the operation of this company,, as 
 outlined in this contract are, first:
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 33 
 
 " All motormen and conductors shall have the right to select 
 their runs; such right shall be based upon the time of continuous 
 service with the company, seniority in such service to prevail 
 in such selections. That is one of the things you want, is it?" 
 MR. GILLAN: "We have that now." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " That is as I understand it. Now, the next 
 question in your contract: 
 
 " The wages and hours for all motormen and conductors and 
 shopmen shall be as follows: Wages for motormen and conduc- 
 tors for the first year's service, 26 cents an hour; for the second 
 year's service, 27 cents an hour; and for the third year's service 
 and thereafter, 28 cents per hom*. " 
 
 "That is one of the things you want, is it?" 
 MR. LENAHAN: " Yes, sir; that is one of the things we want. " 
 MR. WATTLES: " Do you think that is a just demand?" 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Well, if you can, show us it is not a just 
 demand." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You show me that it is, will you? Let 
 us hear your side of it. Now, let us hear what the men have to 
 say on the subject. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Well, in the first place, the newer men in 
 the service which is a great many only receive 21 cents an hour 
 for the first year, and the hours of time are limited for them so 
 that they cannot make any amount of money any reasonable 
 amount of money to support themselves and their families." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Do you know how much they do make?" 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Well, I have got an idea." 
 MR. WATTLES: "Well, how much do they make?" 
 MR. LENAHAN : " Well, I presume they will average from $45 
 to $50, running up to $55 a month. I think they will. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Fifty-four to $55 is what they average." 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Of course, I do not say that they will all 
 average that. That is a question upon which I have no certain 
 knowledge. I do not know just what the average would be the 
 year around; but I know that they will average that during the 
 summer months, but in the winter time, when the traffic is less, they 
 will not do so well." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Let me refresh your memory on what was 
 presented here the other day. We got the figures from the general 
 manager. He had the books. Do you remember what it was?" 
 MR. LEAR: "We did not get them." 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "I believe the conductors made $48 to $49 
 and the motormen, $50; a little over $50. 
 MR. WATTLES: "About $54." 
 MR. GILLAN: "Fifty-one dollars, I believe." 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Now, Mr. Wattles, you understand that 
 the cost of living is very high. The cost of living in Omaha now 
 is considerably higher than it has been. Everything is higher.
 
 34 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 House rents are higher, and you can easily understand yourself 
 from the way the men are quitting every day that they cannot 
 make a decent living any more under the present conditions in the 
 street railway service. They are quitting, as the records will 
 show, at the rate of 25 to 30 every month, and, of course, that puts 
 the older men in a bad place; for the simple reason that there is a 
 shortage of help most of the time and as a result he is overworked, 
 and those are the conditions that we are trying to eliminate. We 
 are trying to get a class of men that will appreciate their job and 
 stay with it and be good employes, and if they had better remuner- 
 ation from the company, the company would have better men and 
 they would stay with their positions and everything would go more 
 satisfactorily for the company and for the men." 
 
 " Now, I do not think that is an unfair position to assume, 
 and if these men's wages could be raised up to a fair standard, why, 
 I think that the feeling would be better. 
 
 " The discrimination between the old and the new men at the 
 present time is too great. Where the old man is getting ten to ten 
 and a half hours at 26 cents an hour, he makes a pretty fair living, 
 but there is no protection for the newer men. Another thing that 
 takes place to a certain extent is the fact that for very trivial 
 causes sometimes the higher priced men are discharged." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Who has been?" 
 
 MR. LENAH AN : " Well, I have not got a record of the men 
 that have been discharged, but some of the boys will call your 
 attention to that, and they have been reinstated at the lower wage 
 scale. Now there was one man (I cannot recall his name) who 
 happened to back over the end of the car track on one of the lines, 
 and he was discharged and sent for in two or three weeks again and 
 put back at the lower wage scale. And the objections we have to 
 the present wage scale is this, that there is a disposition on the 
 part of the company to completely let out the old employes and 
 supplant them with the newer, inexperienced men. That is 
 another of the objections we have to it. Those are some of the 
 reasons that we have for thinking that the wage scale ought to be 
 brought more closely together, and also for the reason that it will 
 make men better men and they will give better service to the com- 
 pany. That is the reason that we ask a slight advance in wages. 
 We know that these new men are not getting near enough, and 
 the records of the company will show that they are not retaining 
 the new men in their service, and the reason for that is that they 
 are not paid a proper and sufficient amount for their services. 
 Rent and provisions and everything is so high that they cannot 
 exist at the wages paid. Now this is not like other jobs in many 
 respects. We have got to have a good deal of clothing; we have got 
 to have a good many shoes; we have got a good deal of washing to 
 be done, and these things all cost money. We have got to pre- 
 sent a neat and clean appearance to the public at all times, and it
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 35 
 
 takes a little money to do those things, if the men keep up their 
 personal appearance and do as they are required to do by our book 
 of rules. And the only way that we see in regard to the wage scale 
 is to come before the company and tell them that the men are 
 not sufficiently taken care of financially, and ask them for a fair 
 and substantial increase in wage." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "That is a good talk. That is the way I 
 like to hear men talk. Has anyone else got anything to say on 
 this wage scale?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "Well, I believe the company is able to pay 
 more wages. I came here twelve years ago and you were paying 
 20 cents then, and I am sure from what I have observed that they 
 could afford to pay what we are asking now just as well or better 
 than they could afford to pay the 20 cents then. That is my idea. 
 The city has grown a great deal in the last ten years. There are 
 many thousands more people here now than there was ten years 
 ago, and the receipts, according to my observation, are very much 
 more than they were ten or twelve years ago. 
 
 "And also the discrimination in the wage scale. I do not 
 think it is right at all. The difference in the wage scale ought not 
 to extend over a period of more than two or three years. That is 
 as long as there ought to be any difference, if there should be any 
 at all. I am in favor of a flat rate myself. But the time certainly 
 hadn't ought to be over the third year. After a man has been two 
 or three years on the road he certainly is as good as he ever will 
 be, and he ain't getting nothing but a living anyhow and one ought 
 to have as much as the other. I have always thought that one 
 man was as good as another if he is doing his duty to the public 
 and to the company. We cannot all be president of the street 
 car company, and we cannot all be one thing or another, but it 
 takes a man to run a car just as much as it takes a man to be 
 president of the company. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "That is right." 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " And it takes his time and all of his time from 
 daylight until dark. I have had a run for seven years, and I get up 
 every morning at a quarter after four and I don't get home until 
 a quarter after seven. I have little time with my family, and what 
 little time I have I spend with my family. I can't go out in the 
 evening; it is too late. I get my supper and roll into bed. I get 
 up and eat my breakfast and go to work. And that is all there 
 is to it. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "That is about all there is for any of us. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " A man that has to get up early has to go to bed 
 early, and there is no getting around that. You have got to put 
 in twelve to fourteen hours to get in ten hours, and ten hours is 
 as much as any man can work. When I go home in the evening 
 I do not even eat supper with my family. They eat supper now 
 before I am home, because I get home too late. I do not get home
 
 36 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 now until a quarter past seven, and then whatever work I have to 
 do around the house has to be done afterwards. I do not think 
 it is necessary that it should be that way, at all. I think that 
 when a man has to go to work early it should be arranged so that he 
 can get home at the time that the ordinary working man does. 
 
 "And another thing, talking about the union " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Now, let us get through with this wage 
 matter. I want to hear what all of you have to say, because 
 that is the whole thing." 
 
 MR. GILL AN: "I honestly believe we have not asked any- 
 'thing that the company would not be justified in granting. I 
 believe the scale we present here is a just one. " 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "Isn't it a fact that the men's earning 
 capacity has been doubled in the last seven years?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "No, that is not a fact." 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "Well, eight years ago we made so many 
 round trips for a day's work, for ten hours, and now we make one 
 more round trip than we did at that time, in the same length of 
 time. Eight to ten minutes is taken off each trip, each round trip. 
 The city has grown. Lots of people have come to the city since 
 that time, and settled here. We carry a great many more people. " 
 
 MR. PONCELOW (continuing) : " It seems to me like the earn- 
 ing capacity has been increased quite a bit. " 
 
 MR. LEAR: "I think about that pretty much the same as 
 Mr. Poncelow. When w r e first started to run to South Omaha, we 
 ran from the barn to N street in South Omaha, and we made five 
 trips in eleven hours, and now we run to Thirty-sixth and Ames 
 avenue, and " we go around the loop at Twenty-sixth in South 
 Omaha, and they have cut us down to one hour and fifty-five 
 minutes for the round trip and added about two miles more of 
 road. So I think that our earning capacity has increased a good 
 deal. We got that many more miles to run than we used to run 
 in eleven hours, and now we run it in less than ten. Nine hours 
 and thirty-five minutes, I think it is. And the line has been 
 extended from 36th and Ames to Forty-second and Ames; and now 
 we make the five round trips in ten hours; or two hours to the 
 trip; and on Sunday morning we go to Forth-sixth and Q streets, 
 and I make it in the same time, in two hours, making a distance 
 of four or five miles. So I think, that considering the time 
 occupied in the running of the cars and the rest of it, we ought to 
 be entitled to some substantial increase. Of course, if the com- 
 pany think they cannot do it, cannot give us an increase, they ought 
 to be willing to arbitrate the question and show the reason why 
 they cannot do it. So I think the question ought to be submitted 
 to a fair arbitration; the company could appoint one arbitrator 
 and the union another, and these two select a third; and if that 
 could be done, I think it would be more satisfactory to all con- 
 cerned. "
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 37 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "Don't you appreciate the fact that you 
 have got some pretty good men running your care, taking the 
 whole system?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " We have the best lot of men there is in any 
 city." 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "Then they ought to be paid according to 
 their ability." 
 
 MR. W T ATTLES : " Now, men, you have stated your reasons 
 fairly; and, after all, this matter of pay is the principal thing and 
 the most important thing to everybody who works." 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "I don't care what they work at or what 
 they do, other conditions are wiped away when they talk about 
 the pay. That is a matter that I like to talk to you about and 
 like to get your ideas on, because why? Because it has been my 
 pride, ever since I have been connected with this company, to 
 better the conditions of the men in every way possible, and every 
 motion that has been made for increase of pay, and there have 
 been three of them in the last six years, has met with my hearty 
 support and approval, and while the motions have been made by 
 others I have always been heartily in favor of them." 
 
 " Now, I want to talk with you right square down into the 
 bottom of your hearts, and tell you some things that you 
 probably do not know. 
 
 " You think that the man who sits up here as president hat< 
 a nice time, draws big pay, don't have to work much, and has 
 a good time. You are awfully mistaken if you have that idea in 
 your heads. There are all kinds of troubles that come to me and 
 come every day, that concern you, that I am up here fighting over, 
 to preserve, if possible, the ability of this company to pay its 
 men not only good wages, but better wages than any other city of 
 her kind can pay and does pay. 
 
 " A few weeks ago tfie question of levying an occupation tax 
 against this company was brought up here in the city council, 
 and an ordinance calling for a levy of five per cent of our gross 
 receipts for an occupation tax was proposed. It would have taken 
 $100,000 a year from the company. I went before the city council 
 and pleaded for you men. I said: 'Don't levy this tax against 
 this company and cripple it so that it cannot increase the pay of 
 its men because that is what I want to do, and that is what I will 
 do, if you will let this thing go by.' But the politicians were there, 
 and they got on their feet and said, 'Oh, well, that is all rot; it is 
 all foolish talk.' I know it was not foolish talk. 
 
 " Last night there was introduced in the city council an ordi- 
 nance to require this company to reduce its fares to 3$ or 4 cents. 
 That ordinance is pending before the city council today. If that 
 ordinance passes and becomes a law, what are you men up against? 
 An increase? No. Positively a reduction of pay, or quit the
 
 38 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 job. That is all. Why? Simply because you cannot carry passen- 
 gers from Benson to Albright, as you do every day, or from Florence 
 to South Omaha, for the fare we get now. It costs more to 
 carry them than we get for carrying them actual cost. Now, it 
 seems like a big thing to go out on the road and gather up a pile 
 of nickels and turn in a big day's work, and it is a big thing. But 
 when you come to distribute that money and see how little is 
 left after the year is over, it looks like thirty cents. 
 
 " Now, what are the troubles that I have to look after? 
 You say that the earning capacity of the company has been in- 
 creased. It has." 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "I say the earning capacity of the men." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " The earning capacity of the men has been 
 increased, but the expenses of the company have been more than 
 proportionately increased all the time. We have twice as many 
 men working for the company today as we had five years ago. 
 Twice as many men. Not only that, but look at all these additions 
 and extensions that the company has built! Look at the fact 
 that we have had to throw away a power station up here that 
 cost us $750,000, and go down there on the river front and build a 
 modern new one to furnish the power with which to operate this 
 system. We had to throw that away, and go east and raise 
 money to build a new one that has cost a million dollars, and we 
 will have to spend another million before we get it completed, 
 and big enough to take care of this whole thing. We have to 
 sell bonds with which to get that money to make these extensions 
 and improvements. 
 
 " A few years ago we had to throw away a cable system here. 
 We had a cable with a barn and everything down here that cost 
 this company $2,000,000. We had to throw it away. Why? 
 Because the public wouldn't stand for it. We have to keep up 
 with the growth of the city and keep our power and other con- 
 veniences up to the demands of the city in order to keep the city 
 satisfied. Now, I am up against that proposition all the time. 
 I go to New York time and again during the year. What for? 
 To have a good time? Not on your life. I go down there to those 
 money men who have the money that we have got to have, and 
 I sell them bonds and stock of this company and get their money 
 and bring it out here seven or eight million dollars of it in the 
 last six or eight years, to spend in the development of this system. 
 If I go down there to those fellows and say, 'Well, we had to enlarge 
 our expenses a good deal this year, our revenues were cut off, and 
 we cannot pay the interest on the bonds, or we cannot pay you 
 any dividend on your stock this year because we had to increase 
 our expenses, but we want some more money for next year' what 
 are they going to say? Why, they are going to say, 'I guess we 
 will put our money where we can get some returns on it.' That
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 39 
 
 is what they naturally would say. And that is a problem I am 
 right against here most of the time. 
 
 "I am telling you these things because you are intelligent 
 men, and you can see some of these things are up to me all the time. 
 Here is a pressure from the stockholders of this company for an 
 increase of the dividend on their stock. Do you know the reply 
 I gave these stockholders? I said, 'Gentlemen, before I will ever 
 vote or consent to an increase of the return on your stock, I am 
 going to pay our men more wages.' 
 
 " Now, that is my position exactly. To pay you men the 
 best wages that any men get in similar employment in the country, 
 and not stop there, either. To pay you the very best wages the 
 company can afford to pay you right along all the time. We have 
 done it in the past. All through the time of panic and depression, 
 when you had your twenty cents an hour what were Kansas City 
 and Minneapolis, and all these other cities around us paying? 
 Fifteen. You were getting twenty. What are they paying today? 
 Are any of them paying what we are paying? I guess you have 
 looked it up. We are paying the top. We are ahead of any of 
 them. There is not a city in the union of the size and importance 
 of Omaha that pays the wages we pay here. " 
 
 MB. NELSON: "What about Denver?" 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Denver. Yes. But those conditions do 
 not prevail in Denver that prevail here. A common laborer in 
 Denver gets four dollars a day. Why? Because everything he 
 eats, and everything he wears, and everything he buys has to be 
 shipped in there for thousands of miles; and everything costs 
 more, a good deal more; living is a great deal higher in Denver 
 than it is here, and wages are higher there than they are here. But 
 taking those things into consideration, the wages we pay are higher 
 than in Denver. 
 
 " Now, I am not going to stop there. I have something further 
 to tell you men. I have these problems working out for you, and I 
 am working on them just as hard as I can work, and all the time it 
 is my policy to do the best by you possible. And I am going to 
 say to you, 'Just as soon as this company can see its way clear to 
 increase your pay you are going to get an increase.' Now, I cannot 
 do it under pressure. 
 
 " Supposing you men come here from the union and say, 'We 
 are going to have a strike next week if we do not get an increase 
 of pay.' If you were in my place what would you say? What 
 could you say? There is one thing you could say; that you could 
 not do it under this sort of talk. 
 
 "I do not go to Mr. Lenahan and say: 'Here, unless you do 
 so and so you are going to lose your job;' but I go to him like a 
 friend. I say: 'You are a good man; you are doing the best 
 you can, and I am going to stand by you as long as you are, and 
 protect you.' Now, that is the sort of feeling I want the employes
 
 40 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 of this company to have. I want them to know that they have a 
 man right here who will protect them, and you are going to get 
 an increase of pay. You are not going to get it today or next 
 week, but you are going to get it just as soon as I can see the way 
 clear, without putting this road in jeopardy or losing its credit, 
 to give it to you. And I want to get your ideas, and I have drawn 
 them out here today, about the question of how wide you want this 
 strip to be. I see you fellows want to narrow it up. It was not 
 my idea. Now, I will tell you honestly, men, that that is not my 
 idea. At the same time, I am always open to conviction; I am 
 always open to argument. I am going to see a whole lot of our 
 men before the next increase comes along and God speed the 
 time when it can come. I am going to see a whole lot of you and 
 see what you all think about that, and I am going to try and strike 
 an average, and hit as many of you as near right as I can. Now, 
 my idea is this: If there is not any hope ahead for a man, why, 
 it is a pretty dull world. If he can see that next year he is going 
 to do a little bit better than he is doing this year; going to go along 
 up the scale a little, he has more incentive to be a good workman ; 
 and I don't believe that a man the first year that he goes into 
 the employment of this company can earn for this company any- 
 thing like the amount that he can earn after an experience like 
 you men here have had. Why? Because he cannot get the fares, 
 if he is a conductor. He don't get them. He loses sight of a 
 lot of them. They get away from him. In the next place, if 
 he is a motorman, he cannot avoid accidents like you men do. 
 Why, we have it every day. We pay forty to fifty thousand dollars, 
 sometimes as high as sixty thousand dollars a year for damage 
 suits, through the carelessness of the new men that we have to 
 take on here. We don't pay it as a rule for the old men. " 
 
 MR. LEAR: "There is a point I would like " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "We don't pay it for the old men. The 
 records will bear me out in what I say." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "What reply will " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "I am saying things to you now, and if you 
 will listen you will hear something. I say that the new men have 
 more accidents; they have more trouble; they are not as loyal to 
 the company; they are not as good employes. 
 
 " Now, this question has been raised here. It is not really 
 pertinent here, but I bring it in because it has been said here 
 that the older men have been discharged for trivial causes and 
 discriminated against sometimes. Why, there are 140 of our em- 
 ployes today who are drawing top wages. And do you know this? 
 Let me tell you a fact: I have given orders to the superintendent 
 never to discharge an old man without consulting me about it. 
 Now, then, the old men are not discharged. Why? Because we 
 do not want to lose them. We will overlook a whole lot of things 
 from an old man that we could not afford to overlook from a new
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 41 
 
 man at all; and it don't make any difference to me whether the 
 old man is a union man or whether he is not; he is going to stay 
 in the employ of this company if I can find a possible excuse for 
 keeping him there; and it is not the desire of this company to get 
 rid of its old men because it has to pay them more wages. It is 
 the desire of the company to keep the old men and get as many of 
 your experience as possible. I wish they were all drawing 
 twenty-six cents an hour, because they would be earning it. - 
 
 " Now, that has been my idea in having the scale as it is, 
 because a man cannot in one or two years become as proficient 
 as he will be after eight or ten; he cannot become as experienced 
 or as valuable to the company, and it has been my notion that he 
 should not receive as much pay. But I am open to conviction, 
 and I am going, as I say, to consult a lot of you men before the 
 next raise of pay comes along, and when that comes I am going 
 to try and adjust it in accordance with the ideas of the most of 
 you, if I can. If you say you want the thing crowded up and the 
 new man to get more pay, regardless of whether the old ones do 
 or not, why, if we cannot afford to advance them all, we will 
 advance the younger ones and crowd the scale up a little; but if 
 you want the scale, say, at a five-year limit or leave a bigger limit 
 still for the men who have been here ten years, why, that would 
 be my idea about it. But I am getting information here from 
 you men, and it will all count when we come up to that question. 
 
 " Now, so much about that wage clause in your contract, 
 because that is the principal clause that is in there. There isn't 
 another thing in that contract there, when you get right down to 
 brass tacks, that amounts to a snap of your finger, excepting the 
 question of wages. 
 
 "Don't get off on any tangent. Don't get to thinking that 
 you are abused, or that any member of your union is abused or 
 discriminated against in a manner that is going to require any fight 
 between this company and the union to straighten it out because 
 it will not. Why? Because I am going to do what I say I will do. 
 If any union man is receiving mistreatment from any of the officers 
 of this company, all that he has got to do is to come to me. It don't 
 need any arbitration board. I will straighten it out for him. 
 And if I don't if I don't straighten it out, then it is time enough 
 for you men to come to me and say, 'Here, we want to talk about 
 some other manner of straightening things out.' But have any 
 of you men come to me with any complaints? Not one of you. 
 I have not heard about these cases that you mention here. 
 
 " I have often heard from non-union men, from a large number 
 of them. They have been to me with complaints about being 
 annoyed and harassed and insulted by union men. 
 
 " A few days ago, this came to me. I am going to state it 
 just as it came to me, so that you can see that I have quite a little 
 trouble here. A non-union man came up here and he made this
 
 42 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 statement. He said: 'I have been working for the company 
 for about eleven years. I have been running with a motorman. 
 He and I have been partners for a long time.' I forget how long 
 he said. 'We have always been good friends until this union 
 matter came up. He joined the union and I did not. ' Or a con- 
 ductor I should say. This was a motorman talking to me. He 
 said: 'He joined the union and I did not. We had a good many 
 hot arguments at first about it, and finally I said we would disagree 
 about it, and we quit. It has gone along that way until recently 
 this agitation has been on here, and a good deal of talk going, 
 and that fellow has got mad at me and he won't treat me decent 
 at all; he tries to put me in the hole all the time.' He said: 'The 
 other evening he came up to a friend, a labor union man, and right 
 in my hearing, he stood right there and the friend stood right there 
 
 where I heard him; he said, "You see that d d scab running this 
 
 car; he is a d d scab; he won't join the union; he won't help 
 
 himself or help anybody else." He said it right in the hearing of 
 this man. Now I think that man is the man you say the superin- 
 tendent talked to. I think he is the man that the superintendent 
 called down to his office and said: 'Why John,' or 'Peter,' of what- 
 ever his name is, 'did you say this to your motorman?' And he 
 said, 'I never talked to my motorman about that. I never said 
 any such thing as that to him.' 'Well, did you say it right in his 
 hearing?' And the fellow flushed up, and he had to admit that he 
 had." 
 
 MR. LEN AH AN : " I beg your pardon, Mr. Wattles, that gentle- 
 man is a motorman himself." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Well, maybe he is. But that is an illustra- 
 tion of some of the troubles I have in connection with this whole 
 affair. You boys are not the only ones having troubles. The 
 non-union fellows are having troubles, and bring them in here. 
 I have these complaints coming in here all the time. " 
 
 MR. LEN AH AN : " There are not any union men making com- 
 plaints. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "There are a good many of them." 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "There won't be many very long." 
 
 MR. LEAR: "You spoke of the new men having accidents. 
 There is a reason for that, and of course my judgment may be 
 wrong about it, and I have not had a student for several years; 
 it must be four or five years since I broke in a new man, and I don't 
 know but what I am glad that I have not had to do it. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "It is a nuisance." 
 
 MR. LEAR: "It is a nuisance when you have tried to break 
 in a new man, and he is no good and you turn him down and then 
 you find that the company keeps him, puts him on with somebody 
 else and keeps him here thirty days or more breaking him in. 
 One of those fellows, that I had turned down for the reason that 
 he was no good, slid into a Dodge street car through pure negligence.
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 43 
 
 I think the company is negligent when they keep a man that is 
 negligent. When the company puts a man of that kind in charge 
 of a car, they stand a big chance of having to pay for an accident. 
 Now, when they put a new man on with an old and experienced 
 man that is competent to break him in, that man ought to be a 
 competent judge whether that new man is going to make a motor- 
 man or not, and after he has been turned down by that man as 
 incompetent he should not be turned over to four or five others 
 to try to make something out of him. But that is just what has 
 been done on this road lots of times. I think it was the last man 
 I had, I would tell him something and he would say, 'I have for- 
 gotten. ' I says, 'My God, man, you have got to remember these 
 things.' He didn't seem to be able to remember anything and I 
 turned him down. And then he was turned over to another man, 
 and he didn't find anything wrong with him; and that man was 
 given a car and he had all kinds of accidents, and finally he had to 
 be fired. 
 
 " If you put a new man on with a man who is undertaking to 
 break him in, he ought to be the judge of whether that man is 
 competent to run a car or not. I have known of men who had 
 been turned down five or six times, and finally some one passed 
 him and he was put on and the first thing he did was to run into 
 something. I don't think a student, who has been given a trial 
 and been turned down by a competent man, should be turned over 
 to several others until he finally gets through and then allowed to 
 run a car. It is just this class of men who are responsible for a 
 good many of the accidents, that would not have occurred if a 
 competent man had been in charge of the car. The company ought 
 not to keep men who have been turned down." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "That is right. I agree with you. The 
 company ought not to do anything of that sort. Let us stop a 
 minute and smoke up, and give the stenographer a rest. " 
 
 (NOTE Mr. Wattles passes cigars and a short recess is taken.) 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Now, if anybody wants to ask any more 
 questions about the wage business, let us thresh that out before 
 we take up anything further." 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " Well, I have nothing further to say on the 
 wage question, but you brought up some things in your talk here 
 that we ought to say something on, if we have the right to. It 
 is concerning the union. You were speaking about the city 
 council introducing an ordinance to reduce the fare. Well, now. 
 I do not think that any street car man would be in favor of any- 
 thing of that kind, and there is where I think that you will find a 
 great benefit in having your employes in an organization, where 
 they could help you a great deal better than they can as indi- 
 viduals; and, furthermore, I cannot see any reason why you should 
 not treat with your employes as a body. It seems to me that
 
 44 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 you should and I cannot see any reason any good reason at all 
 why you should not do it." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: " I will tell you in a moment. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "The committee can come up and talk with 
 you, and tell you what the men want and how they feel, and you 
 can state your side better than you can to a thousand individuals 
 running up here with one complaint and another. That is all I 
 have got to say." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Let me ask you this one question: Did I 
 ever refuse to receive your committee here and talk with you?" 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " Well, no, not that I know of. But you refused 
 to make any agreement with us or recognize us as a body. Of 
 course we could not bring any non-union men in with us; we cannot 
 force them to come in." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Let me tell you about that. There are a 
 lot of men in this company who do not belong to the union, and do 
 not want to belong to it and never will join it. They have rights 
 that are just as sacred and just as binding on this company as 
 your rights are, and they have a right to be treated just as you men 
 are treated. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN: "Sure." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You have a right to be treated just the 
 same way as they are, and you all have a right to be treated square. 
 And the only way in God's world that I know about treating a 
 situation of this sort is just the way I am treating you. I say now 
 to all of you we are going to treat you all fair; going to do what 
 is right to you. 
 
 " I will tell you men and I have said as much before that 
 I would rather there would not be any union here, and am sorry 
 the union has come here. Because we have had a whole lot of 
 trouble that we never had before it came, and it brings up conflict 
 all the time between motorman and conductor and between the 
 men themselves, and controversies all the time between these men, 
 because some of them belong to an organization and some of them 
 do not. 
 
 " Now, when you say to a free man in these United States that 
 he has got to belong to a union in order to get a day's pay, you are 
 going an awful long ways; you are saying something that you have 
 no right to say. You have no right to bring about a condition 
 where a man, who does not want to belong to a union, must either 
 belong to your union or starve because he does not see as you del. 
 That is the thing that the old revolutionary fathers fought for; 
 that is the thing that is written in the constitution of the United 
 States, and it is the thing that I am going to hold sacred as long 
 as I live, in any capacity whatever. I am not going to treat a 
 man any different who does not belong to a union than I treat 
 the man who does. And that is the principal reason about the 
 union end of it. But I think we are getting away from the real
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 45 
 
 matters that are grievances if they are grievances. The princi- 
 pal one is the matter of wages that we have talked about. Now, 
 if anybody has anything further to say on the question of wages, 
 let us have that, and then let us take up the next question. " 
 
 MR. LEAR: "In bringing up the question of the council 
 reducing the fares I have one thing I want to say: I think every 
 man in this hall would be opposed to anything of the kind, and that 
 we will do all in our power in every way to head that off, because 
 I do not think that it is fair and just, and I think that the five- 
 cent fare is little enough, and ought to be retained as the standard 
 and should not be reduced from that figure; and I think we should 
 go on record as saying that we will oppose anything of the kind 
 which will come up; we will oppose it as a body, and we will bring 
 it up before the body. We can oppose the measure as a body, 
 and go before the council as a body and say that we do not 
 want it. There are five or six members of the council that belong 
 to the unions, and as union men I am sure we could get the com- 
 mittee of the whole to call it off. We could go up there and make 
 a decided stand against anything of the kind being done. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Don't you think it is in your interest to 
 do that?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Yes, sir." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Why don't you do it?" 
 
 MR. LEAR : " Well, it is our interest. I say it is our interest. 
 I don't say that it is not our interest." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "Can you afford to sit here and permit the 
 council to pass such an ordinance, knowing that after it had passed 
 it, it would not only shut off any possibility of an increase, but 
 create a condition where you must have a decrease?" 
 
 MR. LEAR: "Well, I hadn't seen it and didn't know of it 
 until you told us about it. I did not know anything about this 
 being before the council. I have never read about it or heard of 
 anything of the kind until you spoke of it here, and would not like 
 to say what they have done or have not done; and if they should 
 go on record with reference to an ordinance such as is contemplated, 
 to the effect that it would be a detriment to the men in the employ 
 of the street railway company, and would result in a decrease of 
 their wages and that we would be opposed to such an ordinance, 
 and if we passed it as a body I think it would have considerable 
 weight with the council. And I am sure the committee will agree 
 with me that we would be glad to do that at any time. " 
 
 MR. GILLAN : " In some cities reduction of fare has not re- 
 duced the income of the company; there has been more riding 
 done and the income was increased. Of course, I do not know that 
 it would result that way in this city." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Naturally, Mr. Wattles, we would oppose 
 such a movement on the part of the city council as that. Yet you 
 leave us in a very peculiar and embarrassing position to go and
 
 46 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 defend the rights of the company in that respect, and use our 
 influence with our fellow workmen that are in the city council at 
 the present time, owing to the view that you take of the trade 
 union movement. 
 
 " You say that you have not seen any good results come from 
 organization. There are very few cities in the country, as you 
 know, today, of any importance, that are not organized, and the 
 workers certainly must realize that these organizations are bene- 
 ficial to them or they would not be kept up as they are; and away 
 down in the bottom of your heart, Mr. Wattles, you know that or- 
 ganization is a benefit to the workman; and you know that an 
 appeal from an individual working for a corporation no matter 
 how fair-minded you may be an appeal made to you under the 
 same conditions from a single individual, would not have the same 
 force with you as would an appeal or representations coming from 
 an organized body, represented by a committee of level-headed, 
 well-balanced men. You agree with me in that. You agree with 
 me that you would not take notice of me or any other man, if I 
 come here and say, as an individual: 'Mr. Wattles, the street car 
 boys are not paid enough.' 
 
 "I am not coming here on my own hook today. I am not 
 talking to you simply because I want to talk to you. I am talking 
 to you, sir, because I was selected from your employes to tell you 
 the situation, and I know that what I say to you has more weight 
 and bearing with you than if I came up here to speak to you as an 
 individual. 
 
 " Now I hope that you will not take too pessimistic a view of 
 this affair, because it is so serious, and it will only throw us into a 
 position where we cannot straighten it out with the men, no matter 
 how we talk to them when we g'o back to make our report. We 
 may go back with all the determination in the world to say to the 
 men, 'Have patience and hold back a little while, and Mr. Wattles 
 will do everything in his power for us that he possibly can do.' But 
 they will say, 'We instructed you to bring back to us a business 
 proposition and to deal with this company along trade union lines, 
 along the lines of the constitution and bylaws of the Amalgamated 
 Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes of America. ' 
 That is what they will say to us. And if we do not do our duty, 
 they will turn us to one side and they will appoint another com- 
 mittee, or they will probably order a strike and go out in the street. 
 
 " I am stating the truth I am telling the truth when I say 
 I speak the truth and speak from the very bottom of my heart, 
 and am telling the honest truth just as is presented to me that 
 this will be their response when we go back to them and tell them 
 what you have said the kind words you have said. We may state 
 all of them just as you have stated them. But I say now that I 
 know I feel that I know the temper of the men, and we cannot 
 keep them within our control with the promises that you have
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 47 
 
 made, without you are willing to arbitrate or get down to some 
 specific means whereby they will know in future under what con- 
 ditions they are working. And that is the reason that we are 
 appealing to you. I am telling the truth when I say that this is 
 a serious situation, and I do assure you that it is most serious; 
 and if there is anything that you can give to us in writing that you 
 think would satisfy the employes of this company, with your 
 signature to it, I wish that you would consider it and take it up 
 and have it prepared so that we may present it at our meeting; 
 and you won't say then that this committee misrepresented your 
 views or your ideas, and you cannot say that some of them were 
 radicals, were hotheaded and misunderstood and misconstrued 
 your words. Because I know these gentlemen well, and I know 
 there is not one of them will misconstrue your words, but he will 
 tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; and so 
 far as we have gone in this wage scale and the other questions that 
 we have touched upon, I believe if we go back and relate the situa- 
 tion, that we may bring upon ourselves troubles that we will have 
 an awful time to untangle; and a stitch in time saves nine, as the 
 old woman said. There is nothing like coming out fair and plain 
 and telling you the exact situation, and probably you will recon- 
 sider and give us something in writing that will satisfy the employes 
 of your company. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Now, Mr. Lenahan and gentlemen : I have 
 tried to show you that my heart is in the right place, that I am 
 open to receive employes at any time that they have grievances, 
 to consider them, to give a hearing to our men at all times and to 
 correct grievances that may exist. That is the position I take. 
 When you come to me and ask me to violate my word of honor, 
 and to go back on agreements that I have made with men whom I 
 respect just as highly as I do you, you are asking me something 
 that you may cut my arm off but you never can get me to grant. 
 
