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Show SHE ORDERED RCSATUHDAY Resolution Refusing to Operate Op-erate One-Man Cars Is Adopted at Early Morning1 Morn-ing1 Meeting. KNERR SUGGESTS MEDIATION PLAN Industrial Commission Requests Re-quests Conference Today in Hope of Averting Walkout. Employees of the city traction company com-pany voted at a mass meeting held early this morning in the Labor temple tem-ple "to refuse, individually and collectively, col-lectively, to operate any car, at any time, unless two men were in charge of the car." To this effect members of the local street car men's union went on record in. a resolution which was adopted at this morning's meeting without a dissenting dis-senting vote. The resolution was presented just a few minutes after the meeting was called to order at 3 o'clock this morning, morn-ing, and was approved with loud cheers from the street car men, practically all jf whom had come off their runs to be ia attendance. The drawing up of the resolution followed fol-lowed the filing of a petition by the Utah Light & Traction company with the public utilities commission, asking permission to operate street cars in Salt Lake outside the congested district dis-trict with only one man in charge of the cars. The action of the street car men's union this morning means that unless a satisfactory understanding is brought about between the company and the employees through the intercession of Industrial Commissioner William M. ' Knerr, who has called a conference for today, the traction lines of the city will be tied up tomorrow morning. The one-man system proposed by the company is made effective tomorrow. Mr. Knerr yesterday sent the following fol-lowing letter to local division 384 of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Eailway Employees of America: Mr. Knerr's Letter. May I suggest that your cxecu- ' tive board meet with the public utilities commission Friday, May 31? I have been interested concerning concern-ing your, contemplated strike. I feel confident that a conference between your executive board and the utilities commission will result re-sult in arriving at a satisfactory understanding. If the differences between the employees of the traction trac-tion company and the officials can be adjudicated through negotiation, negotia-tion, it will be more satisfactory than the promulgation of a strike. You may depend on me to do everything ev-erything within reason to brinj about a satisfactory settlement of your difficulty. "The proposed system of one-man car operation is an unwarranted innovation, inno-vation, destructive alike to the rights of the general public and of the men who operate the cars, greatly increasing increas-ing the dangers and inconvenience for both," is the purport of the resolution adopted by the meeting this morning. The resolution then proceeds to set out eight reasons why the street car men are opposed to the one-man method meth-od of operation. The Resolution. They are as follows: It is unsafe to have high power cars carrying from 100 to 130 passengers passen-gers In charge of one man whose en-lire en-lire time and attention should be centered cen-tered on the operation of the car: The traveling public is entitled at nil times to have every necessary safeguard to their comfort and freedom free-dom from accident, which one-man operation of cars makes impossible; At the insistence of the traction company the city commission of Salt Iake City passed an ordinance making mak-ing it unlawful for any person to converse con-verse with the motorman of any street car while the same is in motion: mo-tion: the one-man operation of cars would deny to the public the right to secure necessary information obtainable obtain-able only from the car men, or it (Continued on Page Two.) ' by the company apparently contemplates contem-plates the operation of the proposed new scheme only in the remote outskirts out-skirts of the city, if it proves profitable profit-able to the company there is nothing to prevent its eventually extending extend-ing the plan to cover the entire city outside the business district. Dicke's Statement. "An order from the public utilities commission is law to the Utah Light and Traction company,' ; said Manager H. F. Dicke of the traction lines last night, "and the company will proceed Saturday morning to inaugurate a trial of one-man operation, just as previously announced. If. the men refuse to take out the cars the public may rest assured the company will exert every energy and resource to maintain the service." CHI MEN VOTE TO TAKE DRASTIC STEP (Continued from Page One.) would be necessary either to violate the city ordinance or bring the car to a full stop every time a passenger wanted to ask a question. The one-man car system is an institution in-stitution only of small villages or on stub lines in remote suburbs, transfer trans-fer accommodation lines, or lines where few of no fares are taken, in the few large cities where it is being tried; One-man operation of street cars is directly opposite to the spirit of the "safety first" campaign so recently conducted by the traction company, since such operation will greatly increase in-crease the number of unavoidable accidents; ac-cidents; One-man operation of cars will greatly increase the work of the car men one man being required to do the work of two; The plan proposed will greatly increase in-crease the hazards to the health of the men who operate the cars the company requires every man to pass a rigid physical examination before entering its employ, and yet the records rec-ords show a higher proportion of illness ill-ness among street car employees than any other class of workingmen in the city, and this condition will be accentuated by taking one man from the cars in the outskirts of the city; The request of the company is for the privilege of operating cars with i only one man "outside the congested congest-ed district" this district is defined in city ordinance as practically the same as the business district, and while the plan at present proposed |
