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Show TALK OF A STRIKE. '' A Chicago dispatch says the railroads of the west ac threat encd with a general strike, which is first to be declared by the machinists,, ma-chinists,, blacksmiths, iron molders, pattern makers and car makers on the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific roads. Demands are to be made for higher wages, which the Ilarrimau officials say they cannot pay. - ' With the country depressed, the employes would be acting at a most inopportune time, and their prospects of success would be adverse. ad-verse. With the Interstate Commerce commission enforcing a readjustment read-justment of freight rates that must decrease the earnings of 'the Ilarriman lines and with freight traffic at the zero mark, the Ilar-riman Ilar-riman lines are in .no position to consider the demands. A few months later, when business begins to pick up and the rate problems are approaching a solution, the employes might win favorablo consideration con-sideration for their demands for better conditions of employment, but to strike at this tim6 would be a tactical mistake. We would not be in sympathy with a stri'lcc for better wages while the country is in business chaos, but we would encourage a movement for a better understanding with the railroads in regard to the whole subject of employment. Whenever there comes a period peri-od of depression, thousands of faithful employes are thrown out of work. The roads do not hesitate to economize by throwing their men oh the "scrap pile," there to rust. Perhaps commercialism, with its economies and its heartless disregard of human sufferings, forces this condition, but were the great railroads to defend their demands for higher railroad rates on the ground that they must keep their men employed, in dull as well as prosperous seasons, they would have back of them public sentiment. |