 " Now, I am not a timid man either. I will do exactly what 
 is just and fair; at the same time I will be firm in what I know is 
 right. These men, if they quit the service of this company and 
 go out on a strike, will have to appeal to this community for the 
 justice of their cause. If they cannot appeal to the community 
 for the justice of their cause and be sustained by the great bulk 
 of our people, they have lost before they start. That is one 
 thing they should think of, and think of seriously. Because, I 
 have said before, and I repeat now, while I am going to be abso- 
 lutely fair and just to every union man in the employ of this com- 
 pany and protect him in his rights, and see that he is not discrim- 
 inated against in any way, at the same time I am going to be equally 
 fair to the other side; and if the union men in our employ do call 
 a strike under the conditions that I know exist, and that I am posi- 
 tive that this community will say exists when they see the evidence 
 before them, I say to the union men, 'If they quit the employ of
 
 48 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 this company, there never will be another union man employed 
 by this company.' Now you may think that is idle talk, men. 
 Nobody will regret a strike worse than I. And don't think that 
 I am sitting here with my hands folded believing there is not going 
 to be a strike. Every time one of those agitators comes among 
 you, and works you up to this high pitch of temper that I find you 
 in when you come here, looking at me as if I were your enemy when 
 I am your best friend, every time they commence upon you the 
 men get beside themselves, and they are ready to do anything. 
 So I have prepared this company for a strike, and I have men 
 employed waiting to take the place of every man who quits." 
 
 A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE: "That is right." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "And this company will go right along 
 and operate its cars; if necessary, under the protection of the gov- 
 ernment itself. 
 
 " Don't think for a moment now that we are going to consider 
 this lightly. We have not considered it lightly. We have con- 
 sidered it seriously. We have believed all the time that you men 
 I will not say you men, because I believe that you are good, level- 
 headed men, but, as Mr. Lenahan says, there are a lot of men there 
 who demand impossible things and say to you, 'You go up and you 
 just say we have to have so and so, or there is going to be a strike.' 
 Now, that don't scare me. I have been in all kinds of situations. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "I did not say that there were hot-headed 
 men in our union." 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "You said there were men there whom it 
 was hard to control. That you could not keep them within your 
 control." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : " What I said was that what you were offering 
 would not satisfy the men." 
 
 MR. WATTLES : " Maybe it will not. I would be very sorry 
 if it did not. If any of them have any real grievance real, not 
 imaginary if any man has been discharged wrongfully by this 
 company, I want him to come to me and show me, and if I do 
 not reinstate him, then it is time to talk about calling a strike. 
 If any man comes to me and says, 'I ought to have more pay/ and 
 if he can show me that he ought to have more pay and I will not 
 grant it to him when I am able to, then is the time to talk 
 about the strike. I am telling you men the truth about this 
 thing. I am giving you the honest facts as they exist. I have 
 told you my troubles in order that you may see where I stand on 
 this proposition. Now, then, I say this, and you can take it back 
 to your men: That if anybody has a real complaint not some- 
 thing that happened when Mr. Tucker was alive, or something that 
 happened five years ago, or something that happened so long ago 
 that we have forgotten it but if there are real things happening 
 here against you men or any one of you, bring it up here and we 
 will straighten it out. Don't you be alarmed about it. It will
 
 THE FINAL CONFERENCE 49 
 
 be straightened out fairly, too. But don't get led away now, men. 
 Don't get excited. Don't feel that you have not good jobs, or 
 that you can go and get others next week, or that if you quit this 
 company you can come back again in a few days. That is not 
 the way the thing is going to happen here. You may think it is, 
 but that is not the way it is going to be. 
 
 " Look up the record of street car strikes and you will see what 
 has happened. I will furnish you with copies of the history of 
 the strike led by this very man who is among you here, but a short 
 time ago, down at Louisville, Kentucky, if you want to see it. 
 What was the result? This man left town. He had business at 
 Minneapolis. Didn't make any difference to him. He left twenty- 
 five of these honest workingmen in jail with criminal charges against 
 them and under $5,000 bonds, and warrants out for 120 more of 
 them. They were in trouble. Was he? Oh, no. He had busi- 
 ness somewhere else. It is your trouble. It is not his. It is 
 you you men who are going to suffer and your families if 
 you bring this strike on yourselves. 
 
 " There may be times that men ought to strike, when their 
 employers are not fair when they don't talk fair or will not do 
 what is right. But that is not the case here. Don't think that 
 you can make a case out of imaginary things, because the facts 
 are going to come up. If a street car strike is called here, the 
 public will know why it is called and what the reason for its being 
 called is, and all about it before we get through with it; and when 
 they hear the evidence and see it, they are going to judge whether 
 it is just and fair or not; and the judgment is rendered before you 
 start in case the facts are against you. " 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Gentlemen, those are the facts, that Mr. 
 Wattles has prepared for a strike, and there is nothing that we can 
 concede or agree upon; and his statement to you is frank that he 
 has prepared for a strike, and that he is not willing to treat with 
 us except as individuals. You are only treated as individuals 
 here today, and the instructions received from your association 
 is that you were to come here representing the employes of the 
 company, or the union men, and get an agreement, or to take back 
 to the organization something substantial and satisfactory. Mr. 
 Wattles denies you that right and treats you as individuals. On 
 these grounds we have nothing to do but retire." 
 
 MR. PONCELOW: "Well, I think the conference is over. I 
 don't see that there is anything we can do. " 
 
 MR. WATTLES: "If any of you men have anything else to 
 say, let us hear it now, because it is the time." 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: "Your position is very clear." 
 
 The committee thereupon retired from Mr. Wattles' office and 
 the meeting was ended.
 
 50 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 State of Nebraska, County of Douglas, ss. 
 
 This is to certify that on Wednesday, the Fifteenth day of 
 September, 1909, I attended a meeting held at the office of Mr. 
 Gurdon W. Wattles, in the United States National Bank building, 
 in the city of Omaha, Douglas county, state of Nebraska, which 
 said meeting was commenced at the hour of two in the afternoon 
 of said day, and was a meeting between a committee of seven of 
 the union employes of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway 
 Company, whose names are set forth on page one of this transcript, 
 and Mr. Gurdon W. Wattles, the president of said company; this 
 is to further certify that I reported in shorthand writing all of the 
 statements made at said meeting by any and all of the persons 
 present at and participating in said meeting; I further certify that 
 the foregoing transcript, containing pages numbered one (1) to 
 fifty-two (52), both inclusive, is a full, true and complete transcript 
 of all shorthand notes taken by me at said meeting and contains 
 each and all of the statements made by the persons participating 
 in said meeting. 
 
 In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name, at 
 Omaha, Nebraska, this 17th day of September, A. D., 1909. 
 
 FRANK J. SUTCLIFFE, Shorthand Reporter.
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 ENDORSEMENT OF COMPANY'S POSITION 
 
 The next day after this meeting, the president of the company 
 was waited upon by Mr. T. W. McCullough, Managing Editor 
 of the Omaha Bee and a leader in union matters in the city of 
 Omaha, who requested an interview between Mr. C. O. Pratt, 
 of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway 
 Employes of America, and the President of the company. To 
 this request, the following reply by letter was made: 
 
 "Omaha, Nebraska, Sept. 16, 1909. 
 "T. W. MCCULLOUGH, ESQ., 
 
 Care Omaha Bee, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 MY DEAR MR. MCCULLOUGH: 
 
 "After a careful consideration of your request that I should 
 meet Mr. Pratt, an officer of the National Association of Street 
 Railway Employes, I cannot see that such a meeting would accom- 
 plish any practical results. The position of our company has always 
 been that its officers will at all times confer with its employes, 
 either individually or by committees, and hear any complaints 
 they may have to make and correct any wrongs, so far as lies 
 within their power, but that they will not negotiate with men not 
 in their employ. If I am correctly informed, the purpose of Mr. 
 Pratt is to secure the execution of a written contract between the 
 Street Railway Company and the union. This would be impossible 
 for the following reasons: 
 
 " When the union was first organized, the men who joined it 
 were suspended by the company. At a conference with these 
 men the national organizer, Mr. Wilson, asked for a hearing, which 
 was granted. He then stated to the officers and directors in the 
 presence of the men, that in many cities where unions existed 
 among street railway employes, a part of the men belonged to the 
 union and others did not, that they always worked in perfect 
 harmony together, that it was not the purpose of street railway 
 unions to secure a closed shop, and that if a union should be 
 organized in Omaha, no contract would be asked or required either 
 
 (51)
 
 52 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 at that time or in the future, but that the purpose of organizing 
 a union here was to promote the general welfare of those who 
 joined it. 
 
 "With this understanding and agreement with Mr. Wilson, the 
 opposition to the organization of the union was withdrawn, and 
 the men who had been suspended were reinstated. While the 
 union was being organized, the officers of the Street Railway 
 Company were waited on by a large number of the old employes, 
 and we were asked to state to these men whether or not the com- 
 pany would at any time enter into any contract with the union 
 whereby they, who did not want to join the union, would in any 
 way be liable to lose their rights or positions. They were positively 
 assured that no contract would be entered into by this company 
 with the union, and that every employe of the company, regardless 
 of whether he belonged to the union or not, would receive the same 
 treatment and would be dealt with in the same manner as every 
 other employe. 
 
 " Two years ago last March, when a strike was threatened, 
 because of the refusal of the officers of the company to violate 
 their solemn agreement with their non-union men and sign an 
 agreement with the union, I was requested to appear before the 
 then president of the Central Labor Union, Mr. Charles McDonald, 
 and the two last ex-presidents of that body, Mr. Louis V. Guye 
 and Mr. John Polian, and state the position of the company and 
 submit evidence, that they might judge for the union men as to 
 whether or not a strike was justified. One of the findings of this 
 committee reads as follows: 
 
 " ' In the matter of a written contract demanded on the part 
 of your organization, we find that inasmuch as an agreement was 
 entered into at the time of the formation of your local union, to 
 the effect that the company would not be required to sign a con- 
 tract, we therefore recommend that said contract be withdrawn.' 
 
 "The decision of our company on this matter is final. We 
 do not expect to violate this understanding we had with the union 
 and non-union men, nor will we permit the union to violate it. 
 
 " Regarding the matter contained in the contract submitted 
 to us, we have freely and frankly discussed these and other matters 
 with our employes. The principal provision, for an increase of 
 pay, we have declined to consider at this time and have explained 
 the reasons therefor. An occupation tax was recently levied 
 against this company, which will require the payment to the City 
 of Omaha of about $60,000 per annum. Last year, after paying 
 the expenses of operation, taxes, interest and reasonable dividends, 
 and setting aside only a moderate sum for replacement, we had 
 left about $22,000. It is as important to our employes as it is 
 to our stockholders that we maintain the high financial credit of 
 our company. To increase its expenses beyond its ability to pay 
 would bring disaster to all.
 
 ENDORSEMENT OF COMPANY'S POSITION 53 
 
 " But there is a further reason why we should not increase 
 our wage scale at present. Our company has at all times paid 
 the highest wages of any company in any city of our importance, 
 where similar conditions prevail to those in Omaha. At present 
 our scale of wages is higher than such cities as Boston, Washing- 
 ton, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Milwaukee, 
 Louisville, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Baltimore, Toledo, Columbus, 
 Sioux City, St. Joseph and Des Moines. In but one city in the 
 United States in the class of Omaha are the wages to street rail- 
 way employes higher than here. That city is Denver, where all 
 wages are much higher and living expenses accordingly. It is 
 the policy of our company, however, to at all times pay its em- 
 ployes as good or better wages than similar employes receive in 
 any city in our class, and this will be our future policy. 
 
 " Three increases in our scale of wages have been made during 
 the past six years, and other increases will be made at the earliest 
 date prudent to do so. In past adjustments of the wage scale 
 our employes have been consulted, and we have endeavored to 
 make this adjustment in accordance with the value of the service 
 rendered and in a manner so as to retain in our employ all of our 
 older and more experienced men. In future adjustments we shall 
 consult with the men, and endeavor to adopt such a scale as will 
 be most satisfactory to our employes, and which will produce the 
 best service to the public. 
 
 " Regarding the provision to insure fair treatment to union 
 employes, I will say that the policy of our company toward the 
 union has been so often announced and published, that there 
 should be no misunderstanding regarding it. We have stated 
 that so long as union men remain in our employ, they shall be 
 treated in every way as fairly and justly as non-union employes, 
 and there shall be no discrimination made by the officers of the 
 company for or against them. If, at any time, any such discrimi- 
 nation can be shown to exist, it will be immediately corrected. We 
 have always reserved the right of the officers and superintendents 
 to say to our men that we prefer that they do not join the union, 
 but no pledge is required from any man entering our employ on this 
 subject. We cannot permit union men to annoy or harass non- 
 union men. We must at all times maintain discipline and good 
 service on the part of all employes, to the end that the public shall 
 continue to receive the best service possible. 
 
 " Regarding the schedule of runs, we have at all times stated 
 to the men that it was the purpose of the company to so adjust 
 the runs as to be most satisfactory to them, keeping in mind the 
 fact that the service must not be impaired, and that we have to 
 provide this service during about twenty hours of each day. We 
 have repeatedly stated that if any suggested changes in runs could 
 be made, that would not impair the service and would be more
 
 54 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 convenient to our employes, we would be glad to receive such 
 suggestions. 
 
 " It is the purpose of the company at all times to provide each 
 barn with a sufficient number of extra men, to the end that regular 
 men may lay off on frequent occasions, if they so desire. To be 
 fair, however, with the extra men employed, we cannot maintain 
 such a large number as will not provide a reasonable wage for all 
 who are employed. 
 
 "I have stated at length in this letter the position of our 
 company on all of the material questions that are embodied in the 
 contract recently submitted to us by our union employes. We do 
 not desire any disruption of the pleasant relations that have 
 existed between the officers of our company and the men in its 
 employ. We shall, however, pursue the policies herein outlined, 
 believing that they are for the best interest of all the men in our 
 employ. 
 
 " You are at liberty to use this letter in any manner you see 
 fit to promote the general welfare of our employes. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 " (Signed) G. W. WATTLES, Pres. " 
 
 In delivering this letter, the President of the company stated 
 verbally that he would meet Mr. Pratt, if he so desired, before the 
 Executive Committee of the Business Men's Association of Omaha, 
 at their meeting at one o'clock P. M. the following day. Mr. Pratt 
 appeared at this meeting and stated the complaints of the union 
 men against the Street Railway Company, and presented at that 
 time a modified contract which he stated would be satisfactory 
 to the union employes of the company. On being questioned by 
 a member of the Business Men's Association as to who was to 
 execute this contract in behalf of the street railway employes, he 
 admitted that it was to be executed by the officers of the union. 
 
 The President of thB company thereupon agreed to issue a 
 statement to all the employes of the Street Railway Company, and 
 place a copy in the hands of each employe, which would cover the 
 principal points raised in the contract, but this was not satisfactory 
 to Mr. Pratt. At a later date the business men present at this 
 meeting published the following statement as to what occurred 
 at this meeting, as follows: 
 
 " The undersigned, having been present at the meeting of the 
 executive committee of the Business Men's Association on Septem- 
 ber 17, take this means of giving to the public an accurate state- 
 ment of what occurred before the executive committee relative 
 to the impending street railway strike.
 
 ENDORSEMENT OF COMPANY'S POSITION 55 
 
 "Mr. Wattles, representing the Street Railway Company, 
 and Mr. Pratt, representing the union, appeared before the com- 
 mittee. Mr. Pratt informed the committee that what he was de- 
 manding of the Street Railway Company was a document in the 
 form of a contract, to be signed by the officials of the Street Rail- 
 way Company on the one side and certain officers of the union 
 on the other. He produced a proposed draft of such contract, 
 which he said had never been presented to Mr. Wattles or to the 
 Street Railway Company. This was the same form of contract 
 which was subsequently published in the papers of Sunday morn- 
 ing, September 19. Mr. Pratt stated that an increase in wages 
 was asked, but that, if the figures named in the proposed contract 
 were not fair, he was disposed to negotiate further on that subject. 
 He also stated that they wanted a contract covering the question 
 of schedules of runs and hours of work. 
 
 "Mr. Wattles then informed the committee that when the 
 union was organized here about seven years ago, those who joined 
 it were at first suspended from their employment but were after- 
 wards reinstated upon the express promise that the union would 
 not, at any time, demand of the company any contract with the 
 union, as such, or other contract or agreement making a distinction 
 between union and non-union men; that at the same time the com- 
 pany promised its non-union employes that it would not, at any 
 time, make any contract with the union, the effect of which would 
 be to. discriminate in its manner of treating with its union employes 
 and its treatment of its non-union men. 
 
 "Mr. Wattles said that the question whether the company 
 should keep its word with its non-union employes was not a matter 
 that he could submit to arbitration. He further stated that within 
 the past six years the company had made three voluntary advances 
 in wages, and is now paying its conductors and motormen the high- 
 est wages paid in any city of the class of Omaha where conditions 
 are at all similar, and that it had paid, during the periods of depres- 
 sion, as high wages as any other city under similar conditions, 
 notwithstanding that for many years the stockholders received no 
 dividends whatever. He said that the present condition of busi- 
 ness and income would not permit an increase of wages at the 
 present time and enable the company to make necessary replace- 
 ments, preserve its credit and keep the service up to the required 
 standard; but that it is the purpose and policy of the company 
 to make further advances in wages whenever conditions of business 
 will warrant the same. He then offered to give to every employe, 
 whether union or non-union man, a written statement over his 
 signature as president of the company, containing the following 
 specific promises and pledges: 
 
 " '1. Whenever the condition of business will warrant an 
 increase of pay, such increase will be made.
 
 56 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 " '2. That in their treatment of employes there shall be no 
 discrimination whatever between union and non-union men. 
 
 " '3. That every specific complaint respecting treatment, 
 schedule of runs, hours of work or other matters relating to the 
 working conditions, which shall be brought to the attention of 
 the company shall receive consideration, and the cause of complaint 
 shall be removed, if possible, with due regard to the efficiency of 
 the service.' 
 
 " Mr. Pratt then said that, while he and Mr. Wattles were not 
 far apart on matters of substance, what he wanted was a contract 
 rather than a statement from the company. His proposed con- 
 tract was then examined in detail, and he stated that if it were 
 entered into it would be signed by certain officers of the union. 
 
 " He was then asked to point out any promise or agreement 
 contained in the proposed contract to be performed by any one 
 except the Street Railway Company, and he admitted that there 
 were no such promises in the proposed agreement. 
 
 "The controversy thus narrowed down, for immediate pur- 
 poses, to whether, all of the promises and agreements being on one 
 side, the document to be signed should be in the form of a written 
 declaration by the company to all of its employes, or in the form 
 of a contract with the union, thereby ignoring the non-union work- 
 man. As the making of such a contract would be a breach of 
 faith on the part of the Street Railway Company toward its non- 
 union employes, and as the demand for it was a breach of the prom- 
 ises of the union made at the time the union employes were rein- 
 stated in their employment, it was unanimously resolved by the 
 executive committee of the Business Men's Association that the 
 association approve the attitude of the Street Railway Company, 
 and would give that company its support in the event that a strike 
 should be precipitated. The action of the committee was after- 
 wards unanimously endorsed by a general meeting of the associa- 
 tion on Sunday afternoon. 
 
 " Upon the conclusion of the executive committee being made 
 known, Mr. Pratt left the meeting, saying that he would read to 
 the men then assembled at the Labor Temple, without comment, 
 the letter which Mr. Wattles had on the day previous addressed 
 to a certain prominent union labor man of this city, which con- 
 tained, in substance, the same assurances which Mr. Wattles had 
 made to the executive committee. 
 
 " Signed this 20th day of September, 1909. 
 
 SAMUEL REES, 
 President Business Men's Association. 
 
 D. J. O'BRIEN, T. J. MAHONEF, CHARLES C. BELDEN, 
 FRANK W. JUDSON, GEORGE H. LEE. G. W. CLABAUGH, 
 
 E. J. McVANN, G. W. JOHNSTON, FRANK B. JOHNSON, 
 A. J. v i Kiti.i N<;, DAVID COLR, FRANK COLPETZER, 
 W. S. JARDINB, GEORGE H. KELLY, W. C. BULLARD, 
 
 E. E. BKUCB, JOHN H HAUTE, J. B. RAHM, 
 
 THOMAS A. FRY, ANDREW MURPHY, THOMAS C. BYRNE, 
 
 J. A. SUNDBRLAND. A. C. SMITH, F. A. NASH," 
 
 W. S. WRIGHT,
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 STAMPEDING THE MEN 
 
 Mr. Pratt left this meeting and went directly to the meeting 
 of the union employes, which was then in session at Labor Temple. 
 What occurred at that meeting before, and after Mr. Pratt's arrival, 
 is told in the following affidavit by a witness who was present: 
 
 STATE OF NEBRASKA, | 
 COUNTY OF DOUGLAS. j 
 
 The undersigned, G. W. Adams, being first duly sworn, 
 deposes and says as follows : 
 
 " My name is G. W. Adams. I live at 1423 Avenue D, Council 
 Bluffs. I have been in the employ of the Omaha & Council Bluffs 
 Street Railway Company for three and a half years as motorman on 
 the Council Bluffs Division. I do not belong to the Street Railway 
 union and never have joined it. My regular conductor, E. E. 
 Moore, invited me to go to the union meeting to be held at Labor 
 Temple on Friday afternoon, September 17, 1909. He said it 
 was to be an open meeting to which everybody was invited. I 
 went to the hall alone and found him there when I got there, which 
 was about two o'clock in the afternoon. I went upstairs and 
 met him and he came and shook hands with me. I went in the 
 hall with him. On the platform were Mr. Ben Commons and two 
 other men. I knew it was Mr. Commons because he gave his name 
 when he started to speak to the men. There were about one 
 hundred and sixty men in the hall at the time. 
 
 "First there was a speech by a small man with a light mus- 
 tache; I did not hear his name, but I believe he was one of the 
 union committeemen. Then Mr. Commons spoke. He said: 'We 
 cannot do very much, because we have got to wait for Mr. Pratt, 
 who is having a talk with Mr. Wattles at this time.' He then 
 talked for a short time about street railroad matters, and then he 
 said that they had some secret work to do and all non-union men 
 must leave the hall, if there were any in there. Five or six men 
 
 (67)
 
 58 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 got up and went out. Then after they went out Mr. Commons 
 sent a committee around to look at every man's card, to know that 
 there was no non-union man left in the hall. My conductor came 
 over to me and said, 'Now you go and make out your application 
 to join the union, and you can stay in and hear all the secret 
 work.' I said to him, 'What do you call this, a forced game?' 
 He said, 'Why, no,' and I said, 'It looks like it.' And I said, 'I 
 would not have come here if I had known it was to be this kind of 
 a meeting.' I did not want to go out and let them hoot at me. 
 He took a hold of my shoulder and pinched it and said, 'You 
 are all right anyway, say nothing about it,' and went over and sat 
 down in a row over by the platform. I think he was one of the 
 committee on the Council Bluffs side. 
 
 " They then shut all the doors and put a man in the ante-room, 
 and then one man in the lodge room at the door. When the com- 
 mittee came around to look at the cards Mr. Moore was talking to 
 me, and they passed by me and never asked me for any card. 
 Then Ben Commons gave the lodge signs. * * * He explained 
 the union grip. * * * Then he commenced to talk about the 
 street car strike, and he wanted to know if there was anyone in 
 the hall that would put a motion before the house, and one man 
 got up and said, 'I make a motion that the company pay once a 
 week in place of twice a month.' Mr. Commons said, 'We don't 
 want anything to do with that kind of a motion.' Mr. Commons 
 then said to the men, 'When Mr. Pratt comes back from waiting on 
 Mr. Wattles, if he does not get any satisfaction, the question is, 
 will you call a strike or not?' He said that Mr. Wattles was one 
 of the biggest liars on earth; that he had never kept any of his 
 words with the men, or anything that he had told them when they 
 went to him with grievances. He said that Mr. Wattles positively 
 refused to talk to him at all, and that before they got through he 
 would have to talk to him. 
 
 " He then commenced to tell the men what strikes he had won. 
 I forget the names of the towns, but there was one town that he 
 claimed there were fifty-four strikers, and they called out six 
 hundred militia and they won the strike. Then he told about a 
 town where he had been put in jail for ninety days, and how his 
 wife had fetched him good grub and good stuff to drink while he 
 was in jail, and he was ready to go in jail again if necessary. Then 
 he said those that were in favor of a strike should stand up, and
 
 STAMPEDING THE MEN 59 
 
 about everyone in the house stood up, and I stood up with them 
 too. I thought if I did not they might see me sitting there and 
 somebody might knock my head off. Mr. Commons said if Mr. 
 Wattles did not come to the agreement they would go out on 
 Saturday night at twelve o'clock. Then he said, 'Who is in favor 
 of it?' and pulled his hat out and swung it around, and that put 
 everyone in the house hollering 'Strike, strike, strike.' The men 
 acted like they were very much excited. Commons then said, 
 'Now, boys, I will tell you, if we go out at twelve o'clock Saturday 
 night, you will all meet here at twelve o'clock, and we will appoint 
 our committees and pickets to go to each car barn,' and he said. 
 'You have got to be brave and put on a brave face.' He then told 
 the men the means they were to use in preventing the cars from 
 being operated, and how to treat those who attempted to operate 
 them. Every time he would make a statement of that kind he 
 would take his hat off and wave it and get them very much excited. 
 
 "It was getting late. I went to work at 5:18 and I had not 
 had my supper, and it was after four o'clock, but I was afraid to 
 get up and give any sign to get out for fear they would not leave 
 'a grease spot of me,' as I had had experience with people as wild 
 as they were then. Before I left the hall, Mr. Pratt came back, 
 and he had a letter which Mr. Wattles had written to some man in 
 Omaha about what he would do. Then Pratt said that Mr. Wat- 
 tles had gone back on everything he had agreed to do; that he 
 would not sign anything at all; that he would cut his right hand 
 off first. He then said something about a strike. Ben Commons 
 then said, 'Strike right away, the quicker the better, and give them 
 no notice.' 
 
 " Then Ben Commons said to the men again that all who were 
 in favor of a strike should stand up. Nearly every man in the 
 house stood up. He then pounded the table and told them that 
 stood up to sit down. Then he said for those that were not in 
 favor of a strike to stand up, and no one stood up. They did not 
 take any ballot on the question. Then Mr. Pratt made a speech 
 in which he called Mr. Wattles a liar, and urged the men to stand 
 firm and told them they would win the strike and no question 
 about it. After he had made his speech they adjourned the meet- 
 ing till the evening meeting. 
 
 "Then I went on my run and had my same conductor, Mr. 
 Moore. Later Mr. Moore came to me at Manawa and said to me,
 
 60 
 
 'What are you going to do, are you going out with us?' I said, 
 'I am not.' He said, 'You will be scabbing if you don't.' I said, 
 'I am not going out.' He said, 'I thought all the time you would 
 go out.' I said, 'I had you guessing, didn't I?' Then that night 
 at the 12:40 trip out of Omaha, the union men that belonged in 
 Council Bluffs caught my car over to the Bluffs going home from 
 the meeting. I could notice through the back of the car that 
 Poncelow was a kind of whispering to my conductor; I could see 
 through the car. Then after they got home and off the car, my 
 conductor came to me and said, 'Now this is between you and me, 
 I want you to keep quiet, and I will tell you something. They are 
 going out in the morning at four o'clock, in place of Saturday 
 night.' 
 
 (Signed) G. W. ADAMS." 
 
 Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before me by the 
 said G. W. Adams this 14th day of October, A. D., 1909. 
 [SEAL] (Signed) J. T. HILLQUIST, 
 
 Notary Public. 
 
 Another meeting of the union men, to accommodate those who 
 were not present at the afternoon meeting, was held at eight o'clock 
 on the same evening. From reliable information obtained from 
 those who were present, but who are not at liberty to disclose their 
 identity, on account of their oath to the union, it was learned that 
 about the same action was taken at the evening meeting as at the 
 afternoon meeting, and that the vote on the strike was not by 
 ballot, as is provided by the by-laws of the Amalgamated Associa- 
 tion of Street & Electric Railway Employes of America, which 
 read as follows: 
 
 " Section 102. When any difficulty arises between the mem- 
 bers of any local division of this association and their employers, 
 regarding wages, hours of labor, or any other question that may 
 result in a strike or a lockout, the dispute shall first be taken up 
 by the executive board of the local division, or by a committee 
 appointed by the division for that purpose, and they shall make a 
 thorough investigation, and seek, through conferences with the 
 company, to get the matter satisfactorily adjusted. The com- 
 mittee shall, after having finished the work of negotiation with the 
 company, submit a full report to a meeting of the division. 
 
 "Section 103. If, by compliance with Section 102, the com- 
 mittee has been unable to secure settlement that is satisfactory 
 to the local division, and the question is one over which the local 
 division believes a strike should be ordered, such question shall
 
 STAMPEDING THE MEN 61 
 
 be submitted to a secret ballot of the entire membership. If 
 necessary to reach the entire membership of the division, it shall 
 be submitted by a referendum vote under the Australian ballot 
 system. If two-thirds () of the membership thus voting decide 
 to favor the proposition, they shall at once notify the International 
 President. The International President, upon receipt of such 
 notice, shall proceed to the scene of dispute in person, or by deputy, 
 and, in conjunction with the committee of the local division, shall 
 make a careful investigation and attempt to settle the matter in 
 dispute. In case he fails to make a settlement, he shall communi- 
 cate with the General Executive Board, either by writing or tele- 
 graphing, and get a majority of the board's consent before endors- 
 ing any strike, and in no case will he endorse a strike without first 
 having offered arbitration. If the company is willing to submit 
 the dispute to arbitration, he shall make arrangements and submit 
 the case to arbitration and thus adjust it. 
 
 " Section 104. In case the international representative, who 
 is handling questions in a dispute between a local division and the 
 employing company has propositions from the company that he 
 believes should be considered by the entire membership, he shall 
 acquaint the membership with such propositions, either through 
 a circular carefully outlining and explaining the propositions, or 
 through a general meeting of the division. After having acquainted 
 the membership with the proposition or propositions, he shall then 
 have a referendum vote of the entire membership of the local 
 division taken upon the same. If the local division has by-laws 
 providing for a referendum vote of its membership, he shall follow 
 such provisions. If the local division has no by-laws governing 
 such vote, he shall then make arrangements and have such vote 
 taken in the best and easiest manner possible either by appoint- 
 ing a special election day and having the membership come to the 
 hall or headquarters of the division and cast their vote, or through 
 a committee who shall take the vote of the members at the different 
 stations or barns. Every member shall be given an opportunity 
 to vote upon such proposition, and the majority of the votes cast 
 by the membership of the local division shall decide the question. 
 
 "Section 105. The General Executive Board shall have the 
 power to sustain or refuse to sustain the action of the local divi- 
 sion, providing the local division has complied with this consti- 
 tution. The International President shall notify the local division 
 of the decision without delay. 
 
 "Section 106. In case the General Executive Board refuses 
 to sustain the local division in its application for support the 
 local division can appeal for a vote of all local divisions in request 
 for support, and it shall be the duty of the International President 
 to submit the appeal and facts in the case to a vote of the general 
 membership, which vote shall be returned to the International 
 President within thirty (30) days, and if the appeal is sustained
 
 62 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 the local division making the same shall be notified and shall be 
 entitled to all support in accordance with the constitution. 
 
 "Section 107. Local divisions going on strike without the 
 consent of the General Executive Board shall forfeit all rights to 
 assistance and be subject to expulsion from the Association." 
 
 The evidence is therefore conclusive that the strike of the 
 union employes of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway 
 Company was never legally voted, in that no secret ballot was 
 taken; that the men were greatly excited because of the intemper- 
 ate speeches by the officials of the National Association; and that 
 the men had no opportunity to calmly consider a vote upon this 
 most important subject.
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 THE STRIKE 
 
 The officers of the Street Railway Company were promptly 
 advised of the results of the meetings, both afternoon and evening, 
 at which the strike was voted, and during the night such prepara- 
 tions were made as were possible to meet the situation. Chief 
 of Police John J. Donahue took personal charge of his forces, and 
 squads of policemen were stationed at each car barn, so that when 
 the pickets of the strikers attempted, as they did, to intercept 
 those who desired to work or to interfere with the cars as they came 
 out of the barns, the police promptly and effectively prevented any 
 and all violence. The Assistant General Manager of the company, 
 the Superintendent of Transportation and the numerous road 
 officers were on the scene, and one and all, together with the men 
 loyal to the company, did all that was possible to furnish the most 
 efficient service that could be carried on under the circumstances. 
 
 About 300 of the 635 operating employes of the company be- 
 longed to the union when the strike was voted. 
 
 Many of the operating employes, who did not belong to the 
 union, were so much alarmed by the demonstrations of the strikers 
 and their friends and their threats to commit bodily injury, that 
 quite a large number of these loyal men refused to take out their 
 cars. In order to induce as many as possible to take out their 
 cars, an order was posted in each barn by the Assistant General 
 Manager, stating that all who refused to work would be discharged 
 by the company. The effect of this order was to sever from the 
 employ of the company quite a large number of men who did not 
 at that time belong to the union, but who were too timid to take 
 out their cars. These men were immediately solicited by union 
 men to join their forces, and were given assurances that within a 
 short time the union would force their reinstatement. Some of 
 them, against their inclinations, were thus forced into the union. 
 
 The plans so carefully laid to prevent the operation of the 
 cars proved abortive, on account of the presence at each of the
 
 64 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 barns of a squad of policemen. However, only a comparatively 
 small number of cars were sent out on each line during the first 
 day of the strike. Many of these cars were stoned, and the opera- 
 tives were insulted and in some cases assaulted by strike sympa- 
 thizers, but on the first day of the strike and all during its pro- 
 gress our citizens in large numbers rode on the cars. 
 
 During the first day of the strike a large number of circulars 
 were distributed on the streets, stating the grievances of the 
 strikers. The circular read as follows: 
 
 THE STREET CAR LOCKOUT 
 
 A Truthful Statement of Facts by the Street Car Men 
 
 TO THE PUBLIC 
 
 Read, Investigate, Reflect, and then use Your Influence in Fighting 
 for the Cause of Justice. 
 
 "The Street Railway Company Positively REFUSE to make 
 any agreement of any nature with the authorized representatives 
 of their employes that would protect them in their employment. 
 
 "THE COMPANY POSITIVELY REFUSE TO ARBITRATE 
 the grievances of the men. 
 
 " The Company have Violated every verbal promise that they 
 have made their employes for the past seven years. The Company 
 Compelled new men when being hired, to promise that they would 
 not join the union. 
 
 "The Company Have Compelled their under officials to picket 
 the union meetings and to spy upon the men, using intimidating 
 and discriminating methods that are intolerable. They employ 
 spies and detectives to hound our representatives and officials. 
 
 " Employes are compelled to work nine consecutive years in 
 the service of the Company before they can receive the 26 cents 
 per hour. The minimum wage rate is 21 cents per hour, 
 i -4 " About four hundred and fifty-six men were discharged or 
 forced to resign during the past year. Only about six hundred 
 men are employed all told, so it is easy to see how many men have 
 any chance of ever receiving the 26 cent rate. The greatest num- 
 ber of the employes are kept at the low rate of wages, and with 
 the present high cost of living it is impossible to live decently upon 
 the amount they receive and maintain the standard of American 
 citizenship. 
 
