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Show B. R. T. Vice President Says Strikers Are Returning to Work in Many Cities INSURGENTS CLAIM STRIKE IS SPREADING Freight Embargoes Being De-. De-. clared in Many Cities; Fight for Supremacy CHICAGO. April 9 A hreak In the ; unauthorized strike of switchmen and onginemcn at Chicago whoro it started start-ed nlno days ago. spreading to a number num-ber of cillc3, was announced today by A. F. Whitney, vice president of tho i Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, I who conferred -with a committee of I strikers from the Chicago and North. I v ostein road. Tho delegation was said to have told I Mr. Whitney that a vote would bo tak- on withiu 24 hours with a view to ending end-ing tho striko on that railroad by Sat-urday Sat-urday night. Brotherhood officers said that a number of strikers roturned j to work today and predicted that tho movement of freight In the Chicago j area would be near normal by next j week. ! Want Mayor to Act. j Another group of strikers today requested re-quested tho "mayor of Chicago tako (steps to settle the strike by address-ilng address-ilng a mass meeting of yard employes." j Loaders of the Insurgents said tho islrlko was not only not broken but i would bo carried on until a new union was completed. I Reports from rail centers throughout i tho country indicated that nearly I thirty thousand railroad men were on i strike. Freight embargoes were de-j de-j clared in a number of cities. Breaks I in the strike were reported in a few i places. Switchmen and brakemen on ! the Missouri Pacific railroad at Se dalla, Mo., who walked out this morning, morn-ing, returned to work this afternoon. Railroad officers In the New York area reported that strikers wero returning : to New Jersey yards whero about half tho workers struck. I Heads of tho brotherhood tonight de-'nounced de-'nounced tho strike as purely an at-jtompt at-jtompt to disrupt the old unions. More ! time in which to break tho strike was asked in a letter addressed to tho 'Western Association of Railways by tho five hig railroad brotherhoods. Must Uphold Contracts. "We wish to assuro tho railroads with whom we have contracts that It is our purpose to support tho integrity integ-rity of these contracts by endeavoring to protect them to tho fullest extent, in order that the public may not be seriously se-riously Inconvenienced," the letter said. "We appreciate, however, that owing ow-ing to tho present economic conditions over which we have no control, and the fact thaht tbo situation has boon grossly misrepresented by irresponsible irresponsi-ble persons, who have assumed dictatorship dictat-orship of an unorganized body of men that It will be difficult for use to entirely en-tirely relieve tho situation until we havo had further opportunity to meet and talk with our members. Wo believe be-lieve the railroads will co-operato with us to that end." j Important developments of the day ;woro the ordei'lng of an Investigation ! of the strike by tho United States sen-!ato sen-!ato and an announcement by W. G. ! Loe, president of tho Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, that the brotherhood brother-hood vould oppose nny attempt to sot-tie sot-tie tho walkout by mediation. Illegal Striko. .."We -will reslBt every effort to settle set-tle this illegal airlke by mediation," Mr. Lee said. "There Is nothing to mediate with the insurgents and the fight now Is to preserve the recognized labor organizations." Tho strike had become a clearcutj fight between recognized railroad organizations or-ganizations and the radical element among the rail workers, brotherhoqd officers said. The brotherhood's claim1 that freight traffic in Chicago was fifty per cent normal today was countered' by the rebels' assertion that the tieup' had become more nearly complete. I The question of wagos and hours had! become of secondary importance, according ac-cording to John Grunau, president of; the Chicago Yardmen's associalion, which called tho original walkout. "The fight has becomo one of supremacy su-premacy between the new and tho old unions," Grunau said. "We railroad; men are tired of receiving nothing but promises from our leaders. We -demand results." Striko Conditions Improve. j An opotimiatic statement was issued today by the Western Genoral Manag-ters' Manag-ters' association, composed of manag-lers manag-lers of all roads entering Chicago. "Tho strike In Chicago showed further fur-ther improvement today," said the statement. "All the railroads are handl-j lng all their passengers and suburban! trains as usual. On several roads there was a further Increase in the number of switching crews working and on ncno of the roads were there a decrease. de-crease. "The labor brotherhoods continued to bring in members of their organizations organ-izations from outside points to fill tho places of tho strikers and there is good reason to believe conditions In the Chi- cago district will continue to improve I rapidly within the next few dns." I In the New York area, railroad officers of-ficers and union leaders were bending olforts to break the striko, and although al-though conditions were reported to be improving, tho situation was considered consid-ered still serious. In the St. Louis district, including East St. Louis, and Madison, 111. an embargo on all incoming and outgo-1 lng freight traffic was ordered. Yardmen Yard-men on tVenty-seveu roads were on strike. AIL railroads in Kansas Citty, operating oper-ating under contracts with the Brotherhood Broth-erhood of Railroad Trainmen were affected. af-fected. An embargo was declared on Incoming freight and packing plants curtailed their output from fifty to 75 per cent. Richard J. Hopkins, attor-noy attor-noy general of Kansns, announced that blanket informations against persons responsible for tho(str!kc in Kansas City, Kansas, were being prepared. Rail centers In California felt tho freight restrictions and eastward along the transcontinental lines several terminals ter-minals reported strikes. |