 " Men are compelled to work swing runs that require them to 
 put in 20 hours out of every 24 hours, and they only receive nine 
 and ten hours pay. The most inhuman conditions prevail in that
 
 THE STRIKE 65 
 
 respect that can be found anywhere in the world. If animals 
 were treated that way, the humane society would interfere. If 
 men are too sick to work, the Company censure them, and some- 
 times suspends them from service afterward for 'discipline.' 
 
 "No provisions whatever are made for the conveniences of 
 the men while at work and the laws of health are forced to be 
 neglected, causing great suffering, besides injuring one's health. 
 Extra men are Compelled to Sit Around the Barns all Day Without 
 Pay, and regular men are not permitted to lay off and give the 
 extra men a chance to work. 
 
 " At a meeting of all the employes held Monday, September 
 13th, the men voted unanimously instructing the committee to 
 immediately wait upon the Company and insist upon a definite 
 understanding that would protect them in their rights, and adjust 
 the intolerable conditions complained of. The committee accord- 
 ingly met with President Gurdon W. Wattles on Wednesday, 
 September 15th, and explained the requests of the men. President 
 Wattles refused to agree to any satisfactory adjustment of the 
 grievances and said, 'that he would cut his right hand off before 
 he would ever sign any written agreement.' Regardless of what 
 the Company may say to the contrary, the only question involved 
 in this fight is a question of humane treatment and decent living 
 wages. We will be satisfied with nothing less. We have confi- 
 dence that the public will insist upon fair play and a square deal 
 and as we stand for arbitration, it is sufficient evidence that we 
 have nothing to fear, as all we ask for is 'justice/ and that we insist 
 upon, even though we have to fight for it. 
 
 " We regret to cause the public inconvenience, but the Com- 
 pany forced the fight and there was nothing else left for us to do. 
 We have left no stone unturned in an effort to secure a peaceful 
 settlement. We must abide by your decision. Our cause is in 
 your hands. 
 P. J. LENAHAN, Sec'y. 
 
 CHAS. H. LEAR, M. J. KENNEY, 
 
 W. GlLLAN, W. H. PONCELOW, 
 
 H. P. NELSON, WM. S. BOIEN." 
 
 It should be noted that this circular calls the strike a " lock- 
 out", while, as a matter of fact, it was a strike by the men and not 
 a lockout by the company. An interesting bit of evidence, which 
 shows that this strike was planned by the two outside leaders who 
 came here evidently for the purpose of producing a strike, is dis- 
 closed by the fact that this circular was printed two days previous 
 to the date on which the strike was voted. 
 
 A copy of the circular found its way into the hands of the 
 officers of the company the day before the strike was voted. 
 Other evidence, which they are not at liberty to disclose, advised
 
 66 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 them of the plans of the strike promoters. They, therefore, had 
 already communicated with Messrs. Waddell & Mahon, of New 
 York City, and had arranged for the shipment to Omaha of a suffi- 
 cient number of strike-breakers to take the places of all who might 
 go out. 
 
 The first detachment of these strike-breakers, 128 in number, 
 reached Omaha on Sunday morning, September 19th, and they 
 were immediately set to work operating cars. On Monday and 
 Tuesday additional detachments arrived, amounting in all to 
 over 500 men, all of whom were quartered in or near the car barns, 
 in a manner that will be more fully described in another chapter. 
 After the first day of the strike the service of the company was 
 increased daily on all its lines, and during daylight hours for the 
 first three days of the strike about one-half the regular service 
 was maintained on every line. This service was increased daily 
 after the first three days, so that by the end of the first week of 
 the strike practically a full daylight service was restored. 
 
 A newspaper campaign was at once begun by the company 
 to correct the many misstatements that were being made by the 
 strike promoters. The circular published and distributed on the 
 streets by the strikers, containing their alleged grievances, was 
 answered by the president of the company in a full page statement 
 in the Sunday papers. 
 
 This statement, after reviewing the history of events leading 
 up to the strike, concluded as follows:. 
 
 "A circular to the public has been issued by the executive 
 committee of the union. It contains so many misstatements of 
 fact that we must review and correct these misleading statements. 
 This statement says, among other things, that the company has 
 violated every verbal promise it has made to its employes for 
 the past seven years; that the company has compelled a pledge 
 from new men that they would not join the union. 
 
 " We ask for the proof. No man entering the employ of the 
 company has been asked regarding whether or not he would join 
 the union. No promises of the company verbal or written have 
 been violated with the men. 
 
 "The statement says that the company was compelling its 
 under officials to picket union meetings and spying upon the men, 
 using intimidating and discriminating methods that are intolerable. 
 
 " No man in the employ of the Street Railway Company has 
 been compelled or asked to picket union meetings. The fact was 
 brought out by a statement of Mr. Pratt, before the business men's 
 meeting, that the local union recruited during the past month
 
 THE STRIKE 67 
 
 from twelve to 300 members. Statements during this time have 
 been authorized by the president of this company and published 
 in at least one of the local papers, that the company did not forbid 
 men in its employ from joining the union, and the fact that a large 
 number have joined, under the influence of the agitation by these 
 outside organizers during the past month, is a complete answer 
 to this statement. 
 
 "The statement that 456 men were discharged or forced to 
 resign during the past year is misleading. It leaves the inference 
 that only a few of our employes are receiving the maximum wage, 
 and that the company seeks to prevent men from becoming old 
 enough in the service to receive the maximum wage. The con- 
 trary is true. The interests of the company are to retain all its 
 old employes, and they are never discharged except for the most 
 flagrant violations of rules. The fact that, out of about 600 con- 
 ductors and motormen, 140 are receiving the maximum pay dis- 
 proves this assertion. 
 
 " The statement that men are compelled to run on ' swing' 
 runs that require them to put in twenty hours out of the twenty- 
 four and only receive nine hours' pay, is absolutely false. Such 
 a condition would make this company liable to prosecution under 
 the Interstate Commerce Act, which prohibits any such abuses. 
 It is true that on a few of the runs under the present schedule 
 men from choice select runs that require their service both early 
 and late, so that during the principal part of the day they are 
 at home with their families. But no man is obliged to take such 
 a run, unless from his own choice, and, as I have said before, we 
 have at all times stated to the men that we would gladly change 
 any schedule, if a better one can be suggested that will prevent 
 any abuse of any kind or character among our employes. 
 
 " The inference that extra men are not permitted to earn 
 decent wages is equally false. The average earnings for all of 
 the extra conductors on our lines during the past month was $55.82, 
 and for all the extra motormen $54.08, while the men longer in 
 the service receive from $65 to $90 per month. It is true that 
 among the extra men serving their first year's time there are many 
 changes and fluctuations. Some are discharged, many quit of 
 their own accord, and only those remain in the service who are 
 of the better class. There are many floating employes who do not 
 want to work more than a few months in any city, and this accounts 
 for the large number of changes among the men during the first 
 year's service. 
 
 "There is not and has not been any difference between the 
 officers of the Street Railway Company and its union employes 
 which could not and would not have been fairly adjusted, but for 
 the interference of outside agitators. If the matters in dispute 
 had been looked into by our local labor union leaders, there is not 
 the least doubt in the world that an amicable adjustment could
 
 68 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 have been made, the same as it was two and a half years ago under 
 a like agitation. But this has not been done. The glory of calling 
 a strike and winning a fight is a trophy which two rival non-resi- 
 dent labor leaders are seeking to carry back to a convention to be 
 held, at which these men are candidates for re-election; and there- 
 fore, without regard to the great inconvenience and loss that will 
 come to the communities served by the Street Railway Company, 
 this strike has been ordered. It is not a lockout. It is a strike 
 precipitated by agitation and undue influence from outsiders. 
 It remains to be seen whether or not a closed shop is to be forced 
 on to the employes of our Street Railway system. 
 
 OMAHA & COUNCIL BLUFFS STREET RAILWAY CO. 
 By G. W. WATTLES, President." 
 
 Inasmuch as many false and misleading statements were being 
 circulated as to what actually took place at the only meeting held 
 between the President of the Street Railway Company and the 
 Executive Committee of the Union, the stenographic report of 
 that meeting was published in full in all of the daily papers. 
 These proceedings appear in Chapter IV. 
 
 A mass meeting of the strikers and labor union sympathizers 
 was called at Labor Temple for Sunday afternoon, September 19th, 
 at two o'clock. After the meeting had been addressed by the 
 leaders, a parade on the principal streets of the city was arranged. 
 This parade resulted in numerous acts of violence, in that several 
 cars were attacked and operatives assaulted. During the parade, 
 or soon after it, a car was attacked on the Council Bluffs division 
 near the east end of the Missouri River bridge, and the operatives 
 were beaten and the car dismantled. 
 
 While the two national officers who were leading the strike 
 carefully avoided any participation in rioting, and, at the beginning 
 of the strike, in public speeches advised the strikers to refrain 
 from rioting, yet all through the strike these leaders continually 
 planned to bring about conditions through public meetings and 
 parades that they, with their experience in the strike business, 
 ought to have known might incite rioting, bloodshed and possibly 
 murder. 
 
 As the strike progressed, however, they were not so careful 
 as at the first in advising strike sympathizers to refrain from all 
 violence. Regarding the rioting on the streets on Sunday, Mr. 
 C. O. Pratt is reported in the public press to have made the follow- 
 ing statement: "Regarding the disturbance that took place
 
 THE STRIKE 69 
 
 on the streets on Sunday, I wish to state in behalf of the union 
 street car men that we very much regret that anything should 
 occur that would give the railroad company any excuse for claim- 
 ing that the union men and their sympathizers are in any way re- 
 sponsible for disorders that may arise. We will urge all our friends 
 to exercise the utmost caution in regard to even countenancing 
 any acts of violence." 
 
 Before the strike had continued a week, however, Mr. Pratt 
 was quoted in the public press as follows: "I have counseled 
 peaceful methods all along, but after "what happened on Vinton 
 Street Wednesday night and on Dodge Street today I have nothing 
 further to say. The people of Omaha are intelligent enough to 
 know what to do. I don't think that any citizen has to be punched 
 in the face more than once or twice before protecting himself." 
 
 On September 23rd, Sheriff Edwin F. Brailey issued a procla- 
 mation as follows: 
 
 " To the Citizens of Douglas County : The dispute which has 
 arisen between the street car company and its employes has resulted 
 in the last few days in a number of riotous demonstrations, in 
 which there has been injury to property and person. In my efforts 
 to preserve order at these times I have observed that the dis- 
 turbance is mainly caused by the gathering of curious crowds, 
 at which times hoodlums and disorderly characters have taken ad- 
 vantage of the situation to perpetrate acts of violence, which 
 cannot in any sense in my opinion be attributed to any of the par- 
 ties engaged in this controversy. At this time and under these 
 circumstances I desire to call the attention of all citizens of this city 
 to the provisions of our statute in regard to 'unlawful assembly,' 
 and to the proclamation of what is known as the 'riot act.' 
 
 " Our statute provides that when three or more persons shall 
 assemble together with intent to do any unlawful act with force 
 and violence against the person or property of any other, or do 
 any unlawful act against the peace, or being unlawfully assembled, 
 shall agree with each other to do any unlawful act as aforesaid, 
 and shall make any movement or preparation therefor, the person 
 so offending shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred 
 dollars ($100) and be imprisoned in the jail of the county not 
 exceeding three months. 
 
 " The statute further provides that when three or more per- 
 sons shall be assembled as aforesaid and proceed to commit any 
 of the offenses aforesaid, it shall be the duty of all judges, justices 
 of the peace, and sheriffs and all ministerial offices, immedi- 
 ately upon actual view or as soon as may be, on information, 
 to make proclamation in the hearing of such offenders command- 
 ing them in the name of the state of Nebraska to disperse and
 
 70 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 depart to their several homes or lawful employments; and if 
 upon such proclamation such persons shall not disperse or depart 
 as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of such judges, justices of the peace 
 and sheriffs and all other ministerial officers, respectively, to call 
 upon all persons near, and if necessary throughout the county, to 
 aid and assist in dispersing and taking into custody all persons 
 assembled as aforesaid, and military officers or others called on 
 as aforesaid and refusing to render immediate assistance, shall 
 be fined in any sum not exceeding twenty-five dollars ($25). 
 
 "I shall instruct all deputies acting under my authority 
 whenever a crowd assembles and a riotous demonstration is made 
 to command them to disperse and depart to their several homes 
 or lawful employments. When this is done either by myself or 
 deputy, all persons who remain and refuse to depart are liable 
 to arrest and punishment under the law. 
 
 " I desire at this time especially the assistance and co-opera- 
 tion of the citizens of Douglas county in the preservation of order 
 and feel satisfied that all law abiding citizens will refrain from such 
 unlawful gatherings, and that those that do not must take the 
 consequences. 
 
 EDWIN F. BRAILEY, Sheriff." 
 
 On September 25th, the Street Railway Company served on 
 the City of Omaha, the County of Douglas, the City of South 
 Omaha and the City of Council Bluffs the following notice: 
 
 " To the City of Omaha and to the Mayor and Council of the City 
 of Omaha; to the City of South Omaha and to the Mayor 
 and Council of the City of South Omaha; to the County of 
 Douglas and to the Board of County Commissioners of the 
 County of Douglas: 
 
 "The Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company 
 hereby gives notice to you and to each of you that within the cities 
 of Omaha and South Omaha, and within the County of Douglas, 
 its street railway property, consisting of buildings, cars, tracks, 
 switches, electrical wires and appliances, is not receiving sufficient, 
 adequate and proper protection against unlawful assaults, injury, 
 damage and destruction by individuals, persons and mob violence, 
 and that the men operating its cars have not been receiving suffi- 
 cient, adequate and proper protection against assaults by persons, 
 individuals and by mob violence; and that said company fears 
 and believes, and has good reason to fear and believe that unless 
 more prompt, efficient and decisive action is at once taken by 
 the said municipal and county authorities that further injury to 
 and destruction of its said property will be wrongfully and unlaw- 
 fully committed by persons, individuals and mob violence, and 
 that further assaults will be made upon the employes of the com- 
 pany operating its cars, all to the great damage and destruction 
 of the property of the company, and to the interference with and
 
 THE STRIKE 71 
 
 interruption of the operation of its cars and lines of street railway. 
 " Demand is therefore made upon you and upon each of you 
 that within your said respective municipalities and boundaries 
 you take prompt, sufficient, decisive and effective action to pre- 
 vent unlawful assemblages, and to prevent assaults upon the 
 employes of the company operating its cars, and to prevent all 
 injury and damage of every kind and nature to the properties 
 of the street railway company hereinbefore more particularly 
 described, so that the company shall be permitted to operate its 
 cars and railway without interruption and interference, and that 
 its employes may operate its said cars without fear of assault or 
 personal injury, and so that other persons wishing to engage in the 
 operation of its cars may not be prevented from doing so by fear 
 for their personal safety. 
 
 " You and each of you are hereby notified that said company 
 will hold you and each of you liable to it for all damage or injury 
 done its property by individual persons, strikers, strike sympa- 
 thizers, or the result of mob violence; and the said company will 
 look to you and each of you, and will hold you and each of you 
 liable to it for all damage and destruction committed upon any 
 of its properties above described and under the circumstances 
 above described; and for any and all damages resulting from as- 
 saults upon its employes under the circumstances above described. 
 OMAHA & COUNCIL BLUFFS STREET RAILWAY CO. 
 
 "By G. W. WATTLES, President." 
 
 This proclamation and this notice had a tendency to reduce 
 acts of violence, and from that time forward very little damage to 
 the property of the company was done. 
 
 Pursuant to the evident plan of the strike leaders, to bring 
 about conditions that would stop the operation of the cars, a mass 
 meeting was called to be held on a vacant lot near the Vinton Street 
 barn for Tuesday evening, September 21st. During this meeting 
 and immediately after it the most serious rioting of the strike oc- 
 curred. A dozen or more cars were stoned, and strike-breaking 
 operatives were assaulted and two or three of them very seriously 
 injured. A large number of strike-breaking operatives were at 
 the time quartered in the Vinton Street car barn, and it was only 
 by the most strenuous efforts on the part of the officers and lieu- 
 tenants in charge of these strike-breakers that they were prevented 
 from engaging in a general riot with the large crowd, that sur- 
 rounded the car barn and continually engaged in attacking the 
 operatives and the cars as they came on to the scene. The police, 
 the sheriff and a large number of deputies did all in their power 
 to disperse this mob and to prevent violence, but for nearly an
 
 72 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 hour the rioting was continued. Several cars were badly damaged, 
 the windows were broken, the seats were torn out and all the de- 
 struction possible was done. 
 
 This was the first evening that the company had attempted 
 ro run cars after seven o'clock P. M. The results were so dis- 
 astrous that for several days thereafter no cars were run after this 
 hour. 
 
 Other meetings and .parades were planned, the meetings to 
 be held at or near the car barns, where the danger of rioting would 
 be the greatest, until the police and the sheriff finally forbade the 
 holding of such meetings, but were compelled to disperse one that 
 was being held near the Ames Avenue barn on the evening of 
 October 1st. Messrs. Pratt and Commons and other speakers on 
 the platform were unceremoniously removed, and the meeting was 
 dispersed after some rioting had occurred. A great protest was 
 made by the strike leaders against what they termed the inter- 
 ference of the police with their constitutional right of free speech, 
 but, generally speaking, the best citizens of Omaha upheld the 
 officers of the law in their most efficient efforts to preserve law and 
 order. 
 
 But for the praiseworthy efforts of Sheriff E. F. Brailey and 
 his deputies and Chief of Police John J. Donahue and his entire 
 force, there is no doubt but that many crimes would have been 
 committed by excitable individuals, who were deluded into the 
 belief that by committing acts of violence they were assisting the 
 cause of labor. 
 
 As the strike progressed, the sober second thought of the 
 union laborers of the city each day lessened rioting and acts of 
 violence. A great parade had been planned for all the labor union 
 men of the city to take place on Saturday afternoon, October 2nd, 
 by authority of a resolution passed by the Central Labor Union. 
 This parade was called off on the urgent request of many business 
 men, and while the striking carmen were permitted to parade the 
 streets on Wednesday, September 29th, the permission was only 
 granted on the promise by the leaders that there would be no 
 demonstrations nor rioting. Be it said to the credit of these men 
 that this promise was faithfully kept.
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 
 
 On Monday, September 20th, President William H. Taft was 
 due to arrive in Omaha. On the morning of that date, Mayor 
 Dahlman received a dispatch from Fred W. Carpenter, Secretary 
 to the President, as follows: 
 
 "Please wire me at once condition of strike in your city. 
 Cannot arrangements be made to have strike called off for period 
 of President's visit?" 
 
 The Mayor at once consulted the President of the Street Rail- 
 way Company. His reply was: " We did not call the strike, and 
 we cannot suspend it, but, if you request it, we will suspend all 
 street car traffic during the time the President's party is here." 
 
 On the request of the Mayor, all car service was suspended at 
 four o'clock P. M., just before the arrival of President Taft. 
 Mayor Dahlman replied to the request of the Secretary to the Pres- 
 ident as follows: 
 
 "Fred W. Carpenter, Washington, D. C. Everything quiet 
 here. All cars will be stopped from running before the President 
 arrives and during his stay in the city. " 
 
 No doubt, the strike was called just before the important 
 occasion of the visit of the President of the United States, with a 
 view of forcing the Street Railway Company to an immediate 
 acceptance of the terms demanded by the strikers. An effort 
 was made by Strike Leader Pratt, on the day of the President's 
 visit, to secure from the Street Railway Company an agreement 
 along the lines of his previous proposition, conditioned, however, 
 as were all subsequent offers of settlement, on an agreement from 
 the company to reinstate all of the striking employes without 
 prejudice. 
 
 During the President's visit order was maintained, and a prac- 
 tical truce in the strike situation observed. 
 
 At a meeting of the City Council on Monday, September 20th, 
 the officers of the Street Railway Company and the leaders of the 
 
 (73)
 
 74 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 strike were asked to appear before the Mayor and the City Council 
 at ten o'clock Tuesday morning, September 21st, for a hearing, 
 in order that the city officials might, if possible, in some manner 
 bring about a settlement of the strike. Although it was a time 
 of the greatest possible exertion, with many matters of importance 
 to consider on the part of the Street Railway officials, the President 
 and several members of the Board of Directors appeared at the 
 time fixed for the meeting. The council chamber in the city hall 
 was well filled with striking carmen, city and county officials, and 
 a large number of prominent business men. What was said at 
 this meeting was taken down by a court reporter and is here given 
 in full: 
 
 Special meeting at City Hall Council Chamber, City of Omaha, 
 Tuesday, September 21, 1909, at ten o'clock a. m., between certain 
 officers of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway Company, 
 to- wit, Messrs. G. W. Wattles, president; F. T. Hamilton, vice- 
 president; K. C. Barton and L. F. Crofoot, directors, and R. A. 
 Leussler, assistant general manager, and the following committee 
 appearing for the striking employes of the Street Railway company, 
 to-wit, Mr. Charles H. Lear, president of the street railway em- 
 ployes union; Mr. P. J. Lenahan, financial secretary of the street 
 railway employes union; and David R. Turney, of the local union; at 
 which meeting the above named persons, as well as Mr. Pratt, 
 the representative of the International Carmen's union, presented 
 the situation to Mayor Dahlman and the city council of the city 
 of Omaha. 
 
 The following is a stenographic report of the proceedings : 
 
 Councilman Burmester acted as chairman of the meeting. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: The meeting is now open. I will 
 ask all present to please be seated. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA : I suppose one side or the other should 
 make their statement. One side may take the affirmative and 
 state their grievances. That is the usual procedure. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: If there is no objection, we will hear 
 from the committee from the labor union. 
 
 COUNCILMAN HUMMEL: When this debate is closed, is the 
 question to be submitted to the council, and will its action be 
 final, and will it be carried out between the parties, or is this merely 
 to be a friendly discussion for the good of the public, or do you 
 want to get down to a business proposition before entering upon 
 this discussion? 
 
 COUNCILMAN McGovERN: To be fair to those invited to 
 appear before the council, I think it is proper to say at this time 
 that the honorable mayor of this city came before the council 
 yesterday afternoon and all the members of the council agreed to
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 75 
 
 call this committee together; that is, a committee from the 
 employes of the street railway, and Mr. Wattles and other officers 
 of the road, and give them an opportunity to present their diffi- 
 culties, and to see if it is within the power of the council and the 
 mayor to settle the troubles, or bring the parties together as near 
 as possible, and give the city of Omaha what she is entitled to 
 have, peace at home and good street car service. We would like 
 to hear from the mayor. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: If there is no objection, the mayor 
 will be heard from. 
 
 MAYOR DAHLMAN : Mr. President and gentlemen : My object 
 in asking the council to hold a meeting with the parties who are 
 engaged in this controversy, was this: 
 
 It seems that as we all know there is a strike on; and it 
 has, of course, been a great inconvenience to the public, and it 
 will undoubtedly result in a great loss to both cities, whoever may 
 win; and my object in calling the city council and asking them to 
 have this meeting with the different committees was to see if there 
 was anything we could do, as officials of the city, to bring about 
 some settlement which would bring this controversy to an end; 
 and for that reason it was suggested that a committee of the local 
 men themselves, the men who have actually been engaged in the 
 running of the street cars, be invited, and the officials of the street 
 car company. Of course, if we could have each side of the question 
 presented separately by the representatives of both sides here, 
 who understand all about the controversy, we might be able to 
 do something towards settling the difficulty, and these men who 
 are now out might be able to go back to work and everything be 
 settled satisfactorily. 
 
 I felt that it was our duty, as city officials, to do what we 
 could to settle this difficulty, so that we might have peace and 
 harmony in the community, and the business of the street railway 
 and of the city go on undisturbed as it has been in the past; and 
 I thought the proper way would be to hear from each side and then 
 see whether there is any suggestion that can be made whereby we 
 could get the parties together and get this thing settled. That 
 was my idea in calling this meeting together. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: What is your further pleasure? 
 I want to hear from the committee of the labor union. Gentlemen, 
 we are ready to hear from the committee. 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: Mr. Chairman and honorable mayor and 
 fellow citizens: The street car men, as employes of the Omaha 
 & Council Bluffs Street Railway company, desire nothing but 
 peace, and the street car boys will do all in their power to bring 
 about peace. 
 
 We had one or two conferences with the officials of the Omaha 
 & Council Bluffs Street Railway company one before the directors 
 and the final one before Mr. Wattles about a week ago. We did
 
 76 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 everything then, at our conference before Mr. Wattles, that could 
 be done. We appealed to Mr. Wattles to concede something to 
 the street car boys to put them on some basis whereby they 
 would know under what conditions they were working, and to 
 eliminate some of the conditions that are objectionable to them. 
 
 While many of the committee believe that Mr. Wattles him- 
 self is a fair-minded man and does from time to time try to do the 
 best he can, probably, for the men, we took the position that Mr. 
 Wattles is not always in the city; that he has other business; that 
 he has other homes in other places, and only spends a portion of 
 his time in Omaha, and that he should give us something in writing 
 so that when grievances were raised from time to time, we could 
 go into the office of the superintendent of transportation and say, 
 "Here are Mr. Wattles' instructions, Mr. Superintendent; we, 
 want you to deal with us along those lines." 
 
 He made many good suggestions at the meeting, suggestions 
 which, if we had them under Ms signature we could accept several 
 of them. But he made the statements good statements, as I 
 would call them, for the men and then refused absolutely to 
 sign his own statement. 
 
 $* Now, gentlemen of the city council and honorable mayor, 
 those were the conditions that brought about the serious matter 
 that is now confronting us in the city of Omaha. 
 
 At that meeting we begged and pleaded with him, and 
 appealed to him to agree to something specific whereby the street 
 car boys of Omaha would know exactly what his instructions were 
 to the under officials and to the transportation department. 
 
 It is needless for me to go over the whole situation. Mr. 
 Wattles agreed to do away with some of the wrongs, such as 
 swing runs and other matters. He thought he could probably 
 get around that and settle that all right. 
 
 So the committee asked him outright: "Now, Mr. Wattles, 
 won't you sign some statement to this effect; won't you sign some- 
 thing for us so that we can take it back to the meeting and show 
 the men where you stand, so that the men will not misunderstand 
 us; and, another thing, it will be a protection to us, so that we will 
 not go back there misconstruing your words?" 
 
 "No, sir," he said, "I will absolutely sign nothing for this 
 committee." He said, "Never shall I sign any agreement with 
 representatives of this organization." 
 
 He says, " I have my agreements with my older employes and 
 non-union men; and," he says, "before I will break my word to 
 those men, I will cut my right hand off, " or "I would have my right 
 hand off." Something to that effect; and, I guess, those are the 
 exact words he used. 
 
 Then I made an appeal to Mr. Wattles again in behalf of the 
 street car men, and I told him the seriousness of the situation. 
 I begged him to concede something that would be reasonable and
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 77 
 
 fair, and told him that in the event of him refusing to be reasonable 
 and fair that he would bring about a strike in the city of Omaha. 
 
 He says then he went into a lengthy statement and he 
 says: "We have taken this matter up seriously; we have been 
 prepared we have been prepared for you men, and we don't care 
 much about your organization anyhow; we would just as soon go to 
 work and have it out at once;" and he raised the red flag, and he 
 said, before the committee, that he was prepared to run the street 
 car men's organization out of the city of Omaha, whatever it may 
 cost or at all hazards. 
 
 Now, then, gentlemen, we tell you that the street car men of 
 Omaha are a part of the citizens of this community, and like Mr. 
 Wattles has got his friends, we want to inform him that the street 
 car men that have been operating his cars for the last twenty-one 
 or twenty-two years, have also friends. 
 
 We told Mr. Wattles at that time that the sentiment of ninety- 
 five or possibly one hundred per cent of the men was with us. 
 
 He doubted that statement, and I do not blame him for that. 
 I do not blame him for that for at that time at the time we made 
 the argument we only had seventy per cent of the men in the 
 organization. But after the men saw the position we took they 
 saw that we took an honest, upright position; that we were not 
 forcingMr. Wattles or the street railway into any awkward position; 
 we were not asking him to sign any contract for a closed shop, 
 or of an exclusive nature all we wanted was a contract whereby 
 we knew where we were at under what conditions we were work- 
 ing, and try to bring up the underpaid men in this city to a fair 
 basis so that these men and their families could live decently. 
 
 Those were the only conditions that we asked. 
 
 We showed him plainly that the newer men in the service 
 were not getting a fair remuneration for their service and he 
 partly agreed with us on that partly agreed with us that they 
 were not after it was fairly stated to him. 
 
 But those are the conditions, gentlemen, and we regret them 
 very much and if there is anything any suggestions that the 
 city council may have to offer, along peaceable lines, I do assure 
 you, as a representative of the street car employes, that I shall 
 do everything in my power to bring about peace and harmony 
 between the officers of the street railway company and their men. 
 
 Personally, I have no feeling against this company. I want 
 to see them prosper. I want to see them go ahead and make 
 money. But at the same time I claim as an American citizen 
 that the men have rights, and we are going to protect them if 
 we had to strike every thirty days to protect those rights. 
 
 That is all, gentlemen. I thank you for your attention. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: Any other member of the committee 
 want to be heard?
 
 78 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 MR. LEAR: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the city council: 
 I was present with that committee before Mr. Wattles at that time, 
 and we argued the question over there as best we could as poor 
 members of the street railway men without an education before 
 a learned man and neither one of us has any education or the 
 chances or the ability we might have the ability but we have not 
 had the opportunity to put this thing as fairly and squarely as 
 we would like to before a man that has got the education and who 
 is making a study of this thing. But he refused to do anything. 
 He said he would cut his right hand off before he would sign any 
 statement. He refused to give us anything at all in writing. We 
 told him that we wanted something under his signature to take 
 back to these men, and that otherwise we would, not be able to 
 answer for the action of the men. He says, " Let them go out. I 
 have five hundred men right here to take their places, and the 
 minute you step off your car you will lose your position." That 
 is the message that he gave us to take back to these men; men that 
 have been in the service of this company for years, and have been 
 faithful in the performance of their duty at all times and under 
 all conditions; men that do not refer to the members of this council 
 as he did men that do not call the council " hounds" because they 
 imposed an occupation tax of sixty thousand dollars a year on the 
 street railway company. No, sir. We pay our taxes like honor- 
 able men and honorable citizens. We do not go around and call 
 the council "hounds" because they do something that we do not 
 want them to do. And another thing he said was that if the coun- 
 cil put through the measure for eight fares for a quarter that instead 
 of a raise in our pay we would get a reduction. 
 
 And when we went up to the meeting he ran a stenographer 
 in there, and he says, "I want a report of this meeting, but I 
 do not want it for the purpose of publishing it;" he says, "I just 
 want it for a memorandum of what is said here. " I have a copy 
 of the paper here in which he has published it the whole thing 
 garbled as it is all the way through. 
 
 The street car company paid for the publication of this state- 
 ment in the newspapers of this city. The street car men have not 
 got money enough in their treasury to pay what the cost of the 
 publication of that statement must have been. That statement 
 is put before this council, and I say that it is garbled all the way 
 through, and I will say whether that man takes his oath or not, 
 because there are things in there that were not said at that meeting, 
 and there are not things in there that were said at that meeting. 
 
 That is the kind of a proposition we are up against. 
 
 In this fight we have acted honorably all the way through; 
 we have acted honorably in every conceivable way and on every 
 point, and he cannot deny it. But how has he acted in his dealings 
 with us? When he told us that he would not sign any agreement,
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 79 
 
 he also promised us that there would be no published statement of 
 the meeting. 
 
 It does not hurt us a bit. Our conduct has been honorable 
 and has been along lines that will be approved by the people of 
 this city and of this community. Our men have acted honorably 
 and squarely and uprightly in this fight all the way through, and 
 yet they won't give us one thing. 
 
 He says, "If I sign this agreement it will mean a closed shop. " 
 Gentlemen, he is fighting a closed shop and he has got a closed 
 shop himself, and that is the only kind of a shop he wants to work 
 in. He believes in a closed shop himself, and yet he won't give 
 us a written agreement that we can take back to the men. We 
 asked him for something that we could take back to the men so 
 that we could say to them, " Here is something that Mr. Wattles 
 has given under his own signature; he has authorized us to submit 
 this to you. " But he would not do it. And when we went before 
 these men there was nothing- for them to act upon; nothing for 
 them to accept or reject. There was nothing for them to do. He 
 said he was prepared for a strike, and there was nothing for them 
 to do but strike. They had nothing they could depend upon; 
 nothing they could present to the under officials to show what had 
 been agreed to by Mr. Wattles. 
 
 I am sorry for the citizens of this town, and I am sorry that 
 they are in such a predicament today, but we have acted honorably 
 and used every means in our power to avert this condition. We 
 have done everything we could do as honorable men to try to avert 
 this situation, but the company won't meet us half way, they won't 
 do anything at all. We could not get even one little word from 
 this corporation to take back to the men and say, " Here is some 
 concession that the company will make to us;" so that we could 
 take it up and try to avert this strike. 
 
 God knows there is none of us wanted this strike. No one 
 wanted it less than I. I have a wife and three children, and I have 
 nothing except that which I can obtain as a result of my labor. 
 
 I have a wife and three children at stake right now. I have 
 nothing, only my own work. I have worked for this company for 
 twenty years. I have my home, but I never earned it out of the 
 street railway company. Never. I had to earn it on the outside. 
 When I was laid up for weeks and weeks, they refused to pay my 
 grocery bills and coal bills. I was an old employe, and they did 
 not come forward and say "We will help you out." No. They never 
 came near me, none of them. You men came forward and done 
 it, but not the company. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thank you. I am sorry I have taken up so 
 much of your time, but I have tried to put the situation before you 
 in my poor way as best I could. I never had the advantage of 
 education. I have worked since I was seven years old. My father 
 died when I was thirteen. I have presented this in my poor, hum-
 
 80 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 ble way. What little I have had of education I have obtained 
 from books. I hope you will excuse me for any bad breaks I may 
 have made. That is all I have to say just now. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: Any other member of the committee 
 wish to be heard? Mr. Turney. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Are you in the employ of the Omaha Street 
 Railway company? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: I went through the extra list. I have been 
 in the employ of the company fourteen months. We have very 
 hard work on this extra list. We are jumped from one line to 
 another. I have worked the South Omaha line one part of 
 the day and the Hanscom Park line the other. I work at all 
 hours, and have to be on hand eighteen hours of the day, and prob- 
 ably get four hours' work some days and more or less on others. 
 It depends on the lines that are running and the people that have 
 to be handled. Men that work for the company don't want to 
 kick or to be called kickers or agitators, because that will get them 
 into trouble. I got sick one day on the Hanscom Park line and 
 I telephoned in to send a man out to relieve me, and the superin- 
 tendent got angry and he says, "I cannot do anything for you, 
 we haven't got any men here;" and I says, "I am not able to 
 make another trip;" and he says, "Go ahead and try it." I 
 telephoned again from the other end of the line and I says, " You 
 will have to get a man to relieve me;" and so when I got back he 
 had hustled around and got a man some way, and I suppose he 
 could have got him before. I don't think any foreman should 
 keep a man on when he is sick. That is all I have got to say. 
 
 COUNCILMAN KUGEL: Will you explain what is meant by 
 swing runs? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: On a swing run you get one trip on one run 
 say at eleven o'clock or noon, and then you show up at five in the 
 evening and work until the last train along until twelve o'clock 
 at night. Then there is another swing run where you go to work 
 at three different times in the day, and your different runs may 
 be three to five miles apart. It works a hardship on the boys who 
 have the swing runs, because they have to put in very long hours 
 and do not get very much for it. 
 
 COUNCILMAN KUGEL: How many hours out of the twenty- 
 four do you put in on swing runs? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: It requires sixteen hours on some of them. 
 
 MR. WATTLES : How many of such runs are there that require 
 sixteen hours? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: There are quite a number of them. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: How many? Do you know? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: I understand there are four or five out of one 
 barn. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: What barn is that? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: Ames avenue, 24th and Ames.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 81 
 
 COUNCILMAN KUGEL: Do you work on the barn time? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: No. From the time they take the train out 
 on the road until they get back to the barn. 
 
 COUNCILMAN KUGEL: What is the pay? How long do they 
 work before they get the maximum rate? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: When they start in on the extra list they get 
 twenty-one cents an hour, and they run up to twenty-three cents 
 an hour, and in the ninth year they get twenty-six cents an hour; 
 and there is two years of this nine that you don't get any raise. 
 
 MR. WATTLES : No. I beg your pardon. You are raised every 
 year until you get twenty-five. 
 
 MR. TURNEY: And then it jumps to twenty-six in the ninth 
 year. You start in at twenty-one cents and in the ninth year 
 you get twenty-six cents an hour. On some of those swing runs 
 you go to work three different times in the day; and on some of 
 the runs you work eight hours and nine hours for the thirty days 
 in the month. 
 
 COUNCILMAN KUGEL: Do they get any pay when they are 
 being broken in? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: No, sir; there is fourteen days without pay. 
 I have been breaking in new men right along. I broke in eight 
 or ten this season. 
 
 COUNCILMAN KUGEL: How about men who have had experi- 
 ence in other cities? Motormen and conductors that have been 
 on street railways before? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: Yes, those that come from other towns, my 
 orders are to break them in for fourteen days. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Experienced motormen? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: I don't know whether they are experienced 
 or not. I break them in until they are thoroughly broke in. My 
 orders are to break them in for fourteen days. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Until they know how to run the cars? 
 
 MR. TURNEY : Until they can handle the cars, so that people 
 won't get hurt or anything like that. Thoroughly break them in. 
 I believe that is all I have to say. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: Were you one of the committee that 
 waited on the officials of the street railway company previous to 
 the strike? 
 
 MR. TURNEY: No, sir, I was not on that committee. 
 
 COUNCILMAN SHELDON: Mr. Lenahan, did you wait upon 
 Mr. Wattles? 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: Yes, sir. 
 
 COUNCILMAN SHELDON: Did you prepare a schedule of 
 wages to be presented to Mr. Wattles, and was it presented to Mr. 
 Wattles before the strike was inaugurated? 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: Yes, sir. 
 
 COUNCILMAN SHELDON: You may state to the mayor and 
 council what increase there was in this schedule from the old
 
 82 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 schedule that has been in force on the street railway. I think 
 we should have a statement from the street car men of the exact 
 demands that they are making from the street car company. We 
 should have a succinct statement so that we can know exactly 
 the points of difference in this controversy. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES: Mr. President, before we proceed 
 to get that information, I would like to ask a question or two of 
 the railway employes. These men are here representing the street 
 railway employes, and in their statement they say they are anxious 
 to have a settlement. Now, there isn't any use going through all 
 this routine business unless we know there is a chance of accom- 
 plishing something. It is unnecessary to take up any time unless 
 we can accomplish something. Now, I would like to ask this 
 committee if they are in a position to say whether their organiza- 
 tion would be willing to arbitrate this question. Would the street 
 railway company and street railway employes be willing to submit 
 this question for settlement to some disinterested parties? Would 
 they be willing to accept a proposition of that kind? 
 
 MR. LEAR: I will state to the city council, as chairman of 
 this committee, that we would favor that proposition. I omitted 
 that in my talk. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES: Are you willing to accept a proposi- 
 tion of that kind? 
 
 MR. LEAR: Yes, sir. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES: Now, I think the proper thing would 
 be to find out from Mr. Wattles whether his side will agree to a 
 proposition of that kind. If they cannot agree to that we are 
 only wasting time here by talking. The proper way to do is to 
 find out if these people can agree on that and end all this discus- 
 sion, and then we will know whether there is anything that can 
 be settled or not. I would like to know from Mr. Wattles whether 
 his company is prepared to accept a proposition of that kind. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: When you are prepared, gentlemen, I am 
 ready to present the situation in about the same manner that the 
 other side has to you, and I will answer that question during the 
 progress of my talk. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: Has the committee got through? 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES: I was trying to eliminate a lot of 
 argument to see if we could not settle some of these matters. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: We will hear from Mr. Wattles. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Gentlemen: This is a critical time. It is 
 not a time for fiery or exciting statements to be made by any one, 
 and I am not here to make any such statements in so far as the 
 street railway company is concerned. All I have asked and all 
 I do ask is that the facts be placed before this community. I am 
 willing and ready to appear before any body of any kind, at any 
 time, and state the facts as they exist insofar as the street railway 
 part of this matter is concerned. And I appear, at your command.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 83 
 
 before you here today, the honorable members of this council 
 and the mayor of the city, whose commands I am always ready to 
 obey. I appear before you to state the situation, as near as I 
 can, in a calm and dispassionate manner, in order that we may get 
 at the real facts. There is always so much froth and so much talk, 
 and so many wild statements made of things that happened that 
 never occurred, in times of excitement, that we are liable to get 
 led away from what the real facts and the real situation is. 
 
 Now, it is true that I called a stenographer into the only 
 meeting that I ever had with the union committee alone, where 
 we sat down together to talk things over, and I was very careful 
 to get the same stenographer that this same committee had brought 
 to my office 
 
 MR. LEAR: I beg your pardon. It was not the same com- 
 mittee. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Well, it was the committee of the union it 
 was the committee of the same union, two and a half years ago, 
 when we had some controversy and talk of strike. We were to 
 have a meeting at my office at which I was to state the company's 
 side of this case, and when the committee came in they said, " In 
 order that we may have a record of this for future reference we 
 have brought a stenographer here to take down what is safd and 
 we ask your permission that he should come into the room and 
 take down all that is said. " I readily granted that request, and 
 the stenographer took down those proceedings. So that in inviting 
 the stenographer to take down the things that happened in my 
 office, I secured the same stenographer that they brought to my 
 office two years and a half before that, and I asked that he be 
 admitted to take down exactly, word for word, everything that 
 was said. I had no idea when this was done that there ever 
 would be any occasion to publish it. I had no idea that there 
 ever would be any dispute over what really was said or the real 
 gist of it. 
 
 But immediately after the meeting broke up, word came to me, 
 from different sources, of things that I had said in the meeting 
 that I never dreamed of saying, and then I began to realize how 
 important it was how fortunate it was for both sides of this 
 controversy that every word was taken down exactly as spoken. 
 So I said, "Now, these men have a perfect right to have what they 
 said at this important meeting, that led up to the present condi- 
 tion, placed before this community. They have a perfect right 
 that this community shall judge as to the justice of their cause, 
 and the fairness or unfairness of the manner in which their requests 
 were received." And so at considerable expense, I will admit, 
 I published in yesterday's papers a sworn statement, by the 
 stenographer the same stenographer that the union brought 
 to my office two and a half years ago of exactly what was said. 
 Any of you can read that proceeding, and I invite you to read it.
 
 84 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 These men have come before you here this morning, and have 
 made, in rather heated manner, a good many wild and untruthful 
 statements as to what was said there. 
 
 MR. LEAR: I take exceptions, gentlemen, to the statement 
 that I have made any untruthful statements here. I have not 
 been untruthful in any statement that I have made here this 
 morning. I take exception to any man getting up here and vilify- 
 ing me and saying that I made any untruthful statement. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: One person at a time, please. 
 
 MR. WATTLES : It is fortunate that the proof is at hand and 
 is available to every one who can read. You have heard the state- 
 ments that have been made here made by a man who says that 
 he is not versed in public speaking, and we will grant him all the 
 leniency possible in that regard we will grant him the further 
 leniency that he is laboring under extreme excitement but 
 fortunately for me, and fortunately for you, and fortunately for 
 this community, what was said at that meeting is in cold print 
 and read it over is all I ask of you. Compare it with what has 
 been said here today as to what did happen there, and see whether 
 or not the statements made here are correct. 
 
 Now, I will withdraw the statement that the gentleman 
 objects to. I was thinking or trying to think of another word. 
 I olid not want to say untruthful. I do not want to be disrespect- 
 ful to these men or to any other man in this world. I have tried 
 to treat this situation fairly and honestly, and treat every man 
 concerned in it with due and proper respect and consideration, 
 and that shall be my position to the end of it. 
 
 It has been said, for instance, that I said, "these city hall 
 grafters" imposed a tax of sixty thousand dollars on this company, 
 and that I called you men here "hounds," and that I said other 
 disrespectful things. 
 
 I ask you, gentlemen, to refer to the record. I will stand by 
 what I said. Let that say whether or not I said those things. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: Did you, as a matter of fact, state 
 that? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I did not. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: That is all I want to know. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I never said a disrespectful word of the city 
 authorities of this city, or of the present council or of any other 
 council, and, fortunately, on this critical and important occasion 
 I have the proof. 
 
 All that is only a matter of introduction and this trouble has 
 nothing to do with it; these little by-plays of what men said or 
 did not say, and all that sort of thing which comes along in times 
 of excitement, we can cast aside; it is not material. It has created 
 no feeling on my part and it should not on the part of any one else. 
 
 Let us see what the real question is that has caused these 
 differences, and what the real situation is now.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 85 
 
 These men came before the board of directors of the street 
 railway company, and there were some other men in our employ 
 present there, and both sides expressed themselves as to certain 
 complaints that they had, and certain matters that they wanted 
 to have rectified. They were treated courteously, and they went 
 away, apparently in a good, friendly frame of mind. No business 
 was really discussed at that meeting, and the position of the com- 
 pany was only tentatively outlined. That meeting was held on 
 the second day of September. On the 15th day of September, 
 or some time before the 15th day of September, I was asked to 
 receive this committee from the union at my office. 
 
 I readily granted this request, and I always have granted 
 every request of every kind and character for a meeting or a hear- 
 ing on the part of any man in the employ of this company, or any 
 committee representing any of the men in the employ of this com- 
 pany, and they have always had free access to my door. When 
 these men came in they came one time before that or a part 
 of them they told me some of these things that were coming up. 
 I said, "Boys, why don't you come up here and tell me about these 
 things? Why haven't you been in here? For two years and a half 
 I have not seen you here. You have not been in here to tell me 
 that there was anything wrong with the runs; that there was any- 
 thing wrong with the wages; that there was any real grievance 
 that you had against this company that you wanted to discuss." 
 But they came in at this time, the only time for two years and a 
 half that a committee of the union has called on me, to discuss 
 the signing of a contract which they then and there presented, 
 and which is not the contract that has been published in the papers. 
 I hold a copy of it in my hands. This is a draft of an agreement 
 between the street railway company and the union, and it recites 
 a number of matters and the relations and rules that shall exist 
 for two years. 
 
 MR. LEAR: Mr. Wattles, for the information of the council, 
 is it not a fact that you were presented with a copy of that agree- 
 ment or something we thought might meet with your approval, 
 before this controversy had arisen? Is it not a fact that you 
 received a copy of the modified demands that you thought would 
 suit you better? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: No. 
 
 MR. LEAR: Isn't it a fact that Mr. Pratt presented them -to 
 you at a meeting of the Business Men's Association? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Mr. Pratt had a memorandum when we met 
 him before the Business Men's Association, which he read to that 
 body, and said that that would be satisfactory to the employes. 
 That is the memorandum that has been published in the papers. 
 It does not differ materially, not so much as to cause any matter 
 of great controversy when we simmer it all down. It really means
 
 86 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 about the same as the contract presented to us. It differs in a few 
 particulars, but a few important particulars. 
 
 We discussed that matter fully, frankly and freely, as the 
 record of the discussion will show. It takes two full pages of the 
 newspaper to publish all that was said by these men and by myself 
 on that most important occasion, and on the report of that meeting 
 between these gentlemen and myself at that time, which they took 
 back to the union, this strike was voted. That was the only meet- 
 ing I ever had with them to discuss this matter, and the record of 
 it is before you. I will not attempt to traverse what was said 
 or what was not said on that occasion, but I invite you all, and I 
 invite every citizen of this community, to read that record, before 
 you decide as to who is right and who is wrong. I stand on the 
 record. That is the position the street railway company has taken. 
 
 Now let me strip the froth from this fermentation, and get 
 down to the real question at issue : 
 
 It has been said that this company is treating its employes in 
 an inhuman manner; that if the society for the prevention of 
 cruelty to animals should find a horse treated in that way they 
 would prosecute the owner, and all such harsh statements have 
 been put out before this community as the cause of the strike. 
 It has been said that the men are underpaid, and that that is the 
 cause of the strike. 
 
 It is not, gentlemen, That is not the cause of this strike at 
 all. Why? I appeal to the record. I appeal to what I said to 
 these men to what I have always said to our employes. I have 
 always said to these men "Gentlemen, I do not believe in low 
 wages. I am in favor of good wages; and it is my pride, as an 
 officer of this company, to have you men, in its employ, receive 
 better pay than any other men in any other city in the United 
 States, where anything like similar conditions prevail as do in this 
 city." And it was a matter of brag with me, and I was boasting 
 about it. I came before this council here, when we had some 
 controversy, and I boasted to you of the fact that the company 
 treated its men fine, and that I wanted to continue that treatment, 
 and that I wanted even to add an increase to their present rate of 
 wages. That has always been my position. When these men 
 talked to me about wages, what did I say to them? Read the 
 record! "Why," I said to them, "We will do the very best we 
 can for you. We are doing better now than anybody around here. 
 We are doing better than any city of the country of our size and 
 importance, where anything like the present conditions prevail." 
 And I showed them what the situation was in other cities. That 
 is a guide to a certain extent as to whether wages are high or low. 
 We cannot say that we are going to pay carpenters in Kansas City 
 ten dollars a day, and in Omaha five dollars a day or four dollars 
 a day. We do not say that we are paying bricklayers in Minne- 
 apolis eight dollars a day, and in Omaha six dollars a day. There
 
 , INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 87 
 
 is a general wage scale in all lines of business, that prevails through- 
 out the cities of the country, where conditions exist similar to the 
 conditions in our city. What is that situation? Why, it has been 
 placed before you time and again in the public print. I will tell 
 you. 
 
 How about Kansas City, our main competitor at the south 
 about twice as big as Omaha, probably, but it is a competitor of 
 this city. They begin at 18 cents an hour for the first year we 
 begin at 21. They finally, after the sixth year, reach 23 cents an 
 hour the sixth year we are paying 25, and the ninth year we go 
 up to 26. We are three cents over them. 
 
 Let us look at some of our other competitors. St. Joseph 
 is right here under our nose. The last census shows practically 
 the same population as Omaha. I do not believe they have it, 
 but the census figures show they have. St. Joseph, the Jfirst year, 
 19 cents; second year, 20 cents, third year 21, fourth year 22, 
 fifth year 22, and the sixth year and thereafter 23. They begin 
 two cents under us and they stop three cents under us. 
 
 How about Des Moines? The first year the street car men in 
 Des Moines receive 19 cents; the sixth year they get up to 24 cents 
 two cents under us all the way through. Let us go up to St. 
 Paul and Minneapolis they are competitors of ours and a little 
 larger than we. They start where we do, at 21 cents the first year, 
 and the sixth year they get up to 25 cents, and there stop, while 
 we go on a cent further. Milwaukee, in our territory here, pays 
 19 cents an hour the first year; the sixth year they get up to 24 
 cents an hour. We are two cents over Milwaukee. 
 
 St. Louis a good deal bigger city than Omaha let us see 
 what they do. The first year they pay 20 cents, and the sixth 
 year they get to 25, and there they stop. They are one cent under 
 us all the way through. 
 
 And so it goes all through the list of cities of anything like the 
 importance of Omaha. 
 
 Then, take such cities as Boston commencing at 21 cents 
 and stopping at 24. Washington, D. C., 22 cents flat. Phila- 
 delphia, 22 cents flat. New Orleans, 22 cents flat. And so on 
 through the list. I will not burden you with it. It was all laid 
 before these men, the rates in all of these cities in the country, 
 and notwithstanding the fact that it was shown clearly that Omaha 
 is paying higher wages to its street car men than any one of the 
 competing cities of the country, I offered to meet these men 
 fairly. " Why, " I said, " you are going to get a raise. Don't be in 
 a hurry. Don't come here and say, 'Unless you raise my pay 
 before tomorrow morning I am going to quit, I am going to strike. 1 
 I cannot grant it under that sort of talk; because if I should permit 
 you to do that once, next year it would come up, perhaps, again ; 
 and we would have the whole thing to go over. I will have to 
 meet that situation some time, and I will meet it right now. I will
 
 88 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 not do that under pressure. But your pay will be raised; there 
 need not be any question about that." 
 
 Now, about these runs that we hear so much about the in- 
 human treatment of the men by the company, because it is forcing 
 them into these swing runs: 
 
 Nobody has to take one of those runs who don't want it, gentle- 
 men. All the runs that the company has for its regular men are 
 matters of choice. They have the pick. They can take a run, 
 or let it alone and take another. Isn't that so? 
 
 MR. LEAR: Yes. 
 
 MR. WATTLES : Runs are selected according to seniority of 
 service. The old men have the right to the best runs, and the young 
 men come along and have to take what is left. 
 
 But let us see about these runs. I have not heard anything 
 about these runs before, except years ago when Mr. Tucker was 
 alive, when some of the street car boys came up to talk about the 
 runs. He said, " Boys, any change that you can suggest in your 
 runs that will be better for you, or will make it easier for you, that 
 will not impair the service of the company, that will permit us 
 to take care of the crowds at the rush hours, I will adopt in a min- 
 ute. " And so I said the same thing to these men. 
 
 Read the record. 
 
 I not only said that, I said, " I will go into these runs, since 
 you have mentioned it. I have not heard anything about it before. 
 Two years and a half have passed by since I have seen any of you 
 men. Why haven't you come here and told me your runs were 
 wrong. I would adjust them in a minute." 
 
 This gentleman here had another complaint: He said he 
 could not get off this summer, the lines were so busy, and we did 
 not have enough extra men and he could not get off. I said, ' 'My 
 friend, you do not have to strike for that; why didn't you let me 
 know about it; I would get you off. I will furnish men enough to 
 man the cars of this company, so that every man employed by it 
 can have ample time to get off and rest. We do not want any mis- 
 understanding about those things; and there is no need for any 
 board of arbitration to settle them. It is time enough for you to 
 talk about arbitrating questions when I refuse to settle them for 
 you." 
 
 Those questions are not at issue, gentlemen. Those are not 
 the questions that caused this strike. That is not the reason of 
 this strike. Let no man be deceived. 
 
 I will tell you the cause of the strike: 
 
 About a month ago, a stranger came to Omaha. He put up 
 at one of our best hotels. Had a good room and good board, so 
 far as I know, good cigars and good whiskey. I do not say that 
 he had them. But he was well dressed; had all the appearance of 
 a gentleman. He went among these laboring men, and, according 
 to the statement of one of the officers of the international body
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 89 
 
 before the Business Men's Association, he found that there were 
 twelve members of the union at that time. 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: That's not correct. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Well, that is the statement that was made 
 before the Business Men's Association. There were twelve mem- 
 bers of the union, when Mr. Commons came here a month ago. 
 Whether that is correct as to the number that belonged to the 
 union at that time, I do not know, but that is the statement that 
 was made before the Business Men's Association. 
 
 But he went among these men and said, " Men, you have some 
 grievances here that ought to be corrected; this company is not 
 doing by you what it ought to do; now I come before you preaching 
 the gospel of peace; I do not want any strike; we are not going to 
 have any strike." 
 
 (If he had come here and said, " Boys, we are going to have a 
 strike," they would probably have run him out of town at that 
 time, because they did not want any strike.) 
 
 "We are not going to have any strike, but there are some 
 things here that must be corrected. If you will follow my views 
 and let me lead in this matter, I will get you a whole lot of things 
 that you do not have now; I will get you better pay and get you 
 better conditions; I will get a signed contract between you and this 
 company, where you can force this company to do what you want 
 it to do, not only now but in the future. This contract will only 
 run two years, but we must have that contract; that is the thing 
 we must have." 
 
 And he preached among the men and exhorted among them, 
 and they held frequent meetings down here at the Labor Temple, 
 and they aroused a good deal of revival and a good deal of enthu- 
 siasm, until finally some wild words of force were suggested. 
 
 At first, when he came here, he did not say I was a bad man. 
 The men would not have stood for it. There are too many of them 
 who know to the contrary. There are too many of them who have 
 come to me in trouble, and have never been turned away empty- 
 handed; there are too many of them who have been justly dis- 
 charged by the officers of this company and have appealed to me, 
 and if there was any possible excuse or reason why they could be 
 reinstated, the rules have been cast aside and they have been rein- 
 stated in their positions. The men of this company are not my 
 enemies; at least they were not a month ago; they were my friends. 
 
 But this situation was stirred up in this community, until we 
 approached the critical time of the coming of the President of the 
 United States. Then another man appears upon the scene, from 
 abroad somewhere. He does not live in Omaha and has no interest 
 here whatever. He goes before these men and he tells them, 
 "You go up to the president's office and demand his signature 
 on that contract, and if he don't sign it you tell him there is going 
 to be a strike." This man I did not meet alone. I suppose,
 
 90 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 perhaps, I ought to have met him, but I will tell you the reason I 
 did not. I do not care to discuss with anybody the relations be- 
 tween myself, or the corporation I represent, and the men who are 
 working for it, except with the men. And so I said, " I do not 
 care to meet this man, " and I did not meet him at my office. But 
 when he insisted on seeing me, I said, ".All right, come before the 
 executive committee of the Business Men's Association where 
 we can have reputable witnesses." I did not say, although it was 
 in my mind, where we will have reputable witnesses as to what 
 transpires between us, and I will talk this over with you. 
 
 He came up there. He said to the business men there assem- 
 bled : " I am not here to say one word against Mr. Wattles. He 
 is a very fine gentleman and he stands high among the men," and 
 he spoke many complimentary words regarding me, for which I 
 thank him. " But I am up here to tell you men that there is a 
 serious condition on, that is going to culminate, probably this 
 afternoon, in trouble, unless it is met in some way." What was 
 said and done by him there before that committee is fortunately 
 also a matter of record. These business men have heard some 
 statements made as to what was said and done there, that were 
 not just exactly correct, and they have put out a signed statement 
 in the morning paper as to what happened there before that com- 
 mittee. 
 
 What did happen? Briefly: He told of these grievances, 
 of this trouble about these swing runs and inhuman treatment 
 and all that sort of thing, and then he told about the wages and 
 other things; and then he told about the company discriminating 
 against its union men. 
 
 I got up and said, " Gentlemen, we can settle this here in a 
 minute. There is no cause for a strike here. We can settle this 
 whole question very easily. I will put into the hands of every 
 employe a signed statement that will say that this company will 
 not discriminate either for or against its union or non-union men; 
 and in the matter of runs a new schedule will be put out that will 
 eliminate any cause of complaint on that score; and we will increase 
 the pay of these men at the earliest moment practicable, and within 
 a short time." 
 
 I told our men that, and I said more. I said, "Now, men, 
 when we come to the next increase of pay, I am going to consult 
 you. I want to know whether this scale is too wide or whether 
 you want it crowded together, and I am going to act a good deal 
 on what the great bulk of our employes want to do in that regard. " 
 
 And I said the same thing before the Business Men's Associa- 
 tion. I said, "We will settle this whole thing. I will put out 
 these signed statements, and then if I do not keep them, or if this 
 company and its officers do not keep them, then it is time for you 
 to come and say, "Let us arbitrate and see whether you have kept
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 91 
 
 them or not; or let us fight, if necessary, over the fact of whether 
 you have kept them or not." 
 
 I embodied these messages of peace and good will to the em- 
 ployes in a letter that I wrote to one of the labor union men of the 
 city, and which Mr. Pratt had and read before that committee. 
 He was going to take it down, as he said, and read it without com- 
 ment before the meeting of the street car men, who were in session 
 that afternoon, and he was going to leave it to those men to say 
 whether or not that was satisfactory. 
 
 Let us see what happened! 
 
 He went out of the room, not entirely satisfied with the 
 action of the business men's committee, because they had then 
 and there in his presence unanimously voted to approve the course 
 of the street railway company. 
 
 Now, there are few men, even under the most extreme excite- 
 ment of religious fervor or fanaticism of any sort or kind, who will 
 go out and tell an untruth. While these men, as I know, are pledged 
 not to reveal what happens down here in these meetings, at least 
 a half dozen of them have told me that this man came down before 
 that meeting and, instead of reading this letter without comment, 
 and letting the men vote quietly and peaceably and after careful 
 consideration on the question of whether they would strike or 
 not, made one of the most rabid and vehement and vindictive 
 speeches that was ever made in the city of Omaha, in which he 
 called me all the vile names that he could lay his tongue to. 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: Never, never, never. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: And then in the fever of the excitement, he 
 asked these men to vote whether or not they were going to strike. 
 
 Was he a messenger of peace or was he a messenger of war? 
 
 He is the man, he and his lieutenant who is here assisting him, 
 who have caused this strike. 
 
 And why has the strike been called? For no other reason on 
 earth than that this company refused to violate its solemn 
 agreements with its non-union men, of whom it has a large majority, 
 even today, in its employ. 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: Where did you get them, if that is a fail- 
 proposition? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I will state that this company has in its 
 employ over eleven hundred men, and about three hundred of 
 them belong to the union. 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: Do you want to know just how many you 
 have got out? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: To the best of my information. I want to 
 be corrected if I make a misstatement. 
 
 There are more than that many men out. But why are they 
 out? I will tell you why. They are out because their wives have 
 been warned that if they go to work their lives will be in danger; 
 and these wives have telephoned to me and appealed to me to
 
 92 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 know whether their husbands are going to lose their jobs or not, 
 if they fail to go to work against such warnings. 
 
 We did not sign the contract. Why? Because when the 
 union was first organized here, the international officer who came 
 before our board of directors and asked us to reinstate the men 
 who had been suspended because they joined it, stated to us posi- 
 tively and assured us in language of which we have a copy, that 
 no contract would either then or at any future time be required 
 between this union and this company; that the purpose and object 
 of the organization of this union here was to promote the interests 
 of the men. 
 
 Our non-union men came before us old men in the employ 
 of this company men who have worked for us from ten to thirty 
 years came to us and said, " Are you going to enter into a con- 
 tract with this union? Are you going to recognize this union, 
 and thereby either force us out of your employ or into the union, 
 which we do not want to join?" 
 
 And we said, "No, gentlemen, that is all arranged; have no 
 fear in that regard. We have agreed with these men that no con- 
 tract shall be required of us, and we are going to treat them just 
 the same as we treat you, and we are going to treat you just the 
 same as we treat them." 
 
 Two years and a half ago they demanded that we sign a simi- 
 lar contract, and when they came up to the point of a strike, they 
 asked me finally if I would go before three leading labor union men 
 of this city and state the case of the company. I said I would, 
 although I would not be bound by what they might say, because 
 they were naturally a partisan board; they were leaders in the union 
 movement here. 
 
 I stated the case of the company, and what was the finding? 
 One of the findings reads, " That we find that, whereas, when the 
 union was organized an agreement was made between the company 
 and the union that no contract would be required, therefore we 
 recommend that you withdraw this request for a contract. " 
 
 But now it comes back again. Why does it come back? I 
 will tell you why it comes back. 
 
 There is not a labor union member of any organization in this 
 hall, nor an employer of union men here, who does not know what 
 such a contract means. Of course we know what it means sugar 
 coat it as you will make it easy and agreeable to take at the first 
 dose but it means nothing more nor less than the unionizing 
 of this road; then the driving out of the employment of this com- 
 pany of every man who does not or will not join this union. That 
 is what it means, and every labor union man here knows that that 
 is what it means, and that that is the purpose and object of this 
 contract.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 93 
 
 They have tried to say that it did not mean that. But you 
 cannot fool men who employ union labor help, nor can you fool 
 men who are members of labor union organizations. 
 
 Why do they want such a contract? They want such a con- 
 tract for the very purpose that when every man who belongs to 
 that union and who is working for this company has joined it, they 
 can go before the board of directors at their next meeting and say: 
 "Here is a new contract now; you sign that, or every wheel that 
 you have in the city of Omaha will stop at twelve o'clock tonight." 
 And what are men to do with their hands crossed and tied in that 
 fashion? They must submit to any sort or kind of demand that 
 may be made by any agitator who comes here, with no knowledge 
 whatever of local conditions. 
 
 And that is the reason we did not sign the contract because 
 we owe an obligation, gentlemen, to this community. This thing 
 simmers right down to this one point: The street railway com- 
 pany owes the people of this community a service a continual 
 service. The city authorities of this city, and the authorities of 
 this county and state owe this corporation not only protection 
 of its property but of its employes. That is the relation that 
 exists between you, gentlemen, and you, Mr. Mayor, and this 
 company. 
 
 This council has no right to convene here when you get down 
 to legal rights and say this or that or the other thing regarding 
 this strike. It can only say the things that come within the 
 province of this council to say. 
 
 I am glad to appear before you here. I am glad to have you 
 and everybody else understand the situation, if I can make it 
 plain and I am here to make it plain. 
 
 What is the situation now? 
 
 These men, some three hundred of them; without a moment's 
 warning, without a day's notice; a few days before the President 
 of the United States was to be received as the guest of this city; 
 quit the employ of this company. They had a perfect right to do 
 so, and we do not challenge that right in any way. It would have 
 been a good deal better, I will admit, if they had come to me and 
 said, "Now, we are not satisfied; this is not satisfactory to us, 
 this arrangement that you propose, but the President is coming 
 here next Tuesday and we have the Ak-Sar-Ben coming on, and 
 it will inconvenience a lot of people that we do not want to incon- 
 venience and think there is no necessity of inconveniencing at this 
 critical time; and we will let this dispute rest where it is at the pres- 
 ent moment, and we will take it up when these things have passed 
 by and we will talk about it some more; and we will see if we 
 cannot get some ground where we can both stand. " 
 
 That, it seems to me, gentlemen, would have been the honor- 
 able way for these men to have treated the company by which 
 they have been employed, some of them for many years.
 
 94 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 But, no, that does not suit the men who are guiding the des- 
 tinies of these good workmen. They said, "Now is the critical 
 time, right at this moment, to make them all the inconvenience 
 possible; stir up all the feeling over this thing possible, and then 
 you will win so much the sooner." 
 
 So I will admit, and the record shows, that when these men 
 talked to me about forcing this situation, when they said to me, 
 "We are going to strike unless you sign that contract," I will admit 
 that because I must admit it the record is printed that I did 
 say to these men: "Gentlemen, we have tried to get along with 
 the situation as best we can. We have promised to protect you 
 as union men in every right that you possess. We have also tried 
 to protect the non-union men who work for this company. But 
 if you precipitate a strike on this company and on this community 
 at this critical time if you leave the employ of this company at 
 this critical time, we cannot take future chances of just such 
 things occurring again we are going to employ from that time on 
 non-union men to work for this company. We cannot be forced 
 into this situation any more. It is not fair to this community that 
 we should place ourselves where we can be forced into such a situa- 
 tion as is here today a disgrace to this community." And so 
 they were warned. They laughed about it, and said, "That is 
 all right," and that perhaps I did not mean it. 
 
 Now let me say one thing on that score: I never made a 
 promise or a pledge in my life that was not worth one hundred 
 cents on the dollar. It is worth that this year; it will be worth 
 that next year, and it will be worth that in the future. 
 
 Mr. Pratt says I never ought to have made that agreement 
 about not signing a contract, and now I ought to be forced to 
 violate that agreement. May be that is good, honest doctrine. 
 It is not my way of doing business. He says that a verbal agree- 
 ment, in law, only lasts a year anyway. My verbal agreements do 
 not expire with the old year. They are good the next year just 
 the same. 
 
 While this is a critical situation; while I have had letters 
 threatening my life, and telephone messages warning me that I 
 am a spotted man; and while we may have to come up, gentlemen, 
 to some such tragedy to finally settle this matter right; and will 
 have to unless the authorities who are sworn by their oaths to pre- 
 serve law and order in this community do their duty and I have 
 faith and confidence that they will do it but even though just 
 that tragedy occur, if I wake up on the other shore and have it 
 to think all through eternity that I did not violate my solemn 
 obligation to the men in my employ, it will be a happy thought. 
 How much better than to have the stain upon me during all my life 
 that at the critical stage, at a time, perhaps, when thousands and 
 hundreds of thousands of my own fortune was at stake, I failed. 
 I do not want that memory, and it never will be my memory.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 95 
 
 Now, what is the situation? These men have quit our employ. 
 We owe an obligation to the city. We have tried to fulfill it. We 
 have brought men here at great expense, because everything must 
 be done quickly and the time was short. We did not have time 
 to wait, we had to get men at any price. We had to get them and 
 bring them here to perform the service that these men have said, 
 by their acts, that they no longer want to do. And we have 
 brought men here, good men. Every crime that is committed in 
 the city will be laid at their doors. That is the usual procedure. 
 
 These men say there will be no rioting. Oh, no. But every 
 time, gentlemen, that there is a parade of these honest workmen 
 on the streets of Omaha, like there was last Sunday, it breaks up 
 in a riot and in bloodshed. And that is what will happen in the 
 future. You can depend upon it. 
 
 I have never been accused of being either a fool or a man who 
 did not try to keep posted on what was going on. I know what 
 is happening. I am not deceived. I am not at liberty to state the 
 things I know. But, gentlemen, the men who do commit crimes 
 in this community must answer for them before the law. 
 
 Now, what are we going to do? We are running the cars here. 
 We must run them. Let us see what the people who run street 
 cars in the country are saying to me, by telegrams and by letters 
 by the bushel. I brought a few samples telegrams even. 
 
 " Could you use two sober and experienced motormen perma- 
 nently? References." 
 
 That is a telegram that comes from Kansas City, giving the 
 address. 
 
 Here is a letter from a gentleman in Council Bluffs : " There 
 is one of your old conductors (gives his name) for four years a very 
 efficient conductor left this city and went east; has married there 
 and wants to come back here and get a job. Can you take him? " 
 
 Another man writes from Kansas City that he would like to 
 send me two or three men. " Can you use two or three good men? 
 Wire." 
 
 I withhold all of these names. You can look them over, any 
 of you who want to. 
 
 " Can bring fifty experienced men five hours notice. , Wire 
 answer. Springfield, Illinois." 
 
 Another man writes a letter that he is a good workingman; 
 that he has worked on the street cars up at Sioux City, but we pay 
 better wages down here and he wants to come down here to work; 
 he hears we need men. 
 
 " St. Louis, Mo. : I herewith apply for a position as conductor 
 on your Omaha road. I am thirty-six years old, etc. " 
 
 "Springfield, Illinois: Notice by the paper you are having 
 a strike; I am twenty-two years old and want a position. "
 
 96 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 "Chicago, Illinois: An experienced motorman living in 
 Chicago wants to know if he can get a permanent position and 
 bring along references. " 
 
 "Waterloo, Iowa: See by the Chicago papers that you are 
 sadly in need of men; I have had over two years experience in street 
 car service; am thirty-four years old. Am getting seventeen cents 
 an hour here and would like to come to Omaha and work. " 
 
 Indianapolis same way. 
 
 There will be no trouble, gentlemen, in filling the places of 
 all the men who live in Omaha and have been engaged in the work 
 here, and who do not want to work for this company. If they do 
 not want to work for the company they have a perfect right to say 
 so. 
 
 Now as to the question of arbitration: If a man drives out 
 your horse and buggy for you in the morning, just as you are getting 
 down to business, or some evening just as you are going out to 
 some important engagement; and just as you are getting into the 
 buggy, he jumps down off the box and says, " Here, I have written 
 up a contract that I want you to sign, about my future employment; 
 now, if you don't sign that contract I am going to quit, and I am 
 going to quit right now, and cause you all the trouble I can; not 
 only am I going to do that, but I am going to go out and try to 
 keep any other man from taking my place and working for you." 
 
 "Well," the employer says, "all right now, John; you are 
 excited; J am sorry you feel that way about it, but if you do, I guess 
 you better quit; I guess you better go. " The next day John comes 
 around and brings a friend, and says, "Can't we fix this matter 
 up some way? Let us arbitrate it?" What do you say, or what 
 would any reasonable man say under those circumstances? He 
 would say, " Well, really, I cannot see that you have any matter to 
 arbitrate here. You quit. You inconvenienced me a little and 
 you threatened me some, but you have drawn your pay; we are 
 all square; I guess we need not talk any more about this, and I 
 will get along the best I can. " 
 
 Now, that is not the position this company is going to take, 
 gentlemen. Do not misunderstand me, nor get a wrong impression 
 from what I say. The time is going to come very shortly when these 
 letters and similar letters will have to be answered. Before that 
 time comes, and before men are brought here to permanently fill 
 the places of those men who have been in our employ, due notice 
 will be given. 
 
 It is probable that the old runs of many of these men have 
 been permanently filled today. I do not know. The seniority 
 rule of this company is in force just the same when there is a 
 strike as when there is not one, and that rule is that the employes 
 of this company have choice of positions, according to length of 
 service.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 97 
 
 But we are going to be fair. We have tried to be fair. We 
 have tried to be just. And I appeal to the people of this com- 
 munity and to the city council of Omaha to say whether or not we 
 have been fair and just. If we have not, we must lose that valua- 
 ble asset public sentiment and good will. 
 
 From the letters and the messages over the phone, from all 
 parts of the city, I know that we have behind us in the position 
 that we have taken, the support of the people of this community, 
 regardless of sex or condition. All we ask of the city officials is 
 to give us the full and due protection that they are sworn to give 
 us by their oath of office, and we will proceed with the operation 
 of the street car system in Omaha; and at the same time we will 
 try to be fair and we will try to be just. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, one more word, and I am done. 
 
 This is not a time for political seeking of advantage. It is 
 no time to work or talk politics. I am perfectly willing to sit 
 here and hear this question discussed, as long as my time will 
 permit and I am a very busy man, especially these days by 
 the men who are directly interested in the question at issue. But 
 I am not going to remain here to hear outsiders, who have come here 
 and stirred up this trouble, tell you men that we are to blame for 
 it. 
 
 Gentlemen, haven't we any friends left among the labor union 
 leaders of the city of Omaha? Why, some of our brightest and 
 best men are at the head of that movement here. Who are they? 
 Mr. McCullough of the Bee; Mr. Sturgis, Mr. Guye; and no end of 
 good, level-headed labor-leaders are here, perfectly competent 
 to handle any situation that comes up in this community. If 
 they had handled this situation there never would have been any 
 trouble. 
 
 I think I have said about all I care to say now. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES : I asked Mr. Wattles a question. He 
 said he would answer that question in his statement. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I think I have. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES: Then we are to infer from your 
 statement that you would not arbitrate this question under any 
 circumstances. That is the way I would take it from this state- 
 ment. Now, if that is the case, it is time for this city to take some 
 action to see if there is not some way by which the people can be 
 moved from one part of the city to another. I think if Mr. Wattles' 
 position and the position of his company is fair, as he states it is 
 he states there is no doubt in his mind but what he is right in every 
 way, shape and form if that is the fact, then he should not be 
 afraid to arbitrate this question. 
 
 MR. PRATT: Mr. President and gentlemen: My name has 
 been freely used in connection with this situation, and inasmuch 
 as he has brought me into it I would like to have an opportunity 
 to answer a few of the points that he attempts to make.
 
 98 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 COUNCILMAN McGovERN: This meeting is neither a regular 
 nor a special meeting of the council. It was called at the suggestion 
 of our mayor and the members of the city council, so that they could 
 meet a committee of the employes of the street railway who were 
 called in here, and also certain representatives of the street rail- 
 way company. Now, this matter is for discussion between both 
 of these parties at this meeting. We are not here as members of 
 the city council. Sitting as a city council, as Mr. Wattles has said, 
 we would have no authority to take up a matter of this kind, but 
 the council, as individuals, have authority to discuss any matter 
 we see fit to discuss in a meeting of this character. We are only 
 here as citizens of Omaha, and I think that these committees have 
 all they can do to handle their own part of the business at this 
 time, until further action may be taken. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRIDGES: Mr. President: I do not know any- 
 thing about this man Scott or whatever his name may be; I have 
 never seen him before today, and I do not know who he is or where 
 he came from, but I venture to say that he came here at the request 
 of these street car employes, just the same as you or I would send 
 to New York or some other place and get a man as our attorney 
 to represent us, if we thought he had the ability to do it. If we 
 had a case that we wanted to win, we would get the best talent we 
 could procure to win that case. And there is no question in my 
 mind but that these street car men have sent for this man to come 
 here and help them handle this difficulty for them, and to represent 
 them. Now, they had a difficulty with the company a few years 
 ago on a similar proposition, and they had the vice-president of 
 the organization here at that time, and he consulted with Mr. 
 Wattles. I met the gentleman while he was here, and while I do 
 not remember the exact circumstances of that particular case, 
 I know that the street car men continued at work without any 
 change so far as the public knew. If there were any changes that 
 went into effect in a minor way it was not known to the public. 
 Now, if these people sent for this man to come here and represent 
 them, this man whom Mr. Wattles has been freely roasting during all 
 of his argument, he is entitled to some consideration; and he may 
 be able to make some suggestion by which this difficulty can be 
 settled, and the public not have to walk to and from their business 
 without transportation of any kind; and I think it is no more than 
 right that he should have an opportunity to say a few words in 
 order to explain his position, and explain why he is here. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: If there is no objection, we will 
 hear from Mr. Pratt. 
 
 MR. PRATT: I will try to make my remarks just as briefly 
 as possible. I do not want to misquote or in any way misrepresent 
 Mr. Wattles. In referring to the request from his men about this 
 contract that was presented to him, he says that the men took their
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 99 
 
 strike vote upon the original proposition that was submitted to 
 him. That is not true. The men modified their proposition. 
 
 I want to say, of course, that when I came to this city, it was 
 at the request of the street car men. Our international officer, 
 Mr. Commons, had been here for some time, andlt looked as though 
 they were going to be unable to get any adjustment from this com- 
 pany, and the men themselves had written to our office for an 
 international representative to come here. President Mahon 
 asked if I would come over and assist in trying to bring about an 
 amicable adjustment. I want to say that about four years ago 
 I came here on a like mission. At that time there was a threatened 
 strike and Mr. Wattles met me, after the committee and myself 
 had failed to reach any adjustment and the men were ready to 
 strike at that time, and I met him in the bank and had an hour or 
 so conference with him and he made some promises to me. I 
 said, " Mr. Wattles, will you get your committee of your employes 
 together and make these same promises to them? If you will, 
 I will recommend to the men that they do not permit any trouble 
 to occur and they will continue at work. " 
 
 He said he would. And he did meet the committee of his 
 employes and he made them the same promises, and that settled 
 the matter without any outside interference or without any diffi- 
 culty, and that was brought about through my personal efforts, 
 and I think Mr. Wattles will admit it, and I assured Mr. Wattles 
 when I came here that my mission was one of peace and I referred 
 him to his own associates of the street railway world in this country. 
 Never in my life have I been charged with inciting a strike, but I 
 have been instrumental in bringing about many amicable adjust- 
 ments where strikes were threatened and the question referred 
 to the union. 
 
 Now as to experience or knowledge of conditions: 
 
 I have been a railroad man for sixteen years. Six years I 
 worked on the cars in Columbus, five years as motorman and 
 one as conductor. I know the conditions that prevail in the 
 operating of the car from either end. I know the conditions 
 throughout the United States and Canada, and I think I am as 
 well versed in those conditions as Mr. Wattles; I have negotiated 
 contracts and settlements with different companies in various 
 parts of the country. 
 
 Now then, if Mr. Wattles wants to be fair and the situation is 
 as he says it is, all in his favor, why does he fear arbitration? 
 
 As to our bringing about the difficulty at the present time: 
 I want to say that the men were ready to strike when I came here 
 a week ago Saturday, and I have told them, " Not yet. " 
 
 Now, let us see what was said then. A meeting was called 
 of the men, and I did not know at that time that the Eagles' con- 
 vention was coming to this city, and we did not want to do anything 
 to mar their pleasure and their entertainment in the city of Omaha;
 
 100 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 and I not only got a statement from Mr. Commons and from the 
 committee, but I wanted to hear the men direct, and a meeting 
 was called for Monday. In that meeting I told the men I was not 
 there to talk, but that I was there to listen to them, and I took a 
 chair and sat down in the chair and I asked them to tell me just 
 what they wanted me to do and how far they wanted me to go. I 
 positively refused to talk to them, or to advise them one way or 
 the other, because if I did Mr. Wattles or the company would make 
 a claim that I was here inciting trouble, and we have a signed state- 
 ment from all of the men who attended the meeting as to what 
 took place there. The men themselves, one after another, without 
 any exception, got up, and in a determined way expressed them- 
 selves. They said, "For seven years we have tried to maintain an 
 organization here for our protection. Year after year these troubles 
 come up and we have tried to get some adjustment, and when an 
 international officer is here things are smoothed over temporarily , 
 and as soon as you are gone their promise is violated and we get 
 no result, and during the past year out of a little over six hundred 
 employes there was 456 men discharged or forced to resign" those 
 are the best figures I have been able to obtain regarding their 
 employes. 
 
 Now, it is true that the organization has gone down several 
 times. When I came here one year ago it had been practically 
 wiped out of existence, until there was only a handful of men up 
 there in the meeting. Why? Because of intimidation, because 
 of a marked preference for non-union men, because of discrimina- 
 tion. 
 
 We were successful in getting them together again for their 
 protection and to try to be relieved from these conditions. 
 
 Now then, if Mr. Wattles says that he ordered Mr. Nash to 
 abolish all these runs a year ago, why is it that seven years have 
 gone by and he has not changed them. 
 
 He is an experienced railroad man. He gets up here and he 
 makes some very nice promises. He made several to me four years 
 ago, but they have not been carried out. 
 
 Now, he dwells specifically upon a statement that he says or 
 an agreement that he says he entered into with a man named 
 Wilson who is a machinist and in no way associated with the 
 street car men's organization who happened to be in the city 
 at the time they organized and who was called into their conference. 
 He says he made an agreement with this outside man, or an under- 
 standing that certain things were to be done, and yet he tells you 
 that he will not deal with any outsider. 
 
 The employes of this organization working here today claim 
 they have no knowledge of any such agreement, and that they as 
 employes never made any such agreement.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 101 
 
 Now, he says he went to that machinist, who is not connected 
 with this organization, an outsider, and dealt with him, and yet 
 he won't deal today with his own men, and wants to hold them to 
 a contract of that kind. 
 
 I would like to have him present that contract that he says he 
 has. I would like also to have him present the agreement that he 
 says he has with the non-union men, so that we will know what that 
 agreement is, with whom it was made and when it was made. 
 
 Mr. Wattles says he will not make any agreement with the 
 union men, and yet he asks the public to help him enforce that kind 
 of an agreement or pledge to the non-union men. 
 
 That was the situation on Monday when this meeting was 
 called, and I asked the men to tell me what to do, and I said to 
 them that I would leave no stone unturned to try to bring about 
 an amicable settlement and adjustment. I said, "Ask for another 
 conference with the company." They did have a conference with 
 Mr. Wattles and they came back empty handed, without a single 
 thing. He told them he would rather cut off his right hand than 
 sign an agreement. I said then, "We will call a meeting for Friday 
 afternoon and evening, and I will do my best in the meantime to 
 see if we cannot get some one interested in this city to get Mr. 
 Wattles to make some concessions that will help us out of this 
 strained situation." And I did. I waited upon representative men 
 in this city. They went to Mr. Wattles and asked him to meet 
 me. He made as an excuse that he had refused to meet Mr. 
 Commons and for that reason he would not like to meet me, and 
 he replied in that letter to this gentleman. He replied to him by 
 letter. He would not answer him direct when he waited on him. 
 He says, "I will reply to you by letter," and he did write him a 
 long letter. And so he finally said, verbally, "I will meet Mr. 
 Pratt before the Business Men's organization at one o'clock Fri- 
 day. " We met on Friday afternoon. Our meeting was at 2:30 
 on Friday afternoon and on Friday night. And I said to these 
 gentlemen that I would go up there and present to them our side 
 of the case, and I hope, gentlemen, that everything is recorded 
 that was said there. I hope that it is all recorded as far as I am 
 concerned, and I ask them to produce all of that record or any part 
 of it. 
 
 I appeared before that body at one o'clock on Friday after- 
 noon, and after Mr. Wattles got up and made a few introductory 
 remarks, I introduced myself and I addressed these gentlemen 
 and presented the grievances of the street car men against the 
 company, and I said that I had always held Mr. Wattles in high 
 esteem. I did say that, and I defy Mr. Wattles to bring forward 
 a single man in this city that has ever heard me say a disrespectful 
 word of him, or apply epithets to him, in any way or at any time, 
 and we have the signed statement of every man who was in the 
 meeting that I never referred to Mr. Wattles except in the highest
 
 102 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 terms, which is the fact. I did say that I believed he was misin- 
 formed; that I believed his under officials were doing things of 
 which he had no knowledge, and that he listened to them and was 
 influenced by their statements, and I defy Mr. Wattles to produce 
 any man that has ever heard me speak of him in other than respect- 
 ful terms. If these gentlemen make such statements to Mr. Wat- 
 tles, they are stating things which are untrue and which can 
 be disproved. 
 
 Now, I understand we are not in arbitration here. If we are 
 we will bring forward evidence to substantiate every statement 
 that we have made, and Mr. Wattles 'does not need to fear arbitra- 
 tion, if he has been so fair and broad-gauged in this treatment of 
 his employes. Why does he fear arbitration? We court arbitra- 
 tion. 
 
 I explained the situation to the business men and several of 
 them put a crossfire of questions, and then somebody called for Mr. 
 Mahoney. I do not know who Mr. Mahoney is. And he was asked 
 if he would look over this proposed agreement. I had submitted 
 a modified proposition. I told Mr. Wattles that was why I had 
 asked for the conference with him, that I had desired to submit 
 a modified proposition from the men, and if he would concede to 
 some of these points, I would go before the men and recommend it as 
 a settlement. But he did not wish to meet me and the only chance 
 I had to present it was before that body, and I had read it to them, 
 and Mr. Mahoney was asked to look it over. He did look it over 
 and he undertook to find flaws in the contract. He says, "Mr. 
 Pratt, let us read this first clause and then the last clause. " He 
 says, "Who are the responsible parties to this agreement?" He 
 says, " I do not see anybody here but the company. " 
 
 " Well, " I said, " Mr. Mahoney, that is not our fault. We have 
 a responsible organization that is willing to sign this agreement, 
 but the company refuses to deal with the organization and we have 
 made it read with the employes of the company, to meet the wishes 
 of the company." I said, " You can make that contract just as 
 strong and binding as you want it, Mr. Mahoney. You can have 
 it signed by the international officers as an evidence of good faith. " 
 I said, " I do not care anything about the phraseology, you can put 
 it any way you care to have it just so you do not destroy the sub- 
 stance. " I said, "This contract is not an ultimatum and neither 
 was the original one. " I said, " It may be considered as a memo- 
 randum of what the men would like to have; they would like to 
 discuss these things with the company and have an amicable adjust- 
 ment. You may change it, we care only for the substance, and 
 make it as binding as you like." 
 
 It was about a quarter past three when the conference ad- 
 journed, or it was about that time when we left the hall. Before 
 I left the hall a motion had passed unanimously to stand by Mr. 
 Wattles and his company's position. Before that motion was
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 103 
 
 passed, however, Mr. Wattles suggested that he would send to 
 every employe of the company a written communication setting 
 forth just what he would do. I said, " Mr. Wattles, what would 
 be embodied in that letter?" He said, " It will be a similar letter 
 to the one you have read here, that I submitted to this gentleman 
 who asked for a conference. " And that letter we have here. In 
 his own letter he says that the company has always reserved the 
 right to tell its employes that they prefer to have them not join 
 the union. He admits that in his letter. And further along in 
 the letter he says this company will continue the same policy in 
 the future that it has in the past, and that is the kind of letter 
 he wanted to send back to his men as individuals. 
 
 Now, he said in that conference as he says here today that he 
 would always meet with his employes as individuals or as com- 
 mittees. I said, " Mr. Wattles, are you willing to make this state- 
 ment in concrete form in the nature of a letter to your committee 
 of employes the men are now waiting in their meeting hall for 
 me? Will you make it in the nature of a letter, so that we will 
 have something under your signature, to carry back to the union 
 will you make that statement in writing to the committee of your 
 employes that you will deal with them as a committee? The 
 proof of the pudding is in the eating. Will you sign a statement 
 that you will deal with that committee?" He said, "No," he 
 would not do it. He would not even do that. 
 
 When I left the hall I said, " I do not know what the result 
 of this meeting will be, because I know the sentiment of the 
 leaders at the meeting on Monday, and you are sending me back to 
 the meeting empty-handed." 
 
 And I read that letter, exactly as I told Mr. Wattles I would 
 do, without comment, in both meetings. I did not attempt to 
 discuss the letter either directly or indirectly, and I did not 
 discuss the question of a strike. I read the letter, first, without 
 comment, and asked them to express their own intentions in that 
 meeting in both meetings, and we have a signed statement here 
 by the men themselves, who were present at the meetings his 
 own employes to that effect. 
 
 After the men voted, I will admit that I talked to the organiza- 
 tion and assured them that I would stay with them in the fight to 
 the end. There was no fire-eating oratory and no vilifying state- 
 ments made against this company or any of its representatives. 
 We realized that they were trying to force these union men out of 
 the service, trying to destroy the organization and not permit it 
 to exist here. And when Mr. Wattles tells you that this is not a 
 question of wages, I agree with him. Yes, I agree with him. He 
 knows well that this fight is being carried on for the purpose of 
 destroying this organization, and for the purpose of forcing all 
 union men out of this railway system.
 
 104 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 At the meetings up there I also read Mr. Taft's position on 
 the question of labor organization, in his Chicago speech. And I 
 want to read that paragraph here, and I submit that we are willing 
 to settle this question on the basis of Mr. Taft's statement. 
 
 This is the paragraph: 
 
 " I know there is an element among the employers of labor and 
 investors of capital which is utterly opposed to the organization 
 of labor. I cannot sympathize with this element in the slightest 
 degree. I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend 
 their interests. It is a wise course for them to provide a fund by 
 which, should occasion arise and strikes and lockouts follow, those 
 who lose their places may be supported pending an adjustment of 
 the difficulties. 
 
 " There is supposed to be an adjustment after there is a strike 
 or a lockout. They have a right to expect that their grievances 
 will be adjusted, and they should be supported in their demand for 
 arbitration by the men who have been selected by the voters of 
 the community to protect the interests and the rights of its citizens. 
 
 "I think the employer who declines to deal with organized 
 labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of 
 wage controversies is behind the times. There is not the slightest 
 doubt that if labor had remained unorganized wages would be very 
 much lower. It is true that in the end they would probably be 
 fixed by the law of supply and demand, but generally before this 
 law manifests itself there is a period in which labor, if organized 
 and acting together, can compel the employer promptly to recog- 
 nize the change of conditions and advance wages to meet a rising 
 market and an increase in profits, and on the other hand can delay 
 the quick impulse of the employer, facing a less prosperous future, 
 to decrease wages." 
 
 I offered to accept a settlement 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Will you also read the additional clause on 
 unorganized labor? 
 
 MR. PRATT: I will let you read any part you desire, Mr. 
 Wattles. 
 
 MR. LEAR : I would like to correct Mr. Wattles in one thing. 
 He says the letter was not read until after the vote was taken. 
 I was there and it was shown before the vote was taken and I can 
 swear to it. It was read before the vote was taken. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: What President Taft said concerning unor- 
 ganized labor is not here. It has been cut off, but I can state it 
 substantially: "Nothing I have said or shall say should in any 
 manner be construed into an attitude of unfriendliness to the men 
 who do not join unions;" and he goes on and says that the rights of 
 the men who do not belong to a union are just as sacred and should 
 be just as firmly protected as the rights of those who do. 
 
 [Note by stenographer: The paragraph of President Taft's 
 speech, to which Mr. Wattles referred, is as follows:
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 105 
 
 " Nothing I have said or shall say, should be construed into 
 an attitude of criticism or unfriendliness to those workingmen who 
 for any reason do not join unions. Their right to labor for such 
 wages as they choose to accept is secured, and any lawless invasion 
 of that right cannot be commended. All advantages of trades 
 unionism, great as they are, cannot weigh a feather in the scale 
 against the right of any man lawfully seeking employment to work 
 for whom and at what price he will."] 
 
 MR. PRATT: Mr. Chairman? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Just one more word on that subject. Just 
 a word. The Scriptures say that a house divided against itself 
 cannot stand 
 
 MR. PRATT: And I want to subscribe to that sentiment. 
 That is just what he wants to do to divide the house of his em- 
 ployes and stifle organization. He does not want to make a speci- 
 fic agreement with them under which they would be entitled to 
 call on him and say, " You agreed to do so and so and you have not 
 done it. " Mr. Wattles told you in his argument that the reason 
 that he did not want to sign an agreement was because he would 
 have a closed shop as soon as he did it. That is one of the things 
 that these men have not asked for. They simply ask for an agree- 
 ment which will insure their protection. They have never asked 
 for a closed shop agreement. We waived the question of the 
 recognition of the union, because we did not want to hurt Mr. 
 Wattles' feelings. We offered to accept a signed statement if he 
 would address it to the committee. 
 
 Mr. Wattles has referred to the fact that we are sleeping in 
 rooms and stopping at hotels. Where would he have us stop in 
 livery stables? I want to tell Mr. Wattles that we live on $6 a 
 day, and out of that amount we have to pay our expenses and sup- 
 port our families. 
 
 Mr. Wattles has said that we have no interests here. We have 
 interests here. These car men are chartered under the amalga- 
 mated association and are entitled to protection. 
 
 Mr. Wattles has spoken of local labor leaders. We do not 
 question the ability of the local labor men here, but we say that 
 every man has his trade a machinist is not familiar with the con- 
 ditions of the street car man, and Mr. Wattles will admit that these 
 men of whom he has spoken are not familiar with the conditions 
 of the street car men. We have not asked that he admit us to the 
 conferences at all; we have only asked him to treat with a com- 
 mittee of his employes and try to reach some adjustment. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, there is a money question too, but I am not 
 going to take up your time in discussing that because I do not 
 think it is necessary. I only ask you to read the statement he 
 has printed in the papers. I do not see anything bad about that 
 stenographic report of this conference. The committee has got 
 enough in there to show whether the men or the company is in the
 
 106 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 right, and any intelligent man who reads it can determine that 
 question for himself. Read it. Read it. There is nothing there 
 but what is in favor of the men. I do not care if something has 
 been left out, or whether some typographical errors have crept 
 in. Read the whole report from beginning to end. 
 
 Another question is the swing run. There is absolutely no 
 reason why the swing run should not be abolished, and they have 
 been abolished by the up-to-date systems of the country. 
 
 With reference to the wages paid at Kansas City. The men 
 have been struggling there for years to get an increase of wages, 
 and we have men there today helping them in their effort to get 
 better wages from the company, and if the question is submitted 
 to arbitration here we are ready to justify our position on the wage 
 question; we are ready to show that the scale asked is just and 
 reasonable and is necessary for the proper support of the men and 
 their families. 
 
 I want to tell you of an incident that came up when I was here 
 four years ago. I met a young girl; she was only sixteen years of 
 age, and wanted to get honest employment; she went into the store 
 of one of the local merchants and applied for employment; the 
 merchant offered her four dollars a week, and she says, "I cannot 
 live on four dollars a week." He says, " Get wise and do as some of 
 these other girls, and get some one to pay your room rent for 
 you. " I sent that girl home, and she is now married and has a 
 respectable home. 
 
 Now, we are not trying to tear down wages; we are not trying 
 to force our wives and our daughters into business of that kind. 
 I will admit we want better wages, but we are not making any 
 arbitrary demand. We stand before you, gentlemen, today, and 
 we are willing to let any fair-minded board arbitrate that question 
 of wages and we will accept its decision. 
 
 Now then, we did not figure on having a strike at a time when 
 it would cause the greatest inconvenience to the people of this 
 community. I did not know that President Taft was coming, and 
 I did not know that there was such a thing as an Ak-Sar-Ben. 
 After the strike was on we offered to arbitrate, to put the men 
 back to work and declare a truce pending the arbitration, but our 
 offer was not accepted. 
 
 If Mr. Wattles was so considerate of the public interest and 
 the public welfare, he would have said, " Gentlemen, we will have 
 no trouble with you; President Taft is coming here; we will arbi- 
 trate these questions. " 
 
 And I want to say, gentlemen, when there is a question suffi- 
 ciently grave to provoke a strike or a lockout, it is a question for 
 arbitration. (Applause.) 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: The parties who have taken the affirm- 
 ative will have the right to close, and if the committee desire to 
 make any reply they have that privilege.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 107 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER : Has the committee anything further? 
 
 MR. LENAHAN : I wish to make a few remarks in reply to the 
 many things that Mr. Wattles has said. He made a verbal agree- 
 ment with us two and a half years ago, and at that time he con- 
 vinced the committee that his position would be fair; and, in fact, 
 he won me over completely and convinced me of the righteousness 
 of his cause, but two weeks had not elapsed after that verbal agree- 
 ment was entered into until the under officials of this company 
 had violated every promise that Mr. Wattles had made, and ever 
 since we have been treated like a band of outlaws. 
 
 We have been picked upon and we have been humiliated, and 
 we have been treated as though we had no rights to be respected, 
 and as though we did not even have the right to live. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: Have you ever come to me during all this 
 time? I have not had a single complaint that any of the promises 
 or agreements made with the committee had been violated. Has 
 your union ever come with any complaint? 
 
 MR. LENAHAN: We never have, for the simple reason that we 
 believed that the way we had been treated, and the conduct of the 
 under officials of this company in chasing us around like we 
 were a lot of wild beasts that it was under your specific orders 
 that those things were being done, and that is the reason we did 
 not feel like going up there to be thrown downstairs by you and to 
 be humiliated. We did not feel like doing that, Mr. Wattles. We 
 took all these things into consideration, and we said, " Now we will 
 live under this sort of persecution and see just exactly how far this 
 company is willing to carry it. " They have carried it to the ex- 
 treme, and the attitude and disposition of the men on this system 
 will show it today will show how Mr. Wattles has been held by 
 his own men in the cities of Omaha and Council Bluffs. That shows 
 whether the treatment you have been giving to your men has been 
 reasonable and fair. And, gentlemen, the sooner Mr. Wattles gets 
 off his high horse and gets down to business, the better it will be 
 for the community and the better it will be for the corporation of 
 which he is the president. 
 
 He may be the president, and he may be all right, and he may 
 have the business ability, too, but I do not believe he represents 
 the whole street railway of the cities of Omaha and Council Bluffs. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 MR. LEAR: I will say that it is a fact that we are willing to 
 have these questions submitted to arbitration and I believe our 
 position will be shown to be fair and square. We are willing to 
 arbitrate, and a board of arbitration could be appointed this after- 
 noon if the company will consent to it. 
 
 COUNCILMAN BRUCKER: I move that the speech-making be 
 closed. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: Is there a second to the motion?
 
 108 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 COUNCILMAN BERKA: If there was anything brought out by 
 Mr. Pratt to which Mr. Wattles desires to make a reply, anything 
 which he has not had an opportunity to answer, he would have the 
 right to do that now. 
 
 MR. LEAR: Mr. Chairman 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: Any other gentleman of the com- 
 mittee wish to say anything further? 
 
 MR. LEAR : I wish to say in regard to Mr. Wattles' statement 
 that he made no disparaging remarks against the city council 
 I don't know that he did at the last meeting but I was before 
 him three times, and I will take my oath on the stand that I have 
 twice heard him make the remark that if it had not been for the 
 city hall grafters and hounds he would have raised the wages, 
 would have been glad to divide the money between his men. Those 
 are the words he used. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I want to simply say that I never said such 
 words, and the record of the meeting that was reported will show 
 that I never used such language. Now they say it was at some 
 meeting of which we have no record. I repeat that I never made 
 any such remark. 
 
 MR. LEAR : Mr. Wattles, do you remember the time that Mr. 
 Gil Ian, Mr. Poncelow and myself went up there to arrange for a 
 conference before the board of directors? 
 
 MR. WATTLES : I remember your coming there. 
 
 MR. LEAR: And what statement did you make about this 
 council and about this sixty thousand dollars? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I did not make any at that time. 
 
 MR. LEAR: I beg your pardon. Didn't you say that the 
 council had imposed this $60,000 tax on you and that you would 
 not be able to raise our wages? 
 
 MR. WATTLES: No. 
 
 MR. LEAR : I will go before any tribunal in this country and 
 swear to that. 
 
 COUNCILMAN MCGOVERN: Mr. Chairman, I move that we 
 adjourn until three o'clock this afternoon to the mayor's office, 
 and that the council and the committee representing the street 
 railway employes, and the officials, or a committee of the officials 
 representing the Omaha Street Railway company, meet together 
 there and have a conference about this affair. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I will say that I cannot be present at that 
 meeting. I have an engagement to meet some of the employes 
 of this company this afternoon, that will preclude my meeting with 
 you at that time. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: There is a motion before the house. 
 
 MAYOR DAHLMAN: Mr. Chairman, before you take this vote. 
 As I said before, this meeting has been called to see whether the 
 mayor and city council can do anything towards bringing about a 
 settlement between the parties involved in this controversy.
 
 INTERVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS 109 
 
 Now, this motion that has just been made suggests that the 
 mayor and city council, and a committee of the railway men and 
 committee of the railway officials, meet at my office at three o'clock. 
 
 Now, I would like to invite Mr. Wattles to be at my office at 
 two or a quarter past two, and I would like to talk with him alone; 
 and then I would like to ask the three gentlemen who are here, 
 who have been invited up here to represent the local street car 
 men, to come after I have talked with him; and if this motion 
 carries, the mayor and the city council then will talk this matter 
 over, and I think by meeting these two parties separately I will 
 be in a position to tell the city council just how the situation stands, 
 and we will see then whether anything can be done or not. 
 
 If this is satisfactory, and these gentlemen will accept that 
 invitation, I would be glad if they would do it. 
 
 This meeting is simply called, as has been stated here before, 
 it is not what might be called an official meeting but it has been 
 called by the members of the council who represent the city in an 
 official way, and if there is anything that we can do towards bring- 
 ing about a settlement here, why, we want to do it. Of course, 
 if we cannot, why, that is another proposition. 
 
 I feel that in the interests of the men who have gone out of 
 the employment of the street car company, and in the interests 
 of the street car company itself and the whole people of the city 
 of Omaha, that the least we can do as city officials is to do what we 
 can to see if we cannot bring about a settlement. Now then, this is 
 done in a spirit of fairness and I believe it is for the best interests 
 of everybody, and if we do not succeed, why, we at least have done 
 what we thought was best for us to do. 
 
 If we do succeed in accomplishing something that will settle 
 this controversy, then we have done the best we.could. (Applause.) 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I will say that I will be very glad to wait on 
 the mayor at any time that he may see fit to call me. 
 
 MAYOR DAHLMAN: That is very nice. I will make it a 
 quarter past two. 
 
 MR. WATTLES: I have another meeting, but I will postpone 
 it, Mr. Mayor. 
 
 MAYOR DAHLMAN : Then we might make it more convenient. 
 
 MR. WATTLES : I could meet you at half past one. 
 
 MAYOR DAHLMAN: That will do. 
 
 MAYOR DAHLMAN: What time can you gentlemen be here? 
 This is not going to be a meeting where you will be together. This 
 is to be a meeting where I am going to talk with you separately. 
 I want that understood. 
 
 CHAIRMAN BURMESTER: This being understood, then the 
 motion is that we adjourn to meet at the mayor's office at three 
 o'clock. Carried.
 
 110 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 STATE OF NEBRASKA, { 
 COUNTY OF DOUGLAS, j ' 
 
 This is to certify that the foregoing transcript is a true and 
 complete record of the proceedings at the meeting held in the 
 council chamber of the city of Omaha between the hours of ten and 
 twelve on the morning of September 21, 1909, which meeting is 
 more fully described in page one of this transcript. 
 
 I further certify that this transcript contains 65 pages of type- 
 writing, numbered 1 to 65, both inclusive. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name, at 
 Omaha, Nebraska, this 16th day of October, A. D. 1909. 
 
 FRANK J. SUTCLIFFE, 
 
 Shorthand Reporter.
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 TERMS OF RE-EMPLOYMENT SUBMITTED 
 
 It is needless to say that none of the results planned by the 
 city council were obtained through this public meeting. It only 
 served to acquaint those present with the details of the contro- 
 versy. 
 
 At the meeting with the mayor on the afternoon of the same 
 day, the president of the street railway company discussed some 
 of the terms and conditions which he would recommend to the 
 board of directors to be offered to the strikers. On the same 
 afternoon, at a meeting of a committee of three, Messrs. Burmester, 
 Berka and Funkhouser, of the city council, this discussion was 
 continued with no definite results. 
 
 On the following day, Mayor Dahlman called a meeting of 
 the mayors of the five cities involved by the strike. Mayor 
 Frank Koutsky of South Omaha, Mayor Thomas Maloney of Coun- 
 cil Bluffs, Mayor F. S. Tucker of Florence, and Mayor Charles A. 
 Tracy of Benson, met with Mayor Dahlman at his office. By 
 invitation, the president of the street railway company attended 
 this meeting. Again terms and conditions, under which the street 
 railway company would receive back into its employ at least a 
 large percentage of the striking men, were discussed. 
 
 This discussion was continued from day to day during the 
 remainder of the week, and one point after another was agreed 
 upon, between the mayors on the one side and the president of the 
 street railway company on the other. The final question, as to 
 whether or not the men would be allowed to return to the service 
 of the company and retain their membership in the union, was left 
 to be determined at a meeting between the mayors, the officers 
 and directors of the street railway company, and the committee 
 before mentioned from the city council, to be held at four o'clock 
 on Sunday afternoon, September 26th, at the office of the street 
 railway company. 
 
 At this meeting, the terms and conditions which the officers 
 and directors of the street railway company were willing to concede 
 
 (in)
 
 112 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 were fully discussed. All of these terms had been tentatively 
 agreed to between the president of the street railway company and 
 the mayors of the five cities at the previous meetings, except the 
 proposition concerning the union. The proposition outlined by 
 the street railway officials was as follows: 
 
 "6. We cannot peaceably conduct our affairs with part of 
 our employes union and the remainder non-union. This plan of 
 operation has been tried for seven years, and has now resulted in 
 this strike, in spite of all our efforts to prevent it. At the meeting 
 with the committee of the union, on September 15, 1909, the presi- 
 dent of the company positively told the committee that, if under 
 the existing conditions the union men quit the employ of the com- 
 pany, never again would a union man be employed by the com- 
 pany. Notwithstanding this, the union called this strike, thereby 
 subjecting the public to greatest inconvenience, and both the 
 public and this company to enormous loss. We cannot permit such 
 conditions to again arise, and have, therefore, decided to employ 
 only those who are willing to work on a non-union basis. " 
 
 To this proposition there was dissension by all the mayors and 
 by every member of the committee of the council, as well as by 
 several business men who were present. The officers and directors 
 of the company were strongly urged by all present to modify this 
 condition, so that the striking employes might return to the service 
 of the company without humiliation, and without the surrender of 
 their union affiliations. 
 
 After a thorough discussion of the subject, the street railway 
 officials finally agreed to eliminate this paragraph and insert in 
 lieu thereof paragraphs 6 and 7. After this change had been agreed 
 upon, the proposition was signed by the president of the street 
 railway company and its directors, and was recommended for the 
 acceptance of the men by the mayors and the committee of the 
 council. On the following morning, Monday, September 27th, it 
 was published in all the daily newspapers in Omaha and Council 
 Bluffs, and was posted in all the company's car barns. This 
 proposition in full as published was as follows: 
 
 PROPOSITION MADE BY STREET RAILWAY COMPANY. 
 
 "TO THE FORMER EMPLOYES OF THE OMAHA & COUN- 
 CIL BLUFFS STREET RAILWAY COMPANY: 
 " You are hereby notified that on or before Tuesday noon, 
 September 28, 1909, meritorious employes, including at least 90
 
 TERMS OF RE-EMPLOYMENT SUBMITTED 113 
 
 per cent of those who are now out on a strike, will be received back 
 into the employ of the company at the same wages which each 
 was receiving at the date he quit our employ, subject to the senior- 
 ity rights which have been acquired by those employes who have 
 remained in the service of the company and those who have been 
 employed for permanent service since September 17,1 909. Former 
 employes who fail to report for duty on or before the date above 
 mentioned will lose all of their rights hereunder and their positions 
 will be filled by the company with others who are seeking to obtain 
 them. 
 
 "Those who re-enter the employ of this company will do so 
 under the following terms and conditions: 
 
 " 1. It will be the policy of this company in the 
 future as in the past to pay its employes as good or better 
 wages as similar employes receive in other cities where 
 like conditions prevail to those in this community. An 
 increase of pay, which will amount to at least one cent per 
 hour, will be made as soon as the financial condition of 
 the company will justify, and, if the strike ends at this 
 time, within one year from this date. 
 
 " 2. This company will keep in its employ a sufficient 
 number of extra men, so that regular employes may lay 
 off in time of sickness or for other purposes, on reason- 
 able notice to the company. 
 
 " 3. A careful revision of the schedules will be made 
 within sixty days and the present features, which have 
 been objected to, will be eliminated so far as possible. 
 
 "4. In the event any employe of this company is 
 dissatisfied with the treatment he receives from under- 
 officials, he shall have the right to appeal to the general 
 manager or the president, or the board of directors, and 
 have the case reviewed without prejudice. 
 
 "5. All motormen and conductors, when called 
 upon to take out extras, will be paid from the time they 
 report for duty until they are relieved. 
 
 "6. This company will make no contract with, nor 
 recognize, nor deal with any union among its employes. 
 It will deal with all its employes alike as individuals. 
 
 " 7. The future policy of the company in the employ- 
 ment of new men will be to employ only such as will 
 agree to work on a non-union basis. 
 
 " OMAHA & COUNCIL BLUFFS STREET RAILWAY CO., 
 By G. W. WATTLES, President. 
 
 F. T. HAMILTON, L. F. CROFOOT, 
 
 W. V. MORSE, K. C. BARTON, 
 
 C. R. TYLER, W. A. SMITH, 
 
 Directors.
 
 114 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 " The above proposition by the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street 
 Railway company is the result of protracted negotiations, and we 
 recommend it to the employes for their acceptance. 
 
 JAMES C. DAHLMAN, Mayor of Omaha. 
 
 FRANK KOUTSKY, Mayor of South Omaha. 
 
 THOS. MALONEY, Mayor of Council Bluffs. 
 
 F. S. TUCKER, Mayor of Florence. 
 
 CHAS. A. TRACY, Mayor of Benson. 
 
 LOUIS BURMESTER, 
 M. F. FUNKHOUSER, 
 
 Louis BERKA, 
 Committee of City Council of Omaha." 
 
 It afterwards transpired that Mayor Dahlman had consulted 
 Mr. C. O. Pratt, the strike leader, during the progress of the negotia- 
 tions on the proposition, and that he had expressed no objections 
 to the terms as finally announced, although Mr. Pratt afterwards 
 stated he had not agreed to anything, except to arbitrate all the 
 questions involved. 
 
 As a matter of fact, no action was taken by the union as a 
 body on this proposition of the street railway company. The 
 claim was made that no official copy of these terms had been served 
 on the officers of the union, and Mr. Pratt was quoted in the news- 
 papers as follows: " We have received no statement of terms from 
 the company to the proposition and no answer to my last communi- 
 cation, and therefore can do nothing." 
 
 Numerous other objections were raised, but the men them- 
 selves were not given the opportunity to vote one way or the other 
 on the question of whether or not they were willing to return to 
 work on the terms announced. A committee of the union pub- 
 lished a signed statement in the newspapers regarding the propo- 
 sition of settlement, as follows: 
 
 CAR MEN'S STATEMENT. 
 
 DEALS WITH THE PROPOSITION MADE BY THE STREET 
 RAILWAY COMPANY. 
 
 " The locked out union street car men desire that the general 
 public should know of the unfair treatment that is being accorded 
 them by the street railway company and how far-reaching their 
 influence goes in an effort to place us in the wrong light. 
 
 " We have always stood ready for fair and impartial arbitra- 
 tion of our grievances, the men to all return to work immediately.
 
 TERMS OF RE-EMPLOYMENT SUBMITTED 115 
 
 "On last Thursday the five mayors representing Omaha, 
 South Omaha, Council Bluffs, Benson and Florence met our repre- 
 sentatives and agreed to try and obtain a satisfactory settlement 
 for us with the company or insist upon arbitration. Their efforts 
 on Thursday failed of any satisfactory results, and they agreed 
 to meet the company's representatives again on Friday. The 
 efforts of Friday proved as fruitless as those of the day before. 
 They then said they would meet the company's representatives 
 again on Saturday and make a further effort. On Saturday there 
 was nothing accomplished that was indicative of favorable results. 
 The mayors told us that they were to meet with President Wattles, 
 the board of directors of the company and a committee from the 
 city council at three o'clock Sunday afternoon, and that they 
 would give us a definite answer at that time. With this assurance 
 we called a meeting of the locked-out carmen at the Labor Temple 
 for Sunday night at eight o'clock, to receive and act upon any 
 propositions that the mayors might have to submit back to us. 
 
 " On Sunday afternoon at their meeting, according to published 
 statements, a committee from the Business Men's Association 
 were invited to be present and participate in the deliberations. 
 It will be noticeable that labor's interests were entirely ignored. 
 The decision arrived at during this conference was placed in a 
 sealed envelope to be opened at ten o'clock on Sunday night for 
 the benefit of the newspaper men, with the understanding that no 
 special extras should be put out upon the street. Why were the 
 car men who were waiting at the meeting hall, for the purpose 
 of learning the results of this conference, entirely ignored? There 
 must be something radically wrong when a committee of this kind 
 will purposely withhold important information of this nature from 
 the men who were directly involved in the controversy, and who had 
 marched long miles to be present at their meeting hall, and were 
 anxiously waiting to co-operate in the interest of peace and in 
 restoring normal street car service in the city of Omaha. 
 
 "Up to the present moment not a word has been received 
 from the mayors, city council or the street car company by 
 the locked-out car men, advising them of any proposals for their 
 consideration. The men waited all day at their meeting hall again 
 on Monday for some word to be sent to them for their consideration. 
 A letter was sent to Mr. Wattles Monday forenoon urging that he 
 appear before his employes and give them any assurances that his 
 company were willing to make, if they would return to work. Not 
 as much as a reply has been received from him. 
 
 "In the newspapers we have read a statement of what the 
 company and the mayors have had to say. We feel that Mr. Wat- 
 tles' statements need no reply from us. The public can read 
 and understand his position. It fully bears out every claim that 
 we have made against the company. It even deprives us of rights 
 that we have previously enjoyed. It is clearly an insult, not only to
 
 116 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 the carmen, but to every patron who rides upon the street cars 
 in this city. Mr. Wattles has revealed himself before the public 
 in his true character more forcibly than we could possibly have 
 done. We feel that no right thinking man or woman, regardless 
 of whether they are in sympathy with organized labor or not, 
 would ask us for one moment to give such a proposition serious 
 consideration. 
 
 "The suggestions the company have offered through the 
 newspapers would mean that ten per cent of the men could never 
 be returned to work, and that the ninety per cent would have to 
 return at the foot of the extra list, if Mr. Wattles so desired, under 
 the interpretation of his seniority clause. The seventh clause 
 providing that in the future no man would be given employment 
 unless he obligated himself not to join a 'labor union, is clearly a 
 violation of the law, and surely Mr. Wattles does not want to 
 stand before the public as openly advocating violation of the laws. 
 
 "This company is in a position to pay the increased wage 
 asked for by the men, and no better evidence is needed than to 
 point to the fact that they have been paying imported men five 
 dollars per day, with board and keep, and permitted them to retain 
 the greater portion of the receipts taken in upon the cars. 
 
 " We still stand for arbitration, and urge an immediate settle- 
 ment upon any amicable and honorable basis, but if Mr. Wattles 
 insists that this is a fight to a finish, our fight has only just begun. 
 
 " We ask that all our friends withhold patronage and support 
 from the company until such time as they will recognize the just 
 claims of their former employes. We would also urge that you 
 use every honorable influence to bring about an amicable adjust- 
 ment, not only in our interests, but in the interests of this entire 
 community. 
 
 " We deeply regret that we are forced to continue such an un- 
 pleasant warfare, but this company has left us no other alterna- 
 tive. 
 
 "Thanking our friends for the loyal support that they are 
 giving us, both morally and financially, and assuring you of our 
 sincerest appreciation, we beg to remain, 
 
 WILLIAM H. PONCELOW, H. P. NELSON, 
 W. GILLAN, W. S. BOIEN, 
 
 MICHAEL KENNEY, P. J. LENAHAN, 
 
 E. I. MORROW, CHARLES H. LEAR, 
 
 Committee Representing the Street Car Men. " 
 
 Before the time expired, however, about sixty striking em- 
 ployes returned to the service of the company, and from that 
 time forward, during the succeeding two weeks, about 200 more 
 applied for service, and 167 of them were given positions.
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 LABOR COMMISSIONER'S INVESTIGATION 
 
 On Tuesday forenoon, September 28th, Mr. Will M. Maupin, 
 Deputy State Labor Commissioner, called on the president of the 
 street railway company, and stated that he was investigating the 
 cause of the strike. After asking numerous questions and receiv- 
 ing full information on every phase of the subject, he asked the 
 president to certify a newspaper copy of the terms of settlement 
 offered to the men as being a true copy of the proposition made. 
 This was done. He then stated that he would be very glad to 
 offer his services to, if possible, settle the controversy, and stated 
 that he would rather be the cause of an amicable settlement than 
 to be governor of the State of Nebraska. 
 
 After some discussion, he asked that the time fixed for the 
 men to return to the service of the company be extended, in order 
 to permit him, if possible, to remove any objections to their 
 acceptance of the proposition, or make any modifications necessary 
 to induce them to accept it. He was told that this time had been 
 fixed by the board of directors of the street railway company, and 
 could not under any conditions be extended. He left the office of 
 the president to consult with the strike leaders, and agreed to 
 return with his report at five o'clock P. M. on the same day. He 
 did not again call on the president until about eight o'clock in the 
 evening of the same day, when he called at his residence, and then 
 presented the following, which he stated was the final proposition 
 of the strike leaders: 
 
 " Every man to be reinstated to his former position without 
 prejudice. 
 
 " Wages 26, 27 and 28 cents per hour. 
 
 " Abolition of the swing run system. 
 
 " Men to be protected in their employment, by being permitted 
 to have accredited representatives selected by the employes to 
 take up grievances that may arise from time to time, with the 
 proper officials of the company, for adjustment. 
 
 (117)
 
 118 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 " A provision for arbitrating differences that cannot be ami- 
 cably adjusted between the accredited representatives of the em- 
 ployes and the proper officials of the company, so as to preclude 
 the possibility of further strikes or lockouts. 
 
 "No discrimination to be made against any employe for 
 membership in any organization, and all employes to be protected 
 in their rights to belong to any organization if they so desire. 
 
 "Sufficient extra men to be maintained to permit regular 
 men to lay off duty, at least four days in every month. 
 
 "An agreement embodying the above suggestions to be 
 entered into for a period of one year." 
 
 This proposition was discussed for some time, and in this 
 discussion Mr. Maupin especially insisted on the point that all the 
 strikers should be taken back into the employ of the company 
 without prejudice. The president of the company made it clear 
 to him that this could not be done, as some of these men had en- 
 gaged in acts of violence against the company, and as others had 
 committed offenses which precluded their re-employment by the 
 company. When Mr. Maupin replied that it would be a punish- 
 ment on some of the leaders if they were to lose their positions, 
 which the rank and file of the striking employes would hardly be 
 inclined to impose on them, the president stated that the company 
 had been punished most severely; that the public had been pun- 
 ished by gre'at inconvenience and 1988; and that it would be unrea- 
 sonable to suppose that the strikers would be returned to their 
 positions without any punishment whatever. After some further 
 discussion on the proposition presented, it was rejected by the 
 president of the company, and Mr. Maupin left the city that 
 same evening. 
 
 He afterwards made a report to the governor of Nebraska, 
 which was published. It reads as follows: 
 
 " In the matter of the present strike of the motormen and con- 
 ductors of Omaha, against the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Rail- 
 way company , I have the honor to submit the following report : 
 
 "The present difficulty had its inception some four or five 
 years ago, when the motormen and conductors in the employ 
 of the above named company, perfected an organization to promote 
 their interests. After careful investigation, it appears that there 
 is also in Omaha an organization of business men, whose purpose 
 is to enforce the 'open shop' policy and to refuse to recognize unions 
 of employes. Since the organization of the street railway employes
 
 LABOR COMMISSIONER'S INVESTIGATION 119 
 
 there has been considerable friction, the men asking that their 
 grievances be presented to the company through a committee 
 selected from among their number, and this request being refused 
 when presented. The influence of the organization of business 
 men is very powerful in this business world. The employes of the 
 street railway company declare that the members of their union 
 have been discriminated against. As evidence of this they claim 
 that, of approximately 650 motormen and conductors employed 
 last year, not less than 450 were discharged or forced to resign 
 because of this alleged discrimination. 
 
 " About six weeks ago the employes appointed a committee 
 to wait upon President Wattles, of the company, with a statement 
 of what they wanted. 
 
 " President Wattles refused to agree to any of these requests. 
 A number of conferences were held between the committee repre- 
 senting the employes and President Wattles. To the demands 
 of the men, he offered to increase wages as soon as the financial 
 condition of the company permitted, and to increase them one 
 cent an hour inside of one year. President Wattles refused to 
 recognize a grievance committee representing the union, or to con- 
 sent to arbitration of grievances. He stated that there was no 
 need of a committee, and no necessity to make provision for 
 arbitration. 
 
 " As before stated, several conferences were held between 
 the employes and President Wattles, but without avail, and then 
 the union sent for two of its international officers. These officers 
 arrived and assumed the duty of trying to reach an agreement. 
 President Wattles agreed to meet Chairman Pratt before a meeting 
 of the executive committee of the Business Men's Association. 
 Mr. Pratt told what the men wanted, and Mr. Wattles told what 
 he was willing to write and send to each individual employe. Mr. 
 Pratt took President Wattles' statement back to the employes 
 and submitted it without comment. The employes thereupon 
 decided to strike, and the strike began on Saturday morning, 
 September 18. 
 
 "President Wattles insisted that the company was plunged 
 into this strike without notice, and taken unawares. The striking 
 employes claim that before the strike was twelve hours old pro- 
 fessional strike-breakers, many of them armed, were being imported 
 into the state and used to man the cars. 
 
 "The Monday following the strike, I went to Omaha with a 
 view to acquainting myself with the facts. Before making any 
 effort to seek an adjustment of the difficulty, I thought it best to 
 await the result of efforts being put forth by Omaha parties. A 
 councilmanic hearing was held, at which President Wattles and 
 the committee from the striking employes aired their grievances. 
 Nothing resulted. A little later the mayors of Omaha, South 
 Omaha, Florence, Benson and Council Bluffs undertook to reach
 
 120 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 a settlement. They met from day to day, and finally, on Sunday 
 afternoon, September 26th, they evolved a plan of settlement 
 which was endorsed by President Wattles. This, however, was 
 not officially presented to the striking employes, but was put 
 into sealed envelopes, and given to the daily newspapers with the 
 understanding that the envelopes were not to be opened until 
 ten o'clock that night, and no extras issued. Up to Tuesday, 
 September 28, the striking employes had no official knowledge 
 of this, and then I was empowered by President Wattles to present 
 it to them, which I did. The men refused to accept any plan 
 of settlement that would deprive them of the right to join any 
 lawful organization or society that might appeal to them. 
 
 "On Monday, September 27, I proceeded again to Omaha 
 for the purpose of using my best efforts to adjust the differences 
 between the striking employes and the company. I first sought 
 to ascertain what the men wanted, and after having informed 
 myself as to that, I proceeded to confer with President Wattles. 
 President Wattles met me fairly and frankly and we went over the 
 situation thoroughly. Upon the main contentions of the men he 
 would not concede anything. He refused to deal with a committee 
 of the employes, after the question of the union had been eliminated 
 from the discussion. He refused to submit any point of difference 
 whatever to arbitration. Finally, he declared against employ- 
 ment in the future of any man who would not agree to remain 
 outside of any union of street railway men. He did agree to take 
 back ninety per cent of the striking employes, but under no 
 consideration would he agree to taking them all back. He also 
 declared to me that it was his intention, and the intention of the 
 executive committee of the company, to 'punish somebody' for call- 
 ing this strike. The employes would not listen to a proposition 
 of settlement based upon the possible punishment of the men who 
 had transacted their business for them. It was upon this that the 
 final split came. President Wattles insisted that only ninety per 
 cent of the strikers would be re-employed. I suggested to the 
 men that they agree that in case all were taken back the company 
 might consider individual cases on their merits, and, if it had a 
 grievance against any man because of his connection with the 
 strike, the case should be fairly and impartially arbitrated by a 
 committee composed of three men, consisting of one from the 
 company, one from the men, and yourself, acting in your official 
 capacity as the commissioner of labor. The men agreed to this, 
 but President Wattles refused. 
 
 " With this I ceased all efforts to reconcile the parties to the 
 controversy, feeling that I had exhausted every means at my 
 command. 
 
 " With some experience in labor strikes and industrial disputes, 
 I am compelled to say that the present strike in Omaha has been 
 conducted with less disorder than any strike of a similar nature
 
 LABOR COMMISSIONER'S INVESTIGATION 121 
 
 within my experience. The strikers are conducting themselves 
 in a most orderly manner. True, there has been some disorder, 
 but it has been caused by foolish sympathizers of the strikers. 
 
 " It appears to me, your excellency, after a careful investiga- 
 tion of the causes leading to this strike, and a faithful effort to 
 bring it to an end, that an impartial investigation should be had 
 under the provisions of the statutes. This, I believe, should be 
 done for the purpose of making a permanent record, if for no other 
 reason. Business is suffering, men are suffering, the general 
 public is suffering. I believe this whole matter could have been 
 settled without a strike. The striking employes say that they 
 have at all times been willing to submit every point of dispute 
 to arbitration, and to return to work in a body if assured of a fair 
 and impartial arbitration of the points mentioned. President 
 Wattles has so far refused to submit anything whatever to arbitra- 
 tion. "
 
 Chapter XL 
 
 THE BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION 
 
 It is proper at this time to state the part in the strike which 
 the Omaha Business Men's Association had taken from the begin- 
 ning. This organization was effected as a protective organization 
 against unreasonable demands from labor unions in 1903, when the 
 city and many of its industries were paralyzed by numerous strikes 
 that had been called, and by others that were threatened. At 
 the time of its organization nearly every business man of any 
 importance in the city of Omaha became a member. Its purposes 
 and principles were declared in the following language: 
 
 "Declaration of Principles adopted April 20, 1903. 
 
 "This organization is known as the Business Men's Associa- 
 tion and its purpose is purely defensive, and made necessary, as it 
 has been thought by the various corporations, firms and individuals 
 identified with it, by the apparent determination upon the part 
 of the labor organizations of the city to either control or ruin every 
 business enterprise. The great object of the association is to 
 protect its members in their rights to manage their respective 
 businesses in such lawful manner as they may deem proper and 
 expedient, employing such help as seems best adapted to their 
 purposes, under such contract as is mutually satisfactory to the 
 parties concerned, and not to antagonize any individual or 
 organization. 
 
 " It is the further purpose of the organization to maintain the 
 principle that every man has certain inalienable rights, one 
 of which is to seek and obtain employment upon such terms as 
 his services warrant, in order that he may support himself and those 
 dependent upon him. The organization is composed of the prin- 
 cipal business institutions of the city, is thoroughly and completely 
 organized, and will act as an organization in defending the rights 
 of its individual members, should occasion require. The organ- 
 ization seeks no fight with organized labor in any form, so long 
 as its own rights are not interfered with.
 
 BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION 123 
 
 " Its position is that while organized labor has the undoubted 
 right to become associated together for any lawful purpose, yet 
 when it becomes a breaker of the law by resorting to intimidation; 
 threats or personal violence, the picketing and boycotting of 
 persons and firms who are unwilling to submit to its dictation; 
 when it becomes an obstruction to commerce by interfering with 
 the lawful pursuits of individuals or firms; or when it takes upon 
 itself the duty of chastising persons who are seeking to make an 
 honest living in such manner as seems best; that it then becomes 
 an unlawful, illegal and unpatriotic combination of men who must 
 be met with whatever organization and force is necessary, in order 
 that the principle of this government may be maintained, which 
 guarantees to all individuals life, liberty and an opportunity to 
 secure the means of subsistence in such manner as they may 
 elect." 
 
 The effective work done by this association in preventing 
 strikes, and in settling those that have been declared, has had much 
 to do with the industrial progress of this city from the date of the 
 organization of the association down to the present. Contrary 
 to the general belief among union men, the association is not 
 opposed to unions as such, but stands for the open shop. 
 
 Before the strike was called, the president of the street rail- 
 way company appeared before the executive committee of the 
 Business Men's Association, with Mr. C. O. Pratt, the strike leader, 
 and both sides of the controversy were stated fully to this com- 
 mittee. After hearing these statements, and questioning Mr. 
 Pratt carefully and closely regarding the demands of the union, 
 the executive committee voted unanimously in his presence, 
 endorsing the position taken by the street railway officials in refus- 
 ing to enter into a contract with the union. It was at this meeting 
 that the president of the street railway company offered to make 
 substantial concessions in writing to the employes, and address 
 the communication to each employe individually, which offer was 
 refused by Mr. Pratt. 
 
 Immediately after the strike was called, a general meeting of 
 all the members of the Business Men's Association was called to be 
 held in the Commercial Club rooms, at four o'clock Sunday after- 
 noon, September 19th. At this meeting the matters in contro-
 
 124 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 versy were again discussed and explained, and at this meeting the 
 position taken by the street railway officials was again unanimously 
 endorsed by the full membership present. 
 
 The number of business men present at this meeting was about 
 260.
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 EFFORTS TO SETTLE THE STRIKE 
 
 The time having expired for the men to return to work, under 
 the terms proposed by the company and endorsed by the mayors 
 and committee of the council, and the company's proposition not 
 having been accepted officially by the union, a number of business 
 men, whose trade had been seriously affected by the strike, and who 
 looked forward to a greater loss of trade during the Ak-Sar-Ben 
 celebration, September 29th to October 9th, became alarmed over 
 the situation. 
 
 On Tuesday, September 28th, an editorial appeared in the 
 Omaha Bee, as follows: 
 
 TIME TO ARBITRATE. 
 
 "Will 200,000 people dependent upon adequate street rail- 
 way service sit idly by while a disastrous street car strike is fought 
 out through mere stubbornness of employer and employes? 
 
 " Will the business men of three cities simply look on while 
 a paralyzed street car service destroys their business and inflicts 
 irreparable injury upon the good name and standing of the com- 
 munity? 
 
 "Will Ak-Sar-Ben permit without a word of protest the 
 heavy labor of a year and the outlay of $50,000 in preparation for 
 the fall festival, upon whose eve we have arrived, to go for naught 
 because the people for whose entertainment all was planned can- 
 not come? 
 
 " If considerations of business have no weight, will we without 
 an effort at adjustment suffer helpless women and children to 
 undergo the physical exhaustion of compulsory walking, or the 
 exposure to injury from overcrowding or violence if they attempt 
 to ride? 
 
 "Will we wait for bloodshed and loss of life before we act, 
 or will we call a halt on street car company and strikers alike and 
 insist that the public has some rights which both are bound to 
 respect? 
 
 "The Bee believes the time has come to arbitrate. 
 
 " As the conference of mayors has flunked, only one way seems 
 to us to remain to save the situation in time to prevent still more 
 damaging results. 
 
 (12*)
 
 126 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 "The street car company, and the strikers, should be com 
 polled to submit to arbitration of disinterested third parties. 
 
 " Let an arbitration board be chosen acceptable to both sides. 
 
 " Refer to this board all questions at issue on these conditions : 
 
 "1. All the strikers to go back to work at once. 
 
 "2. AH the strike-breakers to be sent back whence they came 
 at once. 
 
 "3. No employe to be dismissed or harassed because he belongs 
 to a union. 
 
 "4. No employe to be dismissed or harassed because he 
 refuses to join a union. 
 
 "5. The award to cover everything in controversy regarding 
 wages, hours and runs, and so far as it may affect wages to date 
 back to the day the men return to work. 
 
 " Let the arbitration board be charged with making a thorough 
 investigation of conditions of street railway service, hear the 
 grievances of the men, consider the interests of the company and, 
 after full hearing, bring in its findings without undue delay. 
 
 "The chief obstacle in the way of this plan is to secure the 
 arbitration board. As we have no law providing us with such a 
 board ready-made, one must be improvised by mutual agreement. 
 
 " For a starting point The Bee has hastily compiled the names 
 of forty representative business and professional men, who, although 
 not consulted, could, we believe, if they would, act fairly as 
 arbitrators : 
 
 10 RETAILERS. 10 WHOLESALERS. 
 
 ROBERT COWELL Z. T. LINDSAY 
 
 C. M. WlLHELM C. H. PlCKENS 
 
 JOSEPH HAYDEN DAVID COLE 
 
 O. E. BERG T. C. BYRNE 
 
 HENRY ROSENTHAL N. SPIESBERGER 
 
 CHAS. R. SHERMAN W. L. YETTER 
 
 MORRIS LEVY GEORGE COTT 
 
 JOSEPH FRENZER W. C. BULLARD 
 
 R. S. WILCOX E. M. ANDREESEN 
 
 HERBERT M. ROGERS B. F. MARSHALL 
 
 5 LAWYERS. 5 CLERGYMEN. 
 
 JOHN L. KENNEDY C. W. SAVIDGE 
 
 C. J. SMYTH F. L. LOVELAND 
 
 A. W. JEFFERIS FREDERICK COHN 
 
 A. C. WAKELEY FATHER McGovERN 
 
 F. A. BROGAN E. H. JENKS 
 
 5 PHYSICIANS. 5 REAL ESTATE, 
 
 ROBERT GILMORE A. C. KENNEDY 
 
 HAROLD GIFFORD G. W. MORTON 
 
 F. A. WEARNE A. L. REED 
 
 R. S. ANGLIN BYRON R. HASTINGS 
 
 J. B. RALPH G. N. HICKS
 
 EFFORTS TO SETTLE THE STRIKE 127 
 
 "From these names the strikers ought to be able to select 
 twenty who would be acceptable to them. 
 
 "From the twenty thus chosen by the strikers the street rail- 
 way people ought to be able to select five who would not be objec- 
 tionable to them. 
 
 " The five thus selected would owe it, as a patriotic duty to 
 the community, to accept the grave responsibilities and take up 
 the task as soon as the men returned to work. 
 
 "With the backing and support of the whole community, 
 which it would have, such an arbitration board would be in position 
 to enforce its findings, and not only put an end to the present strike, 
 but prevent recurrence. 
 
 " Here is a feasible way to get down to business. 
 
 " It is time to arbitrate. " 
 
 This editorial was no doubt endorsed, if not inspired, by a 
 number of merchants who saw serious losses ahead of them, if the 
 strike continued. 
 
 It was with some surprise that the street railway officials 
 learned that some of the leading merchants of the city were endors- 
 ing the demand for arbitration. A meeting of the leading mer- 
 chants of the city was therefore called at the office of the president 
 of the street railway company, on the afternoon of September 29th. 
 This meeting was attended by about thirty-five of these merchants, 
 and the position in which the company had been placed by this 
 demand for arbitration was thoroughly discussed. 
 
 It was explained at this meeting that, whereas the strike had 
 been called for the purpose of forcing the street railway company 
 to recognize the union and enter into a contract with it, this demand 
 had been abandoned, and now, as the first step to arbitrate, the 
 demand was made that all the strikers be reinstated in their former 
 positions .without prejudice; that immediately after the strike was 
 called the officials of the company had been asked by the non-union 
 men, who did not leave its employ, whether or not, under the rule 
 of seniority of service which had always been in force, they were 
 not entitled to the promotion in seniority which gave them choice 
 of runs over all who had quit the service; that the men were told 
 that this rule entitled them to such preference, and many of them 
 had remained in the service during the trying ordeal of the strike, 
 with the express understanding and with the knowledge that they 
 were to have the runs abandoned by those who went on a strike; 
 that now to reinstate the strikers in their old places would be an 
 act of bad faith on the part of the street railway officials, which
 
 128 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 would involve the rights of the non-union employes in a manner that 
 they had no right to do. 
 
 These business men were further told at this meeting that any 
 talk of arbitration was prolonging the strike, and increasing the 
 difficulties the street railway officials were obliged to surmount 
 in order to end it. It was made plain to these merchants that there 
 are questions which honorable men cannot afford to arbitrate, 
 and that some of these questions were involved in the 'present 
 situation; that no man could arbitrate whether or not he would 
 keep his promises and agreements with third parties; and that 
 under no condition would the street railway company consent to 
 arbitrate the questions involved in this strike; and that to continue 
 the discussion and agitation for arbitration was only to prolong the 
 losses of the company, as well as those of the merchants of the 
 city. 
 
 After this meeting there was no further talk of arbitration. 
 
 The Board of Governors of the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben held a 
 conference with the board of directors of the street railway com- 
 pany, at which they proposed a truce during the Ak-Sar-Ben cele- 
 bration. They stated that they would endeavor to have the 
 strikers return to work during this period, and let the fight be taken 
 up again after the celebration. This seemed impractical to the 
 directors, and the suggestion was discarded by them, although 
 the strike leaders agreed to adopt it, provided that all men should 
 be reinstated, and that the company should agree to arbitrate 
 any differences that might be found to exist at the close of the 
 truce. 
 
 This ended all efforts to compromise the controversy by arbi- 
 tration or otherwise, except that some of the striking employes, 
 with a committee of labor union leaders, called on the president 
 of the company on October 6th, to talk over the situation. Some 
 misunderstanding regarding this verbal conference resulted, and at 
 a second meeting a written memorandum was given the committee 
 by the president of the company, to the effect that the men would 
 not be received back into the employ of the company except on a 
 non-union basis, and that the rule of seniority of service would 
 not be changed. No action was taken by the union as a result of 
 this meeting. 
 
 From that time forward all business men and interested par- 
 ties settled down to the conviction that the strike must be fought
 
 EFFORTS TO SETTLE THE STRIKE 129 
 
 out to a finish. A large number of old employes having returned 
 to the service and many new men having been employed, the 
 strike-breakers were returned to their homes by train loads, so that 
 by October 13th, all of these strike-breaking crews, except a few 
 men who had shown themselves honest and proficient, and had 
 expressed a desire to remain in the permanent employ of the com- 
 pany, had been returned whence they came. 
 
 Normal conditions were speedily restored. Rioting and 
 assaults ceased, except in a few desultory attempts to injure the 
 property of the street railway company. The practice of hanging 
 rocks or heavy irons attached to a short rope from the trolley wires 
 in dark places, so arranged that the rock would strike the front 
 vestibule of the cars about on the level with the motorman's head, 
 became quite frequent, and several operatives were seriously 
 injured by this inhuman method of attack. A reward of $500, 
 offered by the company, for the arrest and conviction of any per- 
 sons guilty of this or similar acts, put a stop to this practice, and 
 very soon the fear of assault among employes passed. 
 
 Regular service on all lines was so completely restored by 
 Monday, October 4th, that the crowds attending the Ak-Sar-Ben 
 festivities during the week were taken care of in an efficient and 
 satisfactory manner. The business of the community resumed its 
 normal conditions. The fear of the merchants that their trade 
 would be seriously crippled during this week proved to be 
 unfounded. The Ak-Sar-Ben festival was a success and not a 
 failure, as had been prophesied and feared by the Board of Gov- 
 ernors.
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 
 ATTEMPTS TO PUNISH BY LEGISLATION 
 
 The strike leaders now began a new line of attack. Through 
 their influence, ordinances were introduced before the city council 
 calling for a reduction of the fares of the company. One ordinance 
 provided for the sale of eight tickets for 25 cents during certain 
 hours, another one for the sale of six tickets for 25 cents during 
 all hours to adults, and twelve tickets for 25 cents to children. 
 Mr. C. O. Pratt, as reported in the newspapers, announced glee- 
 fully that the " strike has only just begun, and the street railway 
 have not yet begun to awaken to what is going to happen to them 
 before we are through with them." 
 
 An ordinance was introduced and passed by the city council, 
 over the veto of Mayor Dahlman, which provided for the licensing 
 of motormen on street cars. In addition to the payment of one 
 dollar license fee to the city, it required motormen to be trained 
 for two weeks by men who had been in the employ of the company 
 for three years, before they could become qualified to operate cars 
 in the city of Omaha. This ordinance was intended to prohibit 
 the operation of cars by strike-breakers, and in effect would pre- 
 vent the street railway company from operating any cars on the 
 streets in case of a strike, by other than its old employes. The 
 ordinance was so clearly in the interest of union strikers, and so 
 flagrantly exceeded the authority of the city council to regulate 
 the street railway service under the laws of the state, that the 
 company at once brought injunction proceedings in the courts 
 enjoining its enforcement, and announced the intention of contest- 
 ing the legality of this or any other ordinance, that might be passed 
 for the purpose of punishing the company for the position it had 
 taken in connection with the strike. 
 
 Petitions calling for a referendum vote, on the question of six 
 tickets for 25 cents, were circulated, and signed by a large number 
 of people. These petitions were finally filed with the city clerk, 
 to await the action of the city council on the ordinances intro- 
 duced on this same subject. 
 
 (130)
 
 ATTEMPTS TO PUNISH BY LEGISLATION 131 
 
 A petition was filed with the State Railway Commission by 
 three citizens of Omaha, asking the commission to ascertain the 
 physical value of the property of the company, to reduce its fares, 
 and for other and further relief. 
 
 In these numerous attacks on the street railway company, 
 a desired opportunity was afforded to many politicians, who 
 believed this to be the psychological moment for them to secure 
 popular favor by promoting the cause of the strikers. 
 
 A petition signed by more than 1,200 of the leading business 
 men of the city, protesting against the passage of the ordinances 
 to reduce the fares of the company, and the appearance before the 
 city council of some of the leading business men of the city to voice 
 their protest against the proposed action, brought about a change 
 of sentiment in this regard. The general consensus of opinion of 
 the property owners of the community seemed to be, that it was 
 better service and extension of lines that this growing city needed, 
 rather than cheaper fares, and that this was no time to seek to 
 punish the street railway company for fighting a strike that had 
 been forced upon it. 
 
 The ordinance was indefinitely postponed by a vote of eight 
 to four. 
 
 The city attorney rendered an opinion that the referendum had 
 never been legally adopted by this city, so the petitions went for 
 naught. 
 
 The strikers continued to issue threats against the company. 
 These threats now took the form of legal and legislative rather 
 than physical attacks. On the evening of October 3rd, Mr. Pratt 
 left the city to attend the national convention of the Amalgamated 
 Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes of America. 
 He returned only for a few days after the convention had closed, 
 and during these few days he was sick and confined to his hotel. 
 His statements, however, went out through the press that, from 
 now on, the attacks against the company were to be along the lines 
 of demands for reduction of fares, attacking the franchise of the 
 corporation and by other means, which, he promised, in due time 
 would destroy the street railway company. 
 
 A short time thereafter, Mr. W. D. Mahon, president of the 
 Amalgamated Association, visited Omaha, and in a speech at Wash- 
 ington hall is reported to have said that relief for the street railway 
 strikers must come through their activity in political matters;
 
 132 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 that both the Republican and Democratic parties were corrupt and 
 not in sympathy with the laboring men, and that they must find 
 this relief in an independent party or through the Socialist party. 
 He announced that the future plan of warfare against the street 
 railway company would be by legislative and legal measures, that 
 would be brought by the strikers to harass and annoy the street 
 railway management. 
 
 The labor unions of Omaha had been led to believe that from 
 Mr. Mahon some practical suggestions would be received. He was 
 advertised as a man of broad business capacity, who was able to 
 see a situation as it existed, and deal with it accordingly. Much 
 disappointment was expressed, among all classes of laboring men. 
 when it became known that he had failed to comprehend the 
 situation here, or give any practical advice to the much-deluded 
 strikers, who had lost their positions by following the advice of 
 the under-officials of the Amalgamated Association. 
 
 Mr. Ben Commons, the first of the national officers to come to 
 Omaha, remained in charge of the situation until December 1st, 
 when he departed. One of the principal newspapers, in announc- 
 ing his departure, quoted him as follows: "The strikers are now 
 being well cared for by regular strike benefits, from not only the 
 international organization but from contributions of the other local 
 unions in addition, and it being the policy of the organization to 
 carry on its fights to the finish, the strikers are in position to wait 
 until it is done through an attack on the company's franchise. " 
 
 It would seem, from the statements of these national officers, 
 that, because of their failure to force the street railway company 
 to sign a contract with the union, after a disastrous strike had been 
 fought out under their advice and leadership, if their threats can 
 be carried out by them, the people of this community are to be 
 inflicted with a further conflict, which, if successful, would greatly 
 impair the service of the street railway system, would retard its 
 expansion, and prevent the fruition of its plans for a better service 
 to the public and an increase of wages to its employes. It remains 
 to be seen whether or not this community is to be so afflicted in its 
 future development, through the vindictive plans laid by these 
 non-resident agitators, who have no interest whatever in the future 
 welfare of the cities served by the corporation they seek to harass 
 and destroy.
 
 ATTEMPTS TO PUNISH BY LEGISLATION 133 
 
 The energies of the strikers during the fall campaign were 
 directed to defeat Sheriff Brailey, who had made himself obnoxious 
 to them by breaking up one of their open air meetings during the 
 strike. The Socialist candidate, Mr. E. I. Morrow, was a striking 
 street railway conductor, and every striking union man and the 
 unions generally endorsed his candidacy and sought his election. 
 The result of the ballot showed that Mr. Brailey had been elected 
 by about 3,000 majority, and that while Mr. Morrow had polled 
 several thousand votes more than the regular Socialist ticket, 
 yet he was third in the race, having received less votes than either 
 the Republican or Democratic nominees.
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 
 THE STRIKE-MAKER 
 
 On Sunday, September 26th, an article, and an interview with 
 Mr. C. O. Pratt, was published in the Omaha Daily News, under the 
 head "The Strike-Maker Pratt". This article in full was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " Who is this man C. O. Pratt who came to Omaha and started 
 this street car strike?" 
 
 First President Wattles of the street railway company asked 
 the question, and then the echo was heard from thousands of dis- 
 gruntled citizens as they have hiked back and forth. Some drew 
 their own conclusions and called him a mere "agitator," while 
 others were so harsh as to dub him an " anarchist. " 
 
 Pratt is simply a professional strike-maker, and about the only 
 real type in existence. He admits that strike-making is his 
 business. 
 
 "A strike is a final resort," he says. "First is conciliation; 
 second, arbitration; third, the strike, and strike hard when you 
 strike and strike to win. If you have to fight, give 'em the best 
 fight you have in the shop. " 
 
 This man Pratt came to Omaha about two weeks ago and 
 wthin a few days the strike was precipitated, but with the diplo- 
 macy that has made his business a profession he now cheerfully 
 denies that he ordered it and the strikers agree. The strikers to 
 a man say they voted for the strike themselves. 
 
 It is this remarkable power that he has that makes him success- 
 ful in his business. When everything has been said and done, 
 Pratt does not stand as "the agitator" in the eyes of his "boys," 
 yet he is a fighter. His features betray the fighter. Every line 
 in his face reveals a spirit of determination. His black eyes flash 
 defiance, when he is defiant; they sparkle kindly in his peaceful 
 moods. Always is he self-composed. 
 
 This strike-maker is not an esthetic figure. He has a face 
 lined and hard like that of the legitimate actor in the cartoon. 
 The muscles of his mouth are over-developed, as those of a con- 
 stant speaker. His expression, his eyes far apart, a frequent 
 protrusion of his lips, suggests the portraits of the late Lawrence 
 Barrett. 
 
 He is a man of medium build, there being nothing to indicate 
 physical strength. He is forty years old and stands about five 
 
 (134)
 
 THE STRIKE-MAKER 135 
 
 feet and ten inches. His waving black hair is slightly tinged with 
 gray and combed nearly in the middle. His clothes are light gray 
 and characterless, from his broad-toed shoes to his red necktie. 
 
 Pratt's first connection with labor was in 1893, when he went 
 to Cleveland and became a motorman on a street car. He remained 
 on this job five years and then was a conductor for a year. When 
 a strike came, Pratt became active. The strike lasted eleven 
 months and the company agreed to reinstate all its old employes 
 but one. 
 
 "Who is he?" asked Pratt. 
 
 " Yourself, sir, " replied the railway official. " You have been 
 too active." 
 
 The young man made no threats about continuing the strike, 
 but looked the official straight in the eyes and said: 
 
 "Very well, sir, leave me out I remain on a strike." 
 
 And he did. Ever since he has been on a strike and has struck 
 hard. Since that day he was locked out in Cleveland he has been 
 in a score of strikes, and it is declared that he has won most of 
 them. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by the Cleveland 
 railway official, Pratt went forth to battle for the cause of conduc- 
 tors and motormen. He attended the national conventions of 
 street railway employes, and is now chairman of the international 
 executive committee of the Amalgamated Association of Street 
 and Electric Railway Employes of America. 
 
 The lot of Pratt as a strike-maker has not been pleasant, and 
 he has been made to earn his little $6 a day and expenses. Numer- 
 ous attempts have been made on his life and in a number of big 
 strikes he has been black-jacked. Also he has been arrested and 
 always is he shadowed by detectives. While in Omaha two detec- 
 tives have been on his heels almost constantly. The two sleuths 
 are known to Pratt, who has played a number of practical jokes 
 on them and takes great delight in "ditching" them several times 
 a day. The sleuths are registered at the Murray hotel as Davis 
 and Jackson, and to a newspaper man admitted that their lay was 
 to shadow the strike-maker. 
 
 Once, in Baltimore, Pratt was dogged continually by a mob 
 of detectives, and was finally landed in jail and the authorities tried 
 to "railroad" him to the penitentiary. Similar tactics were 
 resorted to in the recent Philadelphia strike, which he handled 
 successfully for the carmen, but he escaped even arrest. 
 
 As a professional strike-maker and manager, Pratt's course 
 has dotted the map of the United States. After being locked out 
 at Cleveland he went to Dayton, then to Knoxville, then to Nash- 
 ville, then to Louisville, then to Lexington, then to Terre Haute, 
 then to Aurora, Elgin and Marengo, then to Chicago, then to Butte, 
 Ogden, Salt Lake City, then to San Francisco, then to Philadelphia 
 and now he has Omaha. Besides these places he has a number of 
 other cities and towns in his record. In many instances he has
 
 136 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 been instrumental in averting strikes. He spends his time in 
 traveling from one city to another, but does not always bring 
 about a strike. 
 
 " Where we can get results for the boys without striking I am 
 more than anxious to do so, " he said. " Strikes are usually just 
 as severe on the men themselves as on the companies." 
 
 The honesty of Pratt is never questioned by the union men, 
 who have read in several magazines about his experience in 
 Chicago, where he had a chance to take $5,000 for himself but gave 
 it to the men and showed up the bribers. It was during the 
 struggle at Elgin and Aurora that the incident occurred, according 
 to Pratt and others. A "friend" offered to give him $5,000 for 
 the privilege of naming one of the arbitrators. 
 
 " I told the fellow to meet me in my room with the cash and 
 I then laid the trap to catch the 'higher-ups,' " said Pratt in relat- 
 ing the story. "I bored holes in the wall and had four reliable 
 men stationed within call. When the fellow produced the $5,000 
 I shoved it back and said 'I don't want your $5,000.' That was the 
 signal for the four men to rush in. 
 
 " Of course, the briber disclaimed ownership of the $5,000, so 
 we took it and put it in the strikers' fund. I got the money, but 
 did not get the men higher up." 
 
 Pratt declares that in nearly every controversy offers of 
 bribes are made to him when the companies are put in a hole. He 
 says he could get rich quick if he took all the bribes tendered him, 
 but he would rather take his $6 per day and have a clear conscience. 
 
 " My life work is for the street car men and there's not money 
 enough in the world to buy me off, " he asserted. 
 
 Out in Salt Lake City, Pratt was accused of dragging "the 
 church" into the strike, or dragging the strike into "the church." 
 In fact he admits that he manipulated the trick, as President Joseph 
 Smith of the Mormon church was also president of the railway 
 company. He says after exhausting all other sources, he resorted 
 to the potential influences in the Mormon church, and the result 
 was an adjustment. 
 
 " What are the essential elements of a strike? " was asked Pratt, 
 and he said : 
 
 "Well, you have got to take into consideration the condi- 
 tions and the environments. Often there is a strong entrenchment 
 of power with which you have to deal. There are two essen- 
 tials: It is necessary to get together an army of soldiers who will 
 have confidence in you and who are willing to take advice. Too 
 often petty jealousies interfere and there is a lack of harmony, 
 and success is limited. But build up your own foundation; get 
 the case properly before the people. That is the second essential. 
 It is necessary to select issues that will appeal to the general 
 public, regardless of the question of unionism.
 
 THE STRIKE-MAKER 137 
 
 " Many people do not understand that the trades union 
 movement is established solely for the elevation of the working 
 class, and to obtain for the working men and women more humane 
 treatment. 
 
 "So it is necessary to eliminate that question, and present 
 only such issues as will give evidence of the things for which we 
 are fighting. 
 
 " When I have selected my ground for a fight, I never allow 
 the injection of personalities or other side issues to enter. I fight 
 along a direct line and go after the things I set out to get. Other 
 issues are usually injected for a purpose, usually to divert attention 
 from the real questions at issue, and whatever is said, my sole 
 object is the condition of the men and the things they are after. 
 
 " You must endeavor to obtain all the strong influence that 
 will give you support that will stand behind you. 
 
 " One of the first things I demand from the men is that they 
 refrain from the use of intoxicants, and at all times be peaceful. 
 Loud and profane language or abuse of strike-breakers will not 
 be permitted. We must show the public that we are after peace, 
 and during a struggle must at all times be good citizens. " 
 
 Experience has taught Mr. Pratt all the tricks of the game 
 on both sides, he says. He says he knows just what move will be 
 made next by the railway and knows just how to meet it. The 
 developments in Omaha, he says, have been along the same lines 
 as those in other cities. 
 
 As an example of the moves in a strike he points to Phila- 
 delphia. Usually, he says, there are six steps, which worked out 
 this way in Philadelphia: 
 
 Step 1 The company says, " There is no strike and cars will 
 run just as usual. " 
 
 Step 2 "The strikers will not be taken back, there never 
 will be any arbitration, and the full service is being rapidly 
 restored. " 
 
 Step 3 "There wouldn't be any strike if it wasn't for the 
 Buttinskies that come here from other cities." 
 
 Step 4 "We could settle this whole matter if we had only 
 our old men to deal with." 
 
 Step 5 " We'll settle with our own men. " 
 
 Step 6 "Settlement." 
 
 "This same line of action has practically been followed out 
 in Omaha, with only a few immaterial variations, " said Mr. Pratt 
 Saturday night. " With each move I've made a check on my pro- 
 gram, and now believe settlement probable." 
 
 The home of Mr. Pratt is at Welshfield, O., where he has a 
 wife and three children, the eldest being fourteen years old and 
 the youngest six years old. When he is officiating as father instead 
 of strike-maker he can be found in one of three places in a one- 
 acre field that he devotes to agriculture; in the library, where he
 
 138 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 has an interesting collection of books, or in the yard or somewhere 
 playing with his three children. 
 
 Each night before he goes to bed and that is often at two or 
 three o'clock in the morning he writes a letter to his little family. 
 " My wife is deeply interested in my fight for labor's cause and I 
 keep her posted, " he said. 
 
 But the life business of this professional strike-maker, as he 
 expresses it, is "improving the conditions of the street railway 
 employes of America. " 
 
 " If you want to put it that way, no town is safe, " he said. 
 " That is, no town where the men get less than twenty-five cents 
 an hour. If I can get to a town like that and get any chance to 
 build up a union and a demand for a decent wage scale, I'll be there 
 on the first train. 
 
 " I tell you there is a mighty lot of satisfaction in feeling that 
 maybe you've done something for your fellow man. " 
 
 It should be noted in the foregoing article that one of the 
 essential elements in a strike, as stated by Mr. Pratt, is that "it 
 is necessary to select issues that will appeal to the general public 
 regardless of the question of unionism". It is evident to the care- 
 ful student that this program was followed by him in the Omaha 
 strike. 
 
 While, as a matter of fact, nearly all the material points at 
 issue between the strikers and the company, which the union had 
 any right to expect to have granted, were offered before the strike 
 was commenced, and again during its progress such as an increase 
 of wages within a reasonable time, the employment of sufficient 
 extra men to permit regular employes to have time off, a revision 
 of the schedules to eliminate objectionable features, and the pay- 
 ment for time to motormen and conductors when called upon to 
 take out extras, etc. yet these questions were, at the beginning 
 of the strike, made most prominent by the strikers as the cause of 
 the trouble. In their circular to the public, and in subsequent 
 interviews, these matters were kept in the foreground, while the 
 officials of the street railway company at all times maintained that 
 the strike was called for the sole purpose of forcing the company 
 to recognize the union and enter into a contract with it; contrary 
 to their pledges and agreements with their non-union employes, 
 that they would not at any time enter into a contract with the 
 union; and contrary to the agreement with the officers of the 
 union itself, made when the union was organized, that no such 
 contract would be required.
 
 THE STRIKE-MAKER 130 
 
 In one of Mr. Pratt's many published statements he is 
 quoted as saying, regarding this agreement with the non-union 
 men: "It ought to be broken, for his agreement with them was 
 that he would not make any agreement with the union men. 
 We ask the public to help us force him to break his agreement with 
 the non-union men." But immediately after the strike was 
 called, it became evident that, in this community, no strike could 
 be successful that was waged for the purpose of forcing an 
 employer to enter into a contract with his union employes, that 
 would make it impossible or disagreeable for non-union men to 
 work for this employer, and therefore the principal arguments that 
 were used during the strike were along other lines. 
 
 In a later interview, Mr. Pratt is quoted as follows: "The 
 fact is, the company is making a false issue. We are not asking 
 for a 'closed shop.' The issue is one of bread and butter and hu- 
 mane treatment." However, in his public address before the 
 mayor and city council, he admitted that " the question of wages 
 was not the cause of the strike. " It would seem that in this strike 
 this labor union leader adopted the policy announced in the pub- 
 lished article, entitled "The Strike-Maker Pratt," to arrange 
 such issues as in his judgment would best appeal to the sympathy 
 of the public. 
 
 Although the officers of the Amalgamated Association of Street 
 and Electric Railway Employes of America, who came to Omaha 
 and brought about the strike, at all times claimed that they came 
 here at the urgent request of the employes of the street railway 
 company, this statement has been denied by members of the union, 
 who should have known if any such request for their coming had 
 been made. It is a fact that this Amalgamated Association, with 
 its many officers, vice-presidents, organizers and delegates, is 
 supported, and the salaries of these men are paid, by the income 
 received from the monthly assessments paid into the national 
 treasury by the workingmen who belong to street railway unions. 
 It is evident that the more of these men who belong to these unions, 
 the larger the income of this national association, and the larger 
 the salaries that can be paid to these national officers. 
 
 On account of the increase of the income of the association 
 during the past year, at the last annual meeting of the association, 
 held at Toronto, Ontario, in October, 1909, the salary of W. D. 
 Mahon, president of the association, was increased from $2,500
 
 140 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 to $5,000 per annum. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to con- 
 clude that these national officers were directly interested in the 
 establishment of a large and successful union among the employes 
 of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway company, and in 
 securing for these employes a contract with the company that 
 would insure the payment of the monthly dues to the national 
 association. 
 
 One of the paragraphs of the contract, presented to the officers 
 of this company for execution, reads as follows: 
 
 " Any member of the Association who may be expelled by the 
 Association for a violation of any of the rules or laws of the Associa- 
 tion, or of the rules or regulations of the company, shall be dis- 
 charged by the company on written request of the Association. " 
 
 If the demand for the execution of this contract had been 
 complied with, the street railway company would have been 
 placed in the position of a collecting agent for the National Associa- 
 tion, in that it would agree to discharge any man, however pro- 
 ficient his services might be, who had been expelled by the union 
 for a violation of any of the rules or laws of the association, includ- 
 ing the rule requiring this member to pay his monthly dues to the 
 National Association.
 
 Chapter XV. 
 
 STRIKEB-REAKERS 
 
 In the Sunday edition of the Omaha Daily News, of September 
 26th, an article appeared under the heading " The Strike-Breaker 
 Waddell. " This article in full, as published, was as follows: 
 
 With the advent of the professional strike-maker and labor 
 agitator, of necessity came the professional strike-breaker. 
 
 No longer do large business concerns employing large numbers 
 of men depend upon spasmodic efforts of the officials, to counteract 
 sudden and unexpected hostile acts of the employes, to maintain 
 the immense plants in operation pending a settlement of the 
 points in dispute. 
 
 The professional strike-breaking firm is formed to meet just 
 such contingencies, and large corps of trained men are maintained 
 by those concerns to take immediate charge of any situation, 
 meet all occasions that may arise during a strike, and to do all the 
 worrying for the attacked business concerns, until the differences 
 with employes are arbitrated, or a new force of employes is organ- 
 ized to carry on the permanent work. 
 
 With the first hint of trouble, conveyed to him by his secret 
 agents among the employes, the up-to-date general manager now- 
 a-days immediately gets in touch with one of the large strike-break- 
 ing concerns, of which there are several, informs its head of what 
 he expects and asks for assistance. He states how many men he 
 will need if a walkout is declared, and asks that men be held in 
 readiness to ship on twenty-four hours' notice. 
 
 The organization of a large strike-breaking firm is like that of 
 an army. With the proprietors, as the commanding generals, is 
 a force of subordinate officials always "on the job", and who are 
 in constant touch with an immense force of volunteers, who can 
 be called from their regular employment for temporary engage- 
 ments at any time. 
 
 A call is received for so many hundred or thousand men for 
 a certain line of work. Immediately the strike-breaker communi- 
 cates with his lieutenant in charge of that particular department, 
 and the latter consults a register on which are entered the names 
 of men who are ready and willing to be thrown into the breach 
 pending a settlement. 
 
 (HD
 
 142 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 Telegrams are sent to these men, or the general managers 
 of the firms they regularly are employed with, and they are supplied 
 with transportation to assemble at some point within short distance 
 of the place of trouble. 
 
 Then comes the second call that the strike has been declared, 
 or is to be declared within a few hours, with an order to ship. A 
 corps of men sufficient to meet the demand immediately is started 
 from the central point, sometimes in a body, but as often in small 
 parties traveling unobstrusively. 
 
 With the men go a force of cooks and assistants, to feed and 
 care for the ones who are to actually take the places of the strikers, 
 for strike-breakers of necessity are clannish and do not mix with 
 the public. 
 
 Arriving at their destination, the men practically go into camp 
 in the shops or factories in which they are to work, or in case 
 of street car or railroad strikes, in the barns and round houses 
 of the concerns they are to assist. There their life when not on 
 active duty is the life of the soldier in barracks, but with far more 
 strict regulation and discipline, and at the same time better pay 
 and provender. 
 
 James A. Waddell, of the strike breaking firm of Waddell 
 & Mahon, of New York City, at present the largest strike-breaking 
 firm in the country, is handling the Omaha street car strike. 
 
 Brain and brawn are combined in this man, making him a 
 typical man for a typical job. Big and burly, he is capable of 
 enforcing any command he makes. But combined with this is a 
 keen brain and a will that makes failure almost an improbability. 
 
 With Waddell in Omaha are five hundred employes, with the 
 necessary equipment of managers and lieutenants. While Wad- 
 dell is coping with the local situation, the company also is helping 
 to break strikes on an eastern railroad; in a large eastern city for 
 the National Biscuit company, and in the southeastern part of the 
 country for an association of brewers. Some of Waddell's army 
 are baking biscuit, while others are brewing beer, and still others 
 hammering rivets in boilers or tugging at the throttle levers of 
 locomotives. Forty-five hundred men are on the payroll at present, 
 and the average wage paid is $5 a day, with everything furnished. 
 
 " Strike-breaking as a regular business is much more remunera- 
 tive than many others, " declares Waddell, " and at the same time 
 it is much more interesting and exciting. " 
 
 Twelve years ago Waddell was the purchasing and employing 
 agent for a large firm of government contractors, doing a business 
 of eight or ten million dollars a year. Then the Interborough 
 street railway strike in New York came on, and Farley, the " king 
 of strike breakers," now retired, was not handling street car 
 strikes. August Belmont sent for Waddell, and asked him to 
 take charge of the employment of men to break the strike, and 
 their direction during the trouble.
 
 STRIKE-BREAKERS 143 
 
 Waddell broke in with Archibald Mahon, who had previous 
 experience in strike-breaking, by handling 8,000 men during the 
 Interborough strike. He liked it so well that he took the advice 
 of Belmont and other New York business men, and continued in 
 the work after the Interborough strike was won. Today the 
 firm has offices in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, 
 and the payroll, even when all is quiet, is $5,000 a month. 
 
 " Three hundred and fifty thousand men are on our registers 
 subject to call for strike-breaking," says Waddell. "These men 
 are regularly employed by large concerns, but are given leaves of 
 absence when required for strike-breaking, When through with 
 a job they return to their regular positions. Many of our men have 
 been with us since the organization of the business, and many others 
 came to us from Farley when he retired. Strike-breaking is a 
 recognized vocation, popular among those who have tried it. It 
 requires nerve, judgment and perfect control of the temper, also 
 abstinence from chronic indulgence in dissipation in any form. 
 The pay is good, ranging from $3 to $10 a day, according to the 
 demands of the situation to be met, and the skill required to fill 
 the positions. The average wage is $5 a day. 
 
 " But the strike-breaker is far better off financially than the 
 average laboring man in any line. When on a job everything is 
 furnished him that he requires food, tobacco, reading matter, 
 medical attention, laundry and bartering. A strike-breaker 
 leaving New York for a place on the west coast need not take a 
 cent with him, and will not be called upon to spend anything until 
 he returns at the close of the strike. Everything he possibly could 
 desire, and that he will be allowed to have under the rules and 
 regulations all are required to observe, is furnished him." 
 
 The men on the job in Omaha are motormen and conductors 
 from the Brooklyn Rapid Transit company and the Chicago street 
 railways. All with the exception of a few conductors, new to the 
 business, have regular runs with the companies in these places. 
 They were furnished transportation to Omaha, and will be returned 
 when the strike is over. 
 
 The wage paid them is $5 a day, with everything furnished, 
 and the men are being housed and boarded at the Ames, Vinton 
 and Harney barns. Individual cots, with two sheets and a pillow, 
 changed three times a week, and plenty of blankets are on the beds 
 supplied. 
 
 At the Vinton and Ames barns the men are quartered in the 
 rear of the barns. At the Harney barn on the second floor. 
 
 The commissary and kitchen department comprise regular 
 hotel ranges, presided over by cooks regularly in the employ of 
 the strike-breaking firm. Meals are served at long tables covered 
 with white oil cloth, and the menu comprises that served at an 
 ordinary hotel. Everything is of the best quality.
 
 144 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 In the bunk section of the quarters also are reading and card 
 tables, and over in one corner is a barber chair, with an experienced 
 barber, who shaves the men and cuts their hair free of charge. 
 At the reading tables are all the latest papers and periodicals, and 
 an abundance of cigars and tobacco is furnished to help while away 
 the time. 
 
 The men are allowed two changes of linen a week, laundered 
 free of charge, and three shirts. When not on duty they are 
 required to be in quarters, but a number are allowed to go about 
 town on a pass each evening, on the promise that they will not 
 drink or indulge in discussion of the strike. Two men in Omaha 
 who violated the pledge were summarily discharged by Waddell 
 Saturday morning. 
 
 Two yellow slips, turned in by the lieutenants in charge of 
 quarters at the Harney barn, told the story of the falls from grace 
 when Mr. Waddell appeared at the office Saturday morning. The 
 men immediately were sent for. Both, when confronted with the 
 report slips, admitted that they had been drinking, and one pleaded 
 that he needed four or five drinks a day to quiet his nerves. 
 
 " Discharge them both, " said Waddell to his secretary, after 
 listening to the excuses, "and blacklist this man who can't get 
 along without liquor. Men who drink cannot be strike-breakers. " 
 
 A complete hospital equipment, a corps of physicians and 
 nurses, and an ambulance are parts of the outfit for handling a big 
 strike, according to Mr. Waddell, but the strike-breaker does not 
 consider the Omaha strike a very big event. 
 
 "The Omaha strike is one of the most orderly I ever have 
 participated in, " says Mr. Waddell, " and the Omaha police depart- 
 ment, with the number of men available for duty, has handled the 
 situation better than the police department of any other city in 
 which our firm has operated. Where the police department is not 
 able to handle the situation, we bring along a complete hospital 
 corps, because the injured men cannot be sent to the general 
 hospitals, where they are subjected to annoyance by the other 
 patients. No hospital corps is necessary in Omaha, but we have 
 a physician along who inspects the quarters every day, and who 
 looks after the health of the 500 men." 
 
 A police department of 2,000 men, drawn from the retired 
 policemen of New York and Brooklyn, is a part of the organization 
 of the strike-breaking outfit, supplied where the local authorities 
 cannot handle the strikers and request outside aid. 
 
 "These men," says Waddell, "coming from the large cities 
 are especially trained in handling crowds and riots, but are rarely 
 needed except in the small manufacturing t6wns of the east, where 
 the entire population sometimes is composed of the strikers and 
 their families.
 
 STRIKE-BREAKERS 145 
 
 " In such towns we also furnish our own commissary supplies, 
 for our patronage of a local merchant would mean his financial 
 ruin if he accepted it, as he would be forced out of business when 
 the strike was settled." 
 
 Then Mr. Waddell laughingly recalled the effort of a local 
 laundry to secure the contract for the strike-breakers while here. 
 
 "That man doesn't know what he is going up against if his 
 regular patronage is with laboring men," he said. "But then, it 
 isn't my business to tell him. " 
 
 But if Waddell couldn't find a laundryman to do the work, he 
 would have a force of laundry workers here within a day, and it 
 would be just the same with the butcher, the baker and the candle- 
 stick maker. What other people will not do for the strike-breakers 
 they do for themselves. 
 
 "Strike-breaking isn't the only vocation of the Waddell- 
 Mahon corporation," declares Waddell. "Strike-settling is just 
 as important and far more agreeable. 
 
 "This department takes charge of negotiations between 
 employers and employes, when a strike is threatening, and so far 
 has settled without a strike every such difficulty referred to it. 
 Every large strike-breaking firm now has a strike-settling depart- 
 ment, and they generally are used by large eastern concerns when 
 it comes to making new agreements with their men, or drafting new 
 wage schedules. " 
 
 Waddell and his strike-breakers will fade away as unobtru- 
 sively as they came to town, when the present strike is settled 
 and the men go back to work. Some will return directly to their 
 homes and regular jobs, while others will go on to other troubles 
 between employers and employes. 
 
 Regarding the strike-breakers, Waddell and Mahon, it can be 
 truthfully said that they acted with promptness and dispatch, 
 after being requested to furnish 500 experienced conductors and 
 motormen, for service on the lines of the Omaha & Council Bluffs 
 Street Railway company during the continuance of the strike. 
 The first detachment of 128 men arrived from Chicago on Sunday 
 morning, September 19th, twenty-four hours after the strike had 
 been in operation. Other detachments came from New York 
 as soon as the trains could bring them, after the order had been 
 given for their shipment. The most of these men were experienced 
 in the line of work required of them, and, as soon as they were 
 quartered at the three principal car barns of the company, were 
 placed under the charge of lieutenants or under-bosses, from whom 
 they received their orders while they were on duty. These lieu- 
 tenants and bosses had evidently been selected because of their 
 special ability to enforce their o'rders to the men by physical
 
 146 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 prowess, if necessary. Several combats between the men them- 
 selves were quelled by these lietuenants, who were always able 
 to knock down and subdue any who refused or neglected to obey. 
 
 In nearly all cases reported, the operatives were brave and 
 always ready to defend themselves and the property of the com- 
 pany against mobs or individuals, who in any manner interfered 
 with the operation of the cars. One of the most common causes 
 for trouble was the refusal of some passengers to pay their fare to 
 the strike-breaking conductors. In such cases the motorman was 
 generally called by the conductor. He promptly responded by 
 stopping the car, and coming to the passenger, trolley-controller 
 in hand, would notify him in a gruff and positive way to either- 
 pay his fare or be put off the car. In most cases the fare was paid, 
 but in cases where further refusal was made, the passenger was 
 unceremoniously put off the car. 
 
 These strike-breakers paid no attention to the continual wordy 
 abuse of passengers. To be called "scabs" seemed not to disturb 
 them in the least, but they did not permit passengers on the cars 
 to ride without paying their fares, nor did they submit to any 
 personal violence from any of the passengers. They were gener- 
 ally ready for trouble, and did not seek to avoid personal contact 
 with anyone who attempted to assault them. 
 
 In some cases where mobs congregated and where trouble was 
 imminent, some of these conductors and motormen left their cars 
 and escaped in the crowds, but, generally speaking, they remained 
 on the cars and fought their way, where necessary, to the end of 
 their routes. Some, but not many, of these strike breakers were 
 injured in riots. Fortunately, no one was killed nor permanently 
 injured. In many cases the strike-breakers were armed, but as 
 a rule they did not display their arms, and only one or two cases 
 of the use by them of fire arms were reported. In all ordinary 
 conflicts, they effectively used the iron switch rods or the trolley 
 controllers on the cars when attacked. 
 
 Many amusing incidents were told by the newspapers regard- 
 ing the actions of these strike-breakers during their service. Of 
 course, when they first arrived they did not know the names of 
 the streets, and at the beginning the company did not have 
 sufficient old men to send out to instruct them just where their 
 cars were to run, so that, during the first few days, some of the cars 
 were switched on to the wrong lines. One case is reported of a
 
 STRIKE-BREAKERS 147 
 
 Farnam street car, running north on 10th street, being switched 
 on to the Harney street line. The conductor was asked by a 
 passenger if this was not the Farnam street car. He replied pleas- 
 antly that it was. The passenger then asked if they were then on 
 Farnam street. The conductor went forward and talked with 
 the motorman, and came back and admitted to the passenger that 
 he did not know what street he was on, but would find out when he 
 came to the next car barn. He secured this information at the barn 
 at Twentieth and Harney, and in due time his car was switched 
 back on to the right street. 
 
 The strike breakers were an accommodating lot. On one 
 occasion, a Park car on Leavenworth turned south on Park avenue, 
 but when a large number of the passengers signified their intention 
 to transfer to the West Leavenworth line, the train crew backed 
 the car to the switch, and turned it west on Leavenworth street. 
 Some of the passengers, who had alighted, again boarded the car 
 and asked the conductor why he was going out on Leavenworth. 
 He replied: "You see, most of the passengers wanted to go out 
 on Leavenworth, and as we had never been out on that line before, 
 we thought we would go out and see the country. How far is it, 
 anyhow, out to the end of this line?" 
 
 An east side Park car turned west at the switch at Park 
 avenue and Pacific street. When the passengers protested that 
 the car was going on the wrong track, the conductor backed up 
 and was about to proceed, when a woman, who had said she wanted 
 to get off at Mason street, told the conductor that they had already 
 passed Mason street one block. He backed the car up a block 
 for her convenience, and then went on south on Park avenue. 
 
 A loaded special car, that should have stopped at Fortieth and 
 Farnam, was run on through to Dundee for the convenience of the 
 passengers. They, however, were obliged to pay an extra fare to 
 the conductor before he would take them on. None of the fares 
 paid were registered by him; in fact, very few of the fares were 
 registered by the conductors. In one case, the register had been 
 clogged up with a nail so that it could not be used. In many 
 instances, passengers refused to pay their fares unless the conduc- 
 tor would register them. In some instances, the passengers them- 
 selves pulled the register cord, and not only registered their own 
 fares but many others.
 
 148 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 Three school girls boarded the car at Sixteenth and Daven- 
 port streets, and refused to pay their fares, because the conductor 
 was not registering the fares he collected. In this case, the con- 
 ductor let them ride, but when they wanted to get off, he refused 
 to stop the car to let them off. One of them caught the register 
 cord and began registering fares, and continued it until the con- 
 ductor stopped the car and let them off. 
 
 It was reported, but not verified, that one crew, who learned 
 that the fare was ten cents on the Bridge line to Council Bluffs, 
 started to switch their car on to this line, in order that they might 
 get some of the ten cent fares, instead of the five cent fares they 
 were obliged to take in Omaha. But, not being acquainted with 
 the switches, they were not able to get their car on to this line. 
 
 A crew on the Florence line, discovering when near Fort 
 Omaha that it would be too late for them to take the load of 
 passengers to Florence and get back to the barn before dark, 
 notified the passengers that they must leave the car. This the 
 passengers refused to do, and when the crew left the car standing 
 on the track, one of the passengers took charge of the trolly, and 
 it was run to Florence and left on the track there. 
 
 These conductors knew nothing about the correct issuing of 
 transfers, so transfers were freely given, and were accepted on any 
 line they were presented. In some cases, conductors gave passen- 
 gers several transfers, that they might have for future use. 
 
 Some ladies boarded a Farnam street car, and asked if it 
 ran to Fortieth and Cuming. ' The conductor said : " Bless you, 
 I don't know where Fortieth and Cuming is. I was told to take 
 this car out and follow the track; that is what I am doing." 
 
 Some other passengers asked if a car ran to the depots. The 
 conductor politely said: "You will have to stay on and see; I 
 don't know exactly where the car does run to." 
 
 A lady passenger on one of the lines gave the conductor a 
 fifty-cent piece in payment of her fare. He gave her back a twenty 
 five-cent piece, and slowly and carefully counted out to her five 
 nickels. She took the money without comment, and quickly put 
 it in her purse. A passenger who sat beside her, thinking that the 
 conductor had made a mistake in giving her back the full amount 
 in change of the money she had paid him, stepped out on the plat- 
 form and said to the conductor: " Don't you know that you gave 
 that lady back fifty cents in change for the fifty-cent piece she
 
 STRIKE-BREAKERS 149 
 
 gave you?" The conductor replied: "Yes, I know it, and she 
 knows it, too, but she may have some trouble in passing that 
 quarter I gave her. " 
 
 As a rule, very few of the fares were registered by these strike- 
 breaking conductors. There were some exceptions, and some 
 of the men faithfully rang up all the fares they collected. These 
 were men who wanted to remain as permanent employes of the 
 company. The others, regardless of the criticism they received 
 on every hand, refused to ring up fares or to turn them in at the 
 barn. They paid no attention to the officers of the company, and 
 on one occasion when General Manager Smith was on the car, the 
 conductor was told that Smith was the general manager of the 
 road. He took hold of the register and rang up three fares, with 
 the remark, "We'll take fifteen cents on Smith." Frequently, 
 the registers on cars on which there were fifty passengers would 
 show that only three or four had been registered. 
 
 The strike-breakers were liberal with the company's money, 
 often giving it to the strikers themselves. During the parade of 
 the strikers, one of the strike-breaking conductors, as he passed 
 the parade, handed a nickel to each one of the strikers. They had 
 no regard whatever for rules or regulations, knowing that they 
 would not be discharged. They frequently remarked to passen- 
 gers that they were hired to run the cars, not to collect fares. 
 Few passengers rode without paying at all, but very little of the 
 money collected by the strike-breakers reached the treasury of 
 the company; but, as a rule, they were a jolly lot of disreputables. 
 They could and did operate the cars successfully. They did not 
 know the sensation of fear, and were always ready for a fight. 
 
 An heroic incident occurred during the riot on September 
 21st, near the Vinton street barn. A strike-breaking conductor 
 had a woman and child on his car when the brick bats and stones 
 began to fly through the windows. He stopped the car and, in 
 the face of an angry mob, took the woman and child, shielding them 
 from the blows of the rioters with his own body, until he had landed 
 them safely on the sidewalk. He then fought his way back to his 
 car, where he was assaulted again and again, and beaten almost 
 into insensibility before he finally reached the Vinton street barn. 
 But he stuck to his post, like the hero that he was, and when the 
 fight was over, by no word or act of his did he indicate that he 
 had done anything worthy of mention. When asked for the
 
 150 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 details of this encounter, he refused to say anything, except, "I 
 stuck to her until I landed her in the barn." 
 
 The scene in the Vinton street barn, where a large number of 
 strike-breakers were confined on the evening of the riot, has been 
 described by those who saw it as most remarkable. When the 
 cars began coming into the barn, showing the evidences of the riot 
 by broken windows and bleeding crews, the effect on these men 
 the comrades of the men who had been attacked was electrical. 
 From all descriptions, it acted as does the scent of blood on the 
 wild beast. The lieutenants quickly called to their assistance 
 twenty-five of the strongest of the strike-breakers, and armed them 
 with controllers from the cars, not for the purpose of keeping 
 the rioters from coming into the barn and attacking these men, 
 but to prevent the men from going out of the barn to attack the 
 rioters, who were gathered in great numbers in that vicinity. The 
 guards formed in solid lines between the men and the doors. The 
 men begged and pleaded with the guards and the officers of the 
 law, who were present,to be allowed to go out and put down the riot. 
 They explained to the officers that they knew just how to do it, 
 and that if they would let even a dozen of them go out among the 
 rioters, they would have them dispersed in short order. 
 
 No doubt, this meeting and other similar meetings were planned 
 for the purpose of exciting these strike-breakers into an open attack 
 on the men engaged in rioting, that would result in great bodily 
 injury and possibly murder. But it was the determined purpose 
 of the street railway officials, and their positive instructions to 
 the strike-breakers' leaders, that under no provocation should 
 these men be permitted to attack or assault citizens, even though 
 they were engaged in rioting. On this special occasion, at the 
 Vinton street barn, it seemed for a time impossible to hold the men 
 in confinement, while their associates were being assaulted on the 
 outside. One big, burly lieutenant, who saw an Italian immediate- 
 ly across the street throw a brick through the window of a car 
 loaded with women and children, quietly slipped away from his 
 post of duty, crossed over the street, and, with one dexterous blow 
 under the heart with the controller, the Italian was dropped un- 
 conscious on the spot where he stood. The lieutenant leisurely 
 walked back to the deputy sheriff, who had seen him administer 
 this summary punishment, and remarked, "If you would only 
 let a dozen of us go out among these cowards, we would have them
 
 STRIKE-BREAKERS 151 
 
 dispersed in no time. " But the order was positive that they 
 must remain in the barn, and with this single exception it was not 
 disobeyed. 
 
 It is a very difficult matter to record a word of criticism 
 against these strike-breakers, who displayed so many loyal and 
 commendable qualities under stress, in a period of great excite- 
 ment and much provocation. They stole the fares of the com- 
 pany with the abandon of hardened thieves, but, as a rule,they pro- 
 tected its property and the passengers in their charge with the 
 loyalty of veteran soldiers. So, whatever their faults might have 
 been, they were forgotten by the officials of the company and by 
 the public generally. It was said that the conductors divided their 
 collections with the motormen, and again with the lieutenants at 
 the barns, who, if all reports were true, were as corrupt as the 
 operating men. It is said that some of these lieutenants demanded 
 two dollars from each conductor, before he was sent out on his run 
 to collect this money back from the public. It was hinted that 
 the leaders of the union and of the strike-breakers were in collusion, 
 and worked together for the profit of both. It was reported that 
 these leaders were seen together on certain occasions, in conference 
 over the progress and possibly the prolongation of the strike, but 
 no positive evidence of these reports was ever produced, although 
 rumors flew thick and fast, and these rumors were believed by many 
 who heard them. 
 
 However this may be, one lesson of this strike to the officers 
 of the street railway company was made very plain that the 
 whole system of strikes and strike-breaking, by professionals en- 
 gaged in these two lines of civil warfare, is wrong and wasteful in 
 the extreme. If strikes must occur, and it seems that they must, 
 so long as the labor agitator is permitted to follow his vocation 
 unchecked by the laws of the land, then the street railway com- 
 panies, in danger of losses incident to this lawless work, should 
 organize to protect themselves. 
 
 An organization could easily be effected among the principal 
 street railway companies of the country, whereby each would agree 
 to furnish, in case of strike, its pro rata number of experienced 
 men, to go to the city where a strike was about to take place, and, 
 under the proper officers of this organization, take charge of the 
 operation of the cars abandoned by the strikers. Fifty or one 
 hundred brave and efficient men could be found among the opera-
 
 152 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 lives on any road in the country, where five hundred or more men 
 are employed, who would be willing to enlist for such service, they 
 to be excused from their regular duties by their home companies 
 during their absence, and to receive as compensation for their 
 work all expenses and ten dollars per day for the time of their 
 service. 
 
 Such an organization among the principal street railway com- 
 panies of the country would prove an effective standing army, and 
 would prevent many strikes, which are often precipitated because 
 of the knowledge of the strike-makers that no adequate means 
 is at hand to conduct the business of the street railway company 
 when a strike has been declared.
 
 Chapter XVI. 
 
 LOYALTY REWARDED VIEWS OF THE MEN 
 
 Twenty-five days after the strike in Omaha had been declared, 
 sufficient regular employes had returned to the service of the com- 
 pany, with the new men who had been employed and put into 
 service, to make up a full crew of operatives, and the last of the 
 strike-breakers were sent back to their homes. From that time 
 forward the strike, so far as the company was concerned, was at 
 an end. 
 
 At a meeting of the board of directors of the street railway 
 company, held on October 4th, for the purpose of rewarding con- 
 ductors and motormen who had remained in the service of the 
 company during the strike, the duration of the strike was officially 
 fixed at fifteen days from September 17th to October 2nd. By 
 resolution of the board, the general manager was authorized to 
 pay to each regular conductor and motorman who reported for 
 duty during this time five dollars extra per day for each day he 
 reported, and five dollars per day additional for each day during 
 the strike on which regular conductors and motormen took out 
 cars. To those operatives who worked during the full term of 
 the strike, this award amounted to $150 each. To those who 
 worked for a part of the time the amount was less, but the paying 
 of this reward was a source of great satisfaction to the officers of 
 the company and the public generally, and especially to the men 
 who received it. 
 
 Much favorable comment was made by the press and other- 
 wise on the liberality of the company in this regard. Soon there- 
 after, the road officers and barn foremen were each paid the sum of 
 $200, as a token of appreciation of the company for their loyal 
 service. Others who had been especially faithful in their services 
 were rewarded accordingly. 
 
 To secure a fair expression from the employes of the street 
 railway company regarding certain subjects concerning the strike, 
 the president of the company, on November 8th, addressed the
 
 154 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 following letter to twelve of the men who were in the employ of 
 the company at the time of the strike, one half of them union men 
 and one half non-union. This letter read as follows: 
 
 "Omaha, Neb., Nov. 8, 1909. 
 "DEAR SIR: 
 
 For future reference I am preparing a history of the recent 
 street railway strike. In order that it may correctly represent 
 the views of all parties concerned I am asking several old employes 
 of this company to write me letters expressing their views, which 
 letters will be published as a part of the history. 
 
 "I would like to have you write me a letter in your own 
 language which will state: 
 
 " The length of time you have been in the employ of the 
 
 company; 
 
 "In what capacity, whether conductor or motorman; 
 "Whether or not you joined the union among the employes; 
 "If you did join, or did not join, what were the motives 
 
 which inspired you to make the decision; 
 " What has been your experience with the company regard- 
 ing any causes of complaint; 
 " If you have had any ground for complaint in the past, please 
 
 state what was the nature of this complaint against the 
 
 treatment you have received from the officers of the 
 
 company. 
 " What in your judgment was the general condition a month 
 
 before the strike was called among the conductors and 
 
 motormen? 
 " Was it good and satisfactory, or was it unsatisfactory to the 
 
 men? 
 
 "If unsatisfactory, in what respect? 
 " If you joined the union and went out on strike, please state 
 
 fully just what was the cause which inspired you to go 
 
 out on a strike, and whether or not you think the men 
 
 were justified in striking. 
 "If you have no objections, and were a union man, state 
 
 whether or not a vote by ballot was taken, as provided by 
 
 the by-laws of the union, on the question of the strike. 
 "If you were not a union man and quit the service of the 
 
 company during the strike or at any period of it, state 
 
 for what reason you quit.
 
 LOYALTY REWARDED VIEWS OF THE MEN 155 
 
 " You may include any other items that you think are impor- 
 tant in your letter, and whatever you say will not be counted 
 against you in any way by the officers of the street railway com- 
 pany, as it is my desire to give a number of the representative 
 employes of the company the opportunity of saying just what 
 they have in mind regarding all matters in these letters. In a 
 general way please embody in your letter as many of the points 
 above mentioned as you see fit to do, and send the letter to me as 
 early as convenient, and greatly oblige, 
 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) G. W. WATTLES, 
 
 President." 
 
 The following replies were received: 
 
 "Omaha, Neb., Nov. 9, 1909. 
 "MR. G. W. WATTLES, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: I have been in the employ of the company for 
 twenty-two years last month. Two years I drove horse cars on 
 the 13th street line, and twenty years on as motorman on the 24th 
 and Hanscom Park line. I did not join the union because I was 
 satisfied with the treatment I was receiving, and had no complaint 
 to make against any of the officers of the company. I think every- 
 thing was satisfactory the month before the strike, and do not 
 think the men were justified in striking. My reasons for not join- 
 ing the union nor not walking out during the strike are that every 
 man that wishes to make a headway has to plan ahead and can't 
 be called out on a strike any time the union says; so I don't think 
 that anyone knows a man's business any better than the man 
 himself, and whether he can afford to lose the time and perhaps 
 his position or not. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) BERT P. BOONE. 
 
 "Omaha, Neb., Nov. 10, 1909. 
 " MR. G. W. WATTLES, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: In reply to your letter of the 8th would say, I 
 have been in the employ of your company over nineteen years as 
 conductor. I did not belong to the union at the time of the strike. 
 I did not take my car out of the barn the morning of the strike. 
 I did not feel safe and could not stand to be called scab and other
 
 156 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 words. I was the fourth car out in the morning. The rest of the 
 men would not go out that belonged ahead of me, so I refused to 
 go too. The foreman said I was discharged, so I stayed away from 
 the barn. I joined the union the second or third day of the strike. 
 I never had anything to do with bringing on the trouble. I never 
 had any complaint to make about the company. As far as I am 
 concerned they have always treated me good, but I don't think 
 that I deserved to be put back on the list where I started nineteen 
 years ago. Would like to see all the old men reinstated in their 
 old places, as they were before the strike. I am not satisfied 
 with the conditions as they are now. 
 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) CHARLES SNYDER. 
 
 " Omaha, Neb., Nov. 10, 1909. 
 " MR. G. W. WATTLES, ' 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 8th inst. received requesting 
 me to write you a letter expressing my views in regard to the recent 
 street railway strike and the position I occupied as employe of the 
 company. I will answer your questions, in the the first place, in 
 the order in which you have asked. I have been in the employ 
 of the street railway company twenty- two years in the capacity 
 of conductor, starting in in December, 1887, under the superin- 
 tendency of Mr. F. A. Tucker. I joined the union about ten years 
 ago at a time when all the conductors and motormen were mem- 
 bers. Myself and some others joined, in order, if any trouble arose, 
 we could have a voice and vote in the matter; but we had some half 
 dozen agitators who were always trying to make some trouble about 
 having better wages or the union recognized, etc., and the thing 
 became so corrupt that myself and several others withdrew. We 
 had a vote during my membership on a strike. I voted against 
 it, which was the last meeting I attended. I have never had any 
 cause for complaint against the company since I have been in 
 their employ, and if I should become dissatisfied, I will simply 
 quit and not throw a brick at the man that takes my place, or de- 
 stroy any of the company's property. 
 
 " I did not go out on the strike, and do not think any one was 
 justified in so doing, and I had heard but very little dissatisfaction 
 expressed among the men before the strike, except a few chronic 
 agitators. During the strike and while at work I was frequently
 
 LOYALTY REWARDED VIEWS OF THE MEN 157 
 
 approached by the strikers, who begged me to quit work and go 
 with them on the strike, but they got no satisfaction from me, 
 and they finally gave it up as a bad job. It may be that I will 
 not be with the street railway company a great while longer, but 
 when I do quit, I hope to have the good will and friendship of all 
 those with whom I have been associated for so many years. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 (Signed) CHARLES WARD. " 
 "Council Bluffs, Iowa, Nov. 11, 1909. 
 "MR. G. W. WATTLES, President, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: I take this means of expressing my views and 
 telling you why I did not join the union or go on a strike. I have 
 been employed as conductor for the street railway company in 
 Council Bluffs for the past nineteen years. I did not join the 
 union because I did not want to be under any obligations to go 
 out on a strike, preferring to be at liberty to use my own judgment. 
 In this case it looked to me like everything could have been settled 
 without a strike, except recognition of the union. So long as I 
 get fair treatment and good wages I will try to be satisfied. As 
 less than half the conductors and motor men of this division 
 belonged to the union, I don't see why they should be recognized 
 separately. 
 
 " I have no complaints to make against the company or its 
 officials. I have found the foremen and road officers on this divi- 
 sion reasonable and agreeable to deal with. Up to a month before 
 the strike it seemed to me that the men on this division as a whole 
 were pretty well satisfied. I suppose it is natural for us to want 
 all the wages we can get, but this was easily disposed of and fur- 
 nished no grounds for a strike. I don't know of any instances 
 where union men have been discriminated against or any promises 
 the company have made that were not kept. My mind was never 
 in the balance as I could see no good reason for a strike. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) W. F. THORNE." 
 " Omaha, Neb., Nov. 12, 1909. 
 " MR. G. W. WATTLES, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: In reply to your letter of November 8th, will 
 answer your questions as follows:
 
 158 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 " I have been in the employ of the company for twelve years 
 last March. I have acted as conductor during the entire time. 
 I joined the union the night before the strike but not of my own 
 accord. Two men came to my house and wanted me to go down 
 to the union meeting said it was an open meeting and all carmen 
 were invited to attend, and C. O. Pratt was 'going to speak. I 
 finally consented to attend, and no more than sat down at the 
 meeting till Mr. Morrow and Gillen and several other street car men 
 came and asked me to join the union. I said, 'Not now '. Morrow 
 said, 'I have your name and want a dollar'. I told him I didn't 
 have any money with me. Just then an acquaintance stepped up 
 and paid it for me. It is under these conditions that my name is 
 among the union men. I have never attended any of their meet- 
 ings or paid any further attention to it. Never received any of 
 their money, and do not consider myself a member. 
 
 "I have never had cause for complaint while in employ of 
 the company. 
 
 " So far as I know a month before the strike the condition 
 among the men was good. 
 
 " I went to the car barn to go to work on the morning of the 
 strike and met about fifty men this side of Ames avenue. They 
 said there was a strike on, and I turned back home. 
 
 " I don't think the men were justified in striking. 
 
 " At the meeting a rising vote was taken. 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) H. S. HALLENBECK. " 
 
 "Omaha, Neb., Nov. 12, 1909. 
 "MR. G. W. WATTLES, President, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Answering yours of late date will say, first, that 
 I have been in the employ of your company as motorman since 
 May, 1898. 
 
 "I did not join the union, simply because it does not quite 
 suit my idea of things. For instance, the way they have of voting 
 a man out of a position does not look good to me. 
 
 "Causes of complaint, I have always found our company 
 ready and willing to adjust matters in a fair and just manner, con- 
 sequently have no grievance on that score. 
 
 "The condition before the strike I think very good. The 
 feeling was unusually good for a bunch of men that size. To be
 
 LOYALTY REWARDED VIEWS OF THE MEN 159 
 
 sure there are always a few who are always out of fix and could 
 not be satisfied. I only hope to see things running in as good shape 
 in the near future. 
 
 "Thanking you for the kindness shown, I beg to remain, 
 "Yours respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) J. W. KEPLER." 
 
 "Omaha, Neb., Nov. 14, 1909. 
 " MR. G. W. WATTLES, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: I have been in the employ of the street railway 
 company for thirteen years and six months as conductor. 
 
 " When the employes first organized a union I was persuaded 
 to join it. After I attended a few of their meetings and learned 
 their methods, I withdrew. That was about seven or eight years 
 ago. 
 
 " I joined the union at that time because there was talk of a 
 strike, and I thought I would have a chance to vote against 
 trouble. 
 
 " I have never belonged to the union since that time. 
 
 " During the years of my employ I have had no complaints 
 to offer against my treatment by the company. I have no com- 
 plaint to offer against the officers of the company. 
 
 " A month before the strike was called the general condition 
 among most of the men seemed to be satisfactory, with the excep- 
 tion of a few agitators. 
 
 " I did not join the union and did not go on a strike, because 
 I do not believe in such methods. I do not think the men were 
 justified at all in causing a strike. 
 
 "Not being a member of the union I cannot say positively 
 what kind of vote was taken, but I was told that they took a stand- 
 ing vote. 
 
 " I did not quit the service of the company during the strike. 
 I worked the first day of the strike thirteen hours. All the cars 
 stopped at seven o'clock, and there was no way provided for me 
 to get home, so I had to walk the forty (40) blocks after that hour. 
 I remained at home the next three days, because it was too far to 
 walk, and I had no way of getting back and forth. 
 
 "In regard to this strike I would say, that I do not believe 
 there ever would have been any strike if it had not been for Mr. Ben 
 Commons and Mr. Pratt, two outsiders who had no business to
 
 160 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 influence the men at all. After Mr. Commons had been here a 
 few days, several of the men tried to influence me to attend their 
 meetings, but I knew where I stood on unionism and didn't go. 
 I did all in my power to influence the men against going on a strike, 
 and did influence a great many of them to return to work after 
 the strike was on. 
 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 (Signed) G. C. HUSE." 
 
 " Omaha, Neb., Nov. 14, 1909. 
 " MR. G. W. WATTLES, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 DEAR SIR: In reply to yours of the 8th will say, I have worked 
 for the Omaha Street Railway company as conductor ever since 
 the 29th of August, 1898, most of the time on the Harney line. 
 I joined the union about two months after it was organized, but 
 being in poor health I have not attended the meetings. I believe 
 in organized labor. If the laborers did not organize, capital 
 would crowd them off the earth. I do not believe in strikes, as 
 both sides are losers. I do believe in the New Zealand method of 
 arbitration. 
 
 " In this instance I think there was very little to arbitrate. Of 
 course, we need more money too, as everything we have to buy has 
 advanced very nearly fifty per cent. If I had been able to attend 
 the meetings I should have voted NO ! ! from start to finish. While 
 the men are probably treated as well as most companies treat 
 their men, we are called to the office for apparently no cause, or 
 so slight that it seems mere boys' play. I was called because I 
 issued a universal transfer when I had a big load, and once for 
 accidentally sitting down while crossing Cuming street on an extra 
 going in. We had no passengers. I lost a day to explain. 
 
 " I can't see why the public should be requested to find fault 
 with the men. If they were compelled to advance their wages 
 during an investigation, there would be less reporting done. 
 
 " I do not consider that I went out on a strike at all, for I was 
 sick and could not have worked anyway. I was taken down on 
 Wednesday, the 14th, with erysipelas and was not able to work 
 till the 3rd of October. I have had to lay off two days since then 
 on account of sickness. If I had been able I certainly should have 
 taken my car out on the 18th and kept it out, too. As it was I
 
 LOYALTY REWARDED VIEWS OF THE MEN 161 
 
 reported for work on the 29th and furnished a doctor's certificate, 
 as well as a statement from the night foreman, Dan Mulcahay. 
 
 " As I was not at the meeting that voted to call a strike, I 
 don't know what kind of a vote was taken, but several of the men 
 who were there have told me that a standing vote was taken, and 
 if a secret vote was taken the strike would never have been called. 
 When I did go to work I worked overtime, double time and extra 
 time, anything to help out during the carnival. I received no extra 
 compensation but got what the time amounted to. 
 
 " Respectfully, 
 (Signed) NAT. P. SACKETT. " 
 
 The purpose of this letter was to ascertain, if possible, if there 
 was any real dissatisfaction among the rank and file of the men 
 before the strike was called, and, if so, what was the cause of the 
 trouble. It would seem, from the tenor of the replies, that there 
 was not in reality any deep-seated, general feeling of dissatisfaction 
 among the men.
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 
 LESSONS OF THE STRIKE 
 
 At the very beginning of the strike, President Taft delivered a 
 speech on labor in Chicago, in which he made the following state- 
 ments : 
 
 " I know that there is an element among employers of labor 
 and investors of capital which is utterly opposed to the organiza- 
 tion of labor. I cannot sympathize with this element in the 
 slightest degree. I think it a wise course for laborers to unite to 
 defend their interests. It is a wise course for them to provide a 
 fund by which, should occasion arise and strikes follow, those 
 who lose their places may be supported pending an adjustment 
 of the difficulties. 
 
 "I think the employer who declines to deal with organized 
 labor, and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of 
 wage controversies, is behind the times. 
 
 " There is not the slightest doubt that if labor had remained 
 unorganized wages would be much lower. It is true that in the 
 end they would probably be fixed by the law of supply and demand, 
 but generally before this law manifests itself, there is a period 
 in which labor, if organized and acting together, can compel the 
 employer promptly to recognize the change of conditions and 
 advance wages to meet a rising market and an increase in profits, 
 and, on the other hand, can delay the too quick impulse of the 
 employer facing a less prosperous future to economize by reducing 
 wages. 
 
 " There is a higher standard of living among American laborers 
 than in any other country in the world, and while there have doubt- 
 less been a good many other reasons for this, certainly the effect 
 of the organization of labor has been to maintain a steady and 
 high rate of wages, making such a standard of living possible. 
 
 " Nothing I have said or shall say should be construed into an 
 attitude of criticism or unfriendliness to those workingmen who 
 for any reason do not join unions. Their right to labor for such 
 
 (182)
 
 LESSONS OF THE STRIKE 163 
 
 wages as they choose to accept is sacred, and any lawless invasion 
 of that right cannot be too severely condemned. 
 
 " All advantages of trades unionism, great as they are, cannot 
 weigh a feather in the scale against the right of any man lawfully 
 seeking employment to work for whom and what price he will. 
 And I say this with all the emphasis possible, even though the fact 
 is that, if I were a workingman, I should probably deem it wise to 
 join a union for the reasons given. 
 
 " Of course, when organized labor permits itself to sympathize 
 with violent methods, with breaches of the law, with boycots 
 and other methods of undue duress, it is not entitled to any sym- 
 pathy. But it is not to be expected that such organizations shall 
 be perfect, and that they may not at times and in particular cases 
 show defective tendencies which ought to be corrected. " 
 
 Perhaps this statement on the part of the President had as 
 much to do as any other cause in encouraging the striking street 
 car men in their fight. The first part of the speech was quoted by 
 the strike-leaders on many occasions. The last part of it, which 
 qualifies to a large extent what is said about unions, was seldom, 
 if ever, quoted. 
 
 It was unfortunate that the President did not explain, in this 
 address, how " workingmen, who for any reason do not join unions, " 
 are to be protected in " their right to labor for such wages as they 
 choose to accept," if employers of labor are compelled or induced 
 to sign agreements with unions, which practically preclude them 
 from employing or continuing in their employ any who do not 
 belong to the union. The contract submitted by the union in 
 March, 1907, to the officers of the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street 
 Railway company contained the following provision: 
 
 "Section 3. All motormen and conductors who are now or 
 may hereafter become members of the Association shall remain 
 members in good standing in the Association as long as they remain 
 in the service of the company, providing that such continuance 
 of membership shall not conflict with the laws of the Association. 
 All new motormen and conductors hired in the future shall receive 
 their necessary instructions upon the car at the hands of the mem- 
 bers of the Association, and upon making application for member- 
 ship in the Association, and their membership shall be governed 
 by the same rules as that stated above in regard to present mem- 
 bers of the Association. The company further agrees that in case
 
 164 A CRIME AGAINST LABOR 
 
 the Association expels a member for the violation of its laws, that 
 they will dismiss such employe from the service of the company 
 upon receipt of the proof of such violation from the Association. " 
 
 It is needless to say that if the demand for the execution of 
 this contract had been complied with, there would not have been 
 any further opportunity for workingmen who did not belong to a 
 union to find employment with the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street 
 Railway company. 
 
 The first section of the contract with the Cleveland Electric 
 Railway Company and Division No. 268 of the Amalgamated 
 Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes of America, 
 of Cleveland, Ohio, reads as follows: 
 
 "Section 1. The company recommends that all motormen 
 and conductors in their employ, become members of the Association 
 and will post notices of such recommendation upon the signing of 
 this agreement, the substance of such notices to be agreed upon 
 between the company and the committee representing the Associa- 
 tion. All motormen and conductors who are now or may here- 
 after become members of the Association, or who have made 
 application for membership in the Association up to and including 
 the date of the signing of this agreement, shall remain members in 
 good standing of the Association so long as they remain in the serv- 
 ice of the company, providing that such continuance in member- 
 ship shall not conflict with the laws of the Association. All new 
 motormen and conductors employed in the future, after a proba- 
 tionary period of sixty days, if they still remain in the service, 
 shall become members of the Association and subject to the above 
 provisions. Should the Association expel a member for the viola- 
 tion of its laws, the company agrees to dismiss said member from 
 the service upon receipt of the proof of such violation from the 
 Association." 
 
 The writer is reliably informed that in all cases where con- 
 tracts are entered into between street railway companies and union 
 employes, that even though provisions such as above cited are 
 not at first inserted in such contracts, sooner or later provisions 
 of this character are demanded by such unions. As a matter of 
 fact, no employer of union labor can be found who will admit that 
 he is able to maintain an open shop where union men and non-union 
 men work in harmony together. The theory of labor unions is
 
 LESSONS OF THE STRIKE 165 
 
 that all who do not belong to the union are " scabs, " and should 
 not be permitted to work by the side of union men. While, in 
 theory, men who do not belong to unions should be protected in 
 their rights to work for whomsoever they choose, and for such 
 wages as may be mutually satisfactory, as a matter of fact, no 
 places for such workmen can be found with corporations or indi- 
 viduals who have contracts with well-organized unions. 
 
 The letters received from the men confirm the opinion of the 
 officers of the street railway company, frequently expressed by 
 them during the strike, that this strike was inflicted on the em- 
 ployes of this company without just cause and at the dictation of 
 outside agitators, who came to this city for the purpose of forcing 
 the execution of a contract, which would insure their association 
 a monthly income of several hundred dollars out of the wages of 
 these workingmen; and that, failing to secure the execution of 
 this contract by peaceful methods, a strike was called to enforce 
 this demand. 
 
 That the strike was never legally voted in accordance with the 
 by-laws and rules of the association is beyond question; that the 
 passions of the men were intentionally aroused, and that they were 
 called upon in the heat of excitement to vote the strike by a stand- 
 ing vote, instead of by a ballot, is equally certain. 
 
 Finally, the men who precipitated this crime against labor, 
 when they knew they had been defeated, instead of acting the part 
 of true generals by advising the strikers to accept the reasonable 
 and just proposition of the company, under which nearly all of 
 the men might have returned to work, counseled the rejection of 
 this proposition, and the continuance of an unprofitable and unjust 
 warfare, in which every man who follows their leadership and ad- 
 vice must finally accept absolute defeat, with all the loss and suffer- 
 ing to innocent parties which such defeat must entail. 
 
 To assume the authority of placing in jeopardy the fortunes 
 of a large number of workingmen, and the future comfort and hap- 
 piness of not only these men but their wives and children, is a 
 grave responsibility, which should only be undertaken by leaders 
 who act through motives which cannot be questioned. To sacrifice 
 the interests of honest workingmen, who entrust their all with 
 confidence to such leaders, is truly A CRIME AGAINST LABOR.

 
 ^&3
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 955 494 